《讲述亚当·斯密法学博士的一生和创作》
Dugald Stewart
刊发者说明：
1.此书最初发表的情况：
杜格尔德·斯图尔特于1793年1月21日至3月18日在爱丁堡皇家学会会刊上连续发表标题为《讲述亚当·斯密法学博士的一生和创作》这是《亚当·斯密的生平和著作》这本书最初的书名，只是在国内出版过程中被翻译成了《亚当·斯密的生平和著作》，斯图尔特这部书被归纳到杜格尔德·斯图尔特文集第二卷第10页 1-98。
2.关于爱丁堡皇家学会的介绍：
这个学会原来是1731年成立于英国爱丁堡，为提高医学知识水平的协会。1739年协会的活动扩大，包括哲学和文学在内，并取名为爱丁堡哲学学会。之后曾中断过几年。1783年正式成立了爱丁堡皇家学会。学会除哲学会员外，还增加了自然科学的会员。1909年，爱丁堡皇家学会开辟了新址，设有讲课室、接待室和藏书16万册的一个图书馆。
斯图尔特于1793年来到【爱丁堡皇家学会】创作亚当斯密生平和著作一书。
3.此处刊登《讲述亚当·斯密法学博士的一生和创作》节选说明：
《讲述亚当·斯密法学博士的一生和创作》全部原著版本本人已经拥有，但是，限于版权问题，不可能在此全部刊发，为了使研究亚当·斯密的有关专业人员能够了解这部著作，只好在此处刊发此书的节选，如果需要全部书籍的人员可以与本人联系，由本人寄发给你。
4.关于图书封面说明：
此处的图书封面是电子图书封面，因为斯图尔特先生将其收录到个人文集之中，所以我们看不到原著封面的。
5.介绍最早出版社：
英国伦敦G.贝尔父子出版公司于1880年出版过此书，这可能是斯图尔特《讲述亚当·斯密法学博士的一生和创作》最早版本了，可惜本人还是没有寻找到，如果找到后，本人会将此资料作以补充。
6.国内版本情况：
《亚当·斯密的生平和著作》
作者：（英）杜格尔德·斯图尔特（Dugald Stewart）
翻译：蒋自强等译
出版项：商务印书馆
出版时间：1983
装帧项：21cm / 67页
ISBN号： / F091.33
据伦敦G.贝尔父子出版公司1880年版译出。
赵永安09/04/20
Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith LL.D.
by Dugald Stewart
1793
from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
read by Mr Stewart, January 21, and March 18, 1793.
printed in the Collected Works of Dugald Stewart, vol. 10, pp. 1-98.
Section I.
From Mr. Smith's Birth till the Publication of the Theory of Moral Sentiments
Adam Smith, author of the Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, was the son of Adam Smith, comptroller of the customs at Kirkaldy,(1*) and of Margaret Douglas, daughter of Mr Douglas of Strathenry. He was the only child of the marriage, and was born at Kirkaldy on the 5th of June 1723, a few months after the death of his father.
His constitution during infancy was infirm and sickly, and required all the tender solicitude of his surviving parent. She was blamed for treating him with an unlimited indulgence; but it produced no unfavourable effects on his temper or his dispositions: -- and he enjoyed the rare satisfaction of being able to repay here affection, by every attention that filial gratitude could dictate, during the long period of sixty years.
An accident which happened to him when he was about three years old, is of too interesting a nature to be omitted in the account of so valuable a life. He had been carried by his mother to Strathenry, on a visit to his uncle Mr Douglas, and was one day amusing himself alone at the door of the house, when he was stolen by a party of that set of vagrants who are known in Scotland by the name of tinkers. Luckily he was soon missed by his uncle, who, hearing that some vagrants had passed, pursued them, with what assistance he could find, till he overtook them in Leslie wood; and was the happy instrument of preserving to the world a genius, which was destined, not only to extend the boundaries of science, but to enlighten and reform the commercial policy of Europe.
The school of Kirkaldy, where Mr Smith received the first rudiments of his education, was then taught by Mr David Miller, a teacher, in his day, of considerable reputation, and whose name deserves to be recorded, on account of the eminent men whom that very obscure seminary produced while under his direction. Of this number were Mr Oswald of Dunikeir;(2*) his brother, Dr John Oswald, afterwards Bishop of Raphoe; and our late excellent colleague, the Reverend Dr John Drysdale: all of them nearly contemporary with Mr Smith, and united with him through life by the closest ties of friendship. One of his school-fellows is still alive;(3*) and to his kindness I am principally indebted for the scanty materials which form the first part of thisnarrative.
Among these companions of his earliest years, Mr Smith soon attracted notice, by his passion for books, and by the extraordinary powers of his memory. The weakness of his bodily constitution prevented him from partaking in their more active amusements; but he was much beloved by them on account of his temper, which, though warm, was to an uncommon degree friendly and generous. Even then he was remarkable for those habits which remained with him through life, of speaking to himself when alone, and of absence in company.
From the grammar-school of Kirkaldy, he was sent, in 1737, to the university of Glasgow, where he remained till 1740, when he went to Baliol college, Oxford, as an exhibitioner(4*) on Snell's foundation.
Dr Maclaine of the Hague, who was a fellow-student of Mr Smith's at Glasgow, told me some years ago, that his favourite pursuits while at that university were mathematics and natural philosophy; and I remember to have heard my father remind him of a geometrical problem of considerable difficulty, about which he was occupied at the time when their acquaintance commenced, and which had been proposed to him as an exercise by the celebrated Dr Simpson. These, however, were certainly not the sciences in which he was formed to excel; nor did they long divert him from pursuits more congenial to his mind. What Lord Bacon says of Plato may be justly applied to him: 'Illum, licet ad rempublicam non accessisset, tamen natur?et inclinatione omnino ad res civiles propensum, vires eo praecipue intendisse; neque de Philosophia Naturali admodum sollicitum esse; nisi quatenus ad Philosophi nomen et celebritatem tuendam, et ad majestatem quandam moralibus et civilibus doctrinis addendam et aspergendam sufficeret.'(5*) The study of human nature in all its branches, more particularly of the political history of mankind, opened a boundless field to his curiosity and ambition; and while it afforded scope to all the various powers of his versatile and comprehensive genius,gratified his ruling passion, of contributing to the happinessand the improvement of society. To this study, diversified at his leisure hours by the less severe occupations of polite literature, he seems to have devoted himself almost entirely from the time of his removal to Oxford; but he still retained, and retained even in advanced years, a recollection of his early acquisitions, which not only added to the splendour of his conversation, but enabled him to exemplify some of his favourite theories concerning the natural progress of the mind in the investigation of truth, by the history of those sciences in which the connection and succession of discoveries may be traced with the greatest advantage. If I am not mistaken too, the influence of his early taste for the Greek geometry may be remarked in the elementary clearness and fulness, bordering sometimes upon prolixity, with which he frequently states his political reasonings.
-- The lectures of the profound and eloquent Dr Hutcheson, which he had attended previous to his departure from Glasgow, and of which he always spoke in terms of the warmest admiration, had, it may be reasonably presumed, a considerable effect in directing his talents to their proper objects.(6*)
I have not been able to collect any information with respect to that part of his youth which was spent in England. I have heard him say, that he employed himself frequently in the practice of translation, (particularly from the French), with a view to the improvement of his own style: and he used often to express a favourable opinion of the utility of such exercises, to all who cultivate the art of composition. It is much to be regretted, that none of his juvenile attempts in this way have been preserved; as the few specimens which his writings contain of his skill as a translator, are sufficient to shew the eminence he had attained in a walk of literature, which, in our country, has been so little frequented by men of genius.