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229.: To [EDWARD GIBBON] - Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith [1740]

Edition used:

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.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


229.

To [EDWARD GIBBON]

MS., BM Add. MSS. 34,886, fol. 138; unpubl.

Custom–house, Edinburgh, 19 June 1783

Dear Sir

The principal purpose of this letter is to recommend to your notice a particular friend of Mine, Mr. Dalziel,1 professor of Greek in this University, a Gentleman who has probably been sufficiently recommended to your attention already by Dr Robertson. He wished, however, that I should write to you likewise, and I promised to do so, but either from indolence or forgetfulness delayed it till this moment. You will find him, not only a very accurate and acute Grammarian, but in other respects a man of the greatest prudence and discretion, and as sensible and Judicious a man of Learning as any you have been acquainted with.

I would fain hope to have the pleasure of seeing you in London in the course of next winter. Remember me to Sir Joshua2 and believe me to be with the sincerest esteem and affection

Dear Sir, Most faithfully yours

Adam Smith

[1 ]Andrew Dalziel (1742–1806), classical scholar; Professor of Greek at Edinburgh 1779–1805; corresponded with the German classical scholar, C. G. Heyne; historian of his University; intimate friend of Smith whose accurate knowledge of Greek grammar and authors aroused his admiration (Rae 23).

[2 ]Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–92), painter; founded the Literary Club to give Dr. Johnson unlimited opportunities of talking 1764; President of the Royal Academy 1768; his Discourses (annual addresses) to the Academy are a valuable guide to his changing ideas as an artist.