James Frederick Ferrier/end matter
"FAMOUS SCOTS" SERIES.
Some Opinions of the Press on
ADAM SMITH.
By HECTOR C. MACPHERSON.
"The style is pleasant, and the treatment luminous. The monograph, as a whole, should be found attractive and informing."—Globe.
"Smith's life is briefly and clearly told, and there is a good deal of independent criticism interspersed amidst the chapters on the philosopher's two principal treatises. Mr. Macpherson's analysis of Smith's economic teaching makes excellent reading."—Echo.
"His personal and intellectual career, so far as the limits of the 'Famous Scots' Series permitted, is clearly and entertainingly presented by Mr. Macpherson."—Morning Leader.
"The book is of great price. It is complete, proportioned, vivid, the picture of a great man, and with all its brevity, worthy of his greatness. "—Expository Times.
"Interesting both as a contribution to the literature of political economy, and as a sketch of the career of one of Scotland's most illustrious sons."—Publishers' Circular.
"The monograph is a clear and able exposition and criticism of its subject. It deserves a prominent place in the series it belongs to."—Bookman.
"An interesting and lively study of the English founder of political economy, this little book is remarkable as a whole-hearted vindication of the Cobdenic ideas of international policy. The author considers it to be Adam Smith's chief achievement that he has demonstrated with scientific completeness that Free Trade, as Cobden happily expressed it, is the international law of God Almighty."—Spectator.
"This little book is written with brains and a degree of courage which is in keeping with its convictions. It has vision, too, and that counts for righteousness, if anywhere, in political economy."—Speaker.
"A sound and able piece of work, and contains a fair and discerning estimate of Smith in his essential character as the author of the doctrine of Free Trade, and consequently of the modern science of economics."—Glasgow Herald.
"The writer of this biography deserves to be warmly congratulated on the result of his labour. He has written, to my mind at least, one of the best of the series of 'Famous Scots,' and has enshrined the author of the 'Wealth of Nations' in a manner at once attractive, interesting, and instructive."—Northern Figaro.
"Of Adam Smith the man there are some interesting stories in this volume."—Academy.
"This book is one warmly to be commended as among the very best of a notable series."—Kilmarnock Standard.
"The story of Smith's life is plainly but interestingly told, with occasional graphic descriptions of the society of his time; but it will undoubtedly be as an exposition of the philosophical questions involved that the book will be most highly prized."—Daily Free Press.
"It is a biography with a specific purpose, and this purpose is admirably worked out. In some respects, indeed, Mr. Macpherson's object is educational. Not content with doing justice to the great master of economic science, he shows what we owe to other workers in the same school of thought."—Leeds Mercury.
"Those who have read Mr. Macpherson's 'Thomas Carlyle,' with which this highly interesting series was opened, will turn with pleasure and expectancy to the volume just issued. Mr. Macpherson has given us a volume much above the average of the series both in literary merit and thoughtfulness. We strongly recommend this excellent pen-and-ink portrait, of the man who gave Britain the key to the wealth of the world, of our fellow-students."— Student.
"One of the best of an admirable series."—Scots Pictorial.
"An admirable monograph."—London Daily Mail.
"A thoughtful and capably written monograph."—Liverpool Daily Post.
"Mr. Macpherson states the facts most admirably, and he has such a knowledge of the movements and events of the times in which Smith lived that he is able to make an excellent use of them as showing how they influenced such a thinker as the author of the 'Wealth of Nations,' and how, in turn, he was able to change the trend of the thinking of his age."—Perthshire Courier.
Mr. Herbert Spencer says: "I have learned much from your sketch of Adam Smith's life and work. It presents the essential facts in a lucid and interesting way. Especially am I glad to see that you have insisted upon the individualistic character of his teaching. It is well that his authority on the side of individualism should be put forward in these days of rampant Socialism, when the great mass of legislative measures extend public agency and restrict private agency; the advocates of such measures being blind to the fact that by small steps they are bringing about a state in which the citizen will have lost all freedom."