Now we know that Adam Smith possessed in manuscript in the hand of a clerk employed by him certain lectures which he read at Edinburgh in the winter of 1750–1, and we know that in these lectures he preached the doctrine of the beneficial effects of freedom, and, according to Dugald Stewart, “many of the most important opinions in the Wealth of Nations .” There existed when Stewart wrote, “a short manuscript drawn up by Mr. Smith in the year 1755 and presented by him to a society of which he was then a member.” Stewart says of this paper:—
“Many of the most important opinions in the Wealth of Nations are there detailed; but I shall quote only the following sentences: ‘Man is generally considered by statesmen and projectors as the materials of a sort of political mechanics. Projectors disturb nature in the course of her operations in human affairs; and it requires no more than to let her alone, and give her fair play in the pursuit of her ends that she may establish her own designs.’ And in another passage: ‘Little else is requisite to carry a state