Chapter Skelton to Smith of S by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Smiles, Samuel (1812-1904).—Biographer and miscellaneous writer, born at Haddington, educated at the Grammar School there, studied medicine at Edinburgh, and settled in practice in his native town. Subsequently he betook himself to journalism, and edited a paper in Leeds. Afterwards he was secretrayto various railways. His leisure was devoted to reading and writing, and his first publication was The Life of George Stephenson (1857). Self-Help, his most popular work, followed in 1859; it had an immense circulation, and was translated into 17 languages. It was followed up by Character (1871), Thrift (1875), and Duty (1880). The lives of the Engineers and Industrial Biography appeared in 1863, The Huguenots, their settlements, Churches, and Industries in England and Ireland (1867), and The Huguenots in France a little later. He also wrote biographies of Telford and James Watt, and of the Scottish naturalists, Edwards the shoemaker and Dick the baker. He received the degree of LL.D. from Edinburgh in 1878.

Smith, Adam (1723-1790).—Philosopher and economist, born at Kirkcaldy, Fife, the son of the Controller of Customs there. His f. d. shortly before his birth. The first and only adventure in his tranquil life was his being kidnapped by gipsies. After being at the Grammar School of Kirkcaldy, he went to the University of Glasgow, whence he proceeded to Oxford On the conclusion of his University course he returned to Kirkcaldy, going subsequently to Edinburgh, where he was soon recognised as a man of unusual intellect. In 1751 he was appointed to the Chair of Logic at Glasgow, which he next year exchanged for that of Moral Philosophy, and in 1759 he published his Theory of the Moral Sentiments. He received in 1762 the degree of LL.D. from his University, and two years later resigned his chair and became travelling tutor to the young Duke of Buccleuch, accompanying him to the Continent. He remained for nearly a year in Paris, and made the acquaintance of the brilliant circle of savans in that city. Returning to Kirkcaldy in 1766 he lived there with his mother for nearly ten years in retirement and close study, the results of which were given to the world in 1776 in the publication of his epoch-making work, Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). This book may be said to have founded the science of political economy, and to have created a new department of literature; and very few works have, to the same extent, influenced the practical history of the world. In 1778 Smith was made a Commissioner of Customs, and settled in Edinburgh; and in 1787 he was elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. In addition to the works above mentioned, he wrote various essays on philosophical subjects, and an account of the last days of David Hume. The style of his works was plain and lucid, and he had a remarkable faculty of apt illustration.