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Correspondence of Adam Smith, ed. E. C. Mossner and I. S. Ross, vol. VI of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987).

Part of: The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 7 vols.

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63.

From THOMAS WALLACE1

Address: Mr Smith, Professor of Moral Philosophy, Glasgow

MS., GUL Gen. 1035/144; unpubl.

Dunlop, 4 Jan. 1762

Sir,

Please receive Mr Maupertuis works and at the Same time my most hearty thanks for having put me on a peice of reading that has given me So much pleasure—but however well he writes you must allow me to Say that the System he concludes his Venus physique with is every whit as unphilosophical as any of those he runs down and that in any other hand it must have made a very poor figure.2

Pray did you observe how much he weakens his own Arguments for his new principle from which he deduces the Laws of motion Staticks and mechanicks Viz that the quantity of Action employ’d by nature is always a minimum. One cannot help being Struck by the notion of that universal Saving but when he applys the principle to Staticks One is Surpriz’d to find it either a maximum or a minimum.

Again I must thank you for the pleasure you have given me. I wish I could make you a proper return but I most Sincerely am

Sir Your most humble Servant

Thomas Wallace

If you have any commands for our Side of the country I shall be glad to receive them.3 We Sett [? out] first fair day. My compliments to Mrs Smith.

[1 ]? Sir Thomas Wallace tutored by Patrick Clason; see Letter 131 from David Hume, dated 27 June 1772.

[2 ]GUL has Œuvres de Mr De Maupertius. Nouvelle edition, corrigée et argumentée, 4 t. (Lyons, 1756). The 2nd vol. contains Venus Physique, see 243–51, Lettre XI: ‘Sur ce qui s’est passé à l’occasion du principe de la moindre quantité d’action’.

[3 ]Dunlop in Ayrshire is famous for cheese–making.

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63.: From THOMAS WALLACE - Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith [1740]

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