Smith had now, as he says in the following letter, reached his grand climacteric—­his sixty-third year, according to the old belief, the last and most dangerous of the periodical crises to which man’s bodily life was supposed to be subject—­and the winter of 1786-87 laid him so low with a chronic obstruction of the bowels that Robertson wrote Gibbon they were in great danger of losing him.  That was the winter Burns was in Edinburgh, and it was doubtless owing to this illness and Smith’s consequent inability to go into society, that he and the poet never met.  Burns obtained a letter of introduction to Smith from their common friend Mrs. Dunlop, but writes her on the 19th of April that when he called he found Smith had gone to London the day before, having recovered, as we know he did, sufficiently in spring to go up there for the purpose of consulting John Hunter.  He was still in Edinburgh in March, however, and wrote Bishop Douglas a letter introducing one of his Fifeshire neighbours, Robert Beatson, the author of the well-known and very useful Political Index.  Beatson had been an officer of the Engineers, but had retired on half-pay in 1766 and become an agriculturist in his native county.  While there he compiled his unique and valuable work, which he published in 1786 and dedicated to his old friend Adam Smith.  A new edition was called for within a year, and the author proposed to add some new matter, on which he desired the advice of Bishop Douglas.  Hence this letter:—­

DEAR SIR—­This letter will be delivered to you by Mr. Robert Beatson of Vicars Grange, in Fifeshire, a very worthy friend of mine, and my neighbour in the country for more than ten years together.  He has lately published a very useful book called a Political Index, which has been very successful, and which he now proposes to republish with some additions.  He wishes much to have your good advice with regard to these additions, and indeed with regard to every other part of his book.  And indeed, without flattering you, I know no man so fit to give him good advice upon this subject.  May I therefore beg leave to introduce him to your acquaintance, and to recommend him most earnestly to your best advice and assistance.  You will find him a very good-natured, well-informed, inoffensive, and obliging companion.

I was exceedingly vexed and not a little offended when I heard that you had passed through this town some time ago without calling upon me, or letting me know that you was in our neighbourhood.  My anger, however, which was very fierce, is now a good deal abated, and if you promise to behave better for the future, it is not impossible that I may forgive the past.

This year I am in my grand climacteric, and the state of my health has been a good deal worse than usual.  I am getting better and better, however, every day, and I begin to flatter myself that with good pilotage I shall be able to weather this dangerous promontory of human life, after which I hope to sail in smooth water for the remainder of my days.—­I am ever, my dear sir, most faithfully and affectionately yours,

     ADAM SMITH.