book on art and literature. For discussions of Smith’s aesthetics, see Labio, ‘Adam Smith’s Aesthetics’ and McKenna, Adam Smith.28 See de Marchi, ‘Smith on Ingenuity’.29 Imitative Arts, 183.30 Imitative Arts, 185.31 Rhetoric, 6.32 Rhetoric, 25–6.33 Rhetoric, 43.34 Rhetoric, 136.35 Rhetoric, 137. Smith also suggests that there is a difference in literary taste between the ‘ignorant’ and the ‘enlightened’ (Rhetoric, 111). The ‘vulgar’ are amused by fabulous tales of supernatural phenomena, while the refined prefer recognizable tales of human emotions.36 Rhetoric, 98.37 Rhetoric, 146.38 On Smith’s character sketches, see Heydt, ‘“A Delicate and an Accurate Pencil”’.39 For the classic statement on this, see Forbes, ‘Scientific Whiggism’.40 See David Hume’s argument in ‘Of the Original Contract’, Hume, Essays, 465–87.41 Ferguson, Essay, 14.42 Stewart, ‘Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith’, 293.43 Stewart, ‘Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith’, 293.44 See Land, ‘Adam Smith’s “Considerations”’ and Otteson, ‘Adam Smith’s First Market’.45 The approach is ubiquitous among the Scots and examples can be found in the work of Lord Kames, William Robertson, and a host of minor figures. Adam Ferguson operates with a variant of the approach which has three stages: savage, barbarian, and civilized.46 For the influence of Rousseau on Smith’s thinking see Rasmussen, The Problems and Promise.
