Economists -- Great Britain -- Biography; Smith, Adam, 1723-1790
One of the warmest of Smith's Swiss friends was Charles Bonnet, the
celebrated naturalist and metaphysician, who, in writing Hume ten
years after the date of this visit, desires to be remembered "to the
sage of Glascow," adding, "You perceive I speak of Mr. Smith, whom we
shall always recollect with great pleasure."[156] On the day this
letter was written by Bonnet to Hume, another was written to Smith
himself by a young Scotch tutor then in Geneva, Patrick Clason, who
seems to have carried an introduction from Smith to Bonnet, and who
mentions having received many civilities from Bonnet on account of his
being one of Smith's friends. Clason then goes on to tell Smith that
the Syndic Turretin and M. Le Sage also begged to be remembered to
him. The Syndic Turretin was the President of the Republic, and M. Le
Sage was the eminent Professor of Physics, George Louis Le Sage, who
was then greatly interested in Professor Black's recent discoveries
about latent heat and Professor Matthew Stewart's in astronomy, and
was one of a group who gathered round Bonnet for discussions in
speculative philosophy and morals, at which, it may be reasonably
inferred, Smith would have also occasionally assisted. Le Sage seems
to have met Smith first, however, and to have been in the habit of
meeting him often afterwards, at the house of a high and distinguished
French lady, the Duchesse d'Enville, who was living in Geneva under
Tronchin's treatment, and whose son, the young and virtuous Duc de la
Rochefoucauld, who was afterwards stoned to death in the Revolution,
was receiving instruction from Le Sage himself. Le Sage writes the
Duchesse d'Enville on 5th February 1766, "Of all the people I have met
at your house, that is, of all the _elite_ of our good company, I have
only continued to see the excellent Lord Stanhope and occasionally Mr.
Smith. The latter wished me to make the acquaintance of Lady Conyers
and the Duke of Buckleugh, but I begged him to reserve that kindness
for me till his return."[157]
This letter shows that Smith was so much taken with Geneva that he
meant to pay it a second visit before he ended his tutorial
engagement, but the intention was never fulfilled, in consequence of
unfortunate circumstances to be presently mentioned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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