Though Smith was a mere lad of sixteen at that time, his mind had already, under Hutcheson’s stimulating instructions, begun to work effectively on the ideas lodged in it and to follow out their suggestions in his own thought.  Hutcheson seems to have recognised his quality, and brought him, young though he was, under the personal notice of David Hume.  There is a letter written by Hume to Hutcheson on the 4th of March 1740 which is not indeed without its difficulties, but if, as Mr. Burton thinks, the Mr. Smith mentioned in it be the economist, it would appear as if Smith had, while attending Hutcheson’s class,—­whether as a class exercise or otherwise,—­written an abstract of Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature, then recently published, that Smith’s abstract was to be sent to some periodical for publication, and that Hume was so pleased with it that he presented its young author with a copy of his own work.  “My bookseller,” Hume writes, “has sent to Mr. Smith a copy of my book, which I hope he has received as well as your letter.  I have not yet heard what he has done with the abstract.  Perhaps you have.  I have got it printed in London, but not in the Works of the Learned, there having been an article with regard to my book somewhat abusive before I sent up the abstract.”  If the Mr. Smith of this letter is Adam Smith, then he must have been away from Glasgow at that time, for Hutcheson was communicating with him by letter, but that may possibly be explained by the circumstance that he had been appointed to one of the Snell exhibitions at Balliol College, Oxford, and might have gone home to Kirkcaldy to make preparations for residence at the English University, though he did not actually set out for it till June.

These Snell exhibitions, which were practically in the gift of the Glasgow professors, were naturally the prize of the best student of Glasgow College at the time they fell vacant, and they have been held in the course of the two centuries of their existence by many distinguished men, including Sir William Hamilton and Lockhart, Archbishop Tait and Lord President Inglis.  They were originally founded by an old Glasgow student, a strong Episcopalian, for the purpose of educating Scotchmen for the service of the Episcopal Church in Scotland.  By the terms of his will the holders were even to be bound under penalty of L500 “to enter holy orders and return to serve the Church in Scotland,” and it has sometimes been concluded from that circumstance that Smith must have accepted the Snell exhibition with a view to the Episcopal ministry.  But the original purpose of the founder was frustrated by the Revolution settlement, which made “the Church in Scotland” Presbyterian, and left scarce any Episcopal remnant to serve, and the original condition has never been practically enforced.  The last attempt to impose it was made during Smith’s own tenure of the exhibition, and failed.  In the year 1744 the Vice-Chancellor