'The Primitive Methodists may have been the most anti-intellectual of the Wesleyans, yet miners' MP John Johnson... "found their teaching the strongest possible incentive to trying to improve myself, not only morally, but mentally, and towards the latter end I took to serious and systematic study." He read deeply in history and philosophy, as well as such this-worldly tracts as The Wealth of Nations, John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy, and Alfred Marshall's Principles of Economics'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Johnson Print: Book
The whole or nearly the whole of the eight months when I was not employed was not lost. I read many volumes in history, voyages, and travels, politics, law and Philosophy. Adam Smith and Locke and especially Humes Essays and Treatises, these latter I read two or three times over, this reading was of great service to me, it caused me to turn in upon myself and examine myself in a way which I should not otherwise have done. It was this which laid the solid foundation of my future prosperity, and completed the desire I had always had to acquire knowledge.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis Place Print: Book
'[Davies said] "Before I was twelve I had developed an appreciation of good prose, and the Bible created in me a zest for literature", propelling him directly to Lamb, Hazlitt's Essays and Ruskin's The Crown of Wild Olives. Later... he joined the library committee of the Miners' Institute in Maesteg, made friends with the librarian, and advised him on acquisitions. Thus he could read all the books he wanted: Marx, Smith, Ricardo, Mill, Marshall, economic and trade union history, Fabian Essays, Thomas Hardy, Meredith, Kipling and Dickens'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: D.R. Davies Print: Book
'For Dunfermline housepainter James Clunie, Das Kapital and the Wealth of Nations both demonstrated that industrialism inevitably increased economic inequality, the exploitation of labour and class conflict. To this The Descent of Man added "the great idea of human freedom... It brought out the idea that whether our children were with or without shoes was due to poverty arising from the administration of society".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: James Clunie Print: Book
'After a miserable Catholic school education...periodic unemployment allowed [Joseph Toole] to study in the Manchester Reference Library. There he discovered, Adam Smith, Ricardo, Herbert Spencer, Huxley, Mill, Emerson, Dickens, Morris, Blatchford, Shaw and Wells, and of course John Ruskin..."Study always left me with a deep feeling that there was so much amiss with the world. It seemed that it had been started at the wrong end, and that it was everybody's business to put the matter right".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Toole Print: Book
?There were other books which I then read and studied with care, including Adam Smith?s "Wealth of Nations" and Mill?s "Political Economy". This was not a kind of literature to borrow from public libraries, but to have in one?s possessions.?
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Burt Print: Book
'I was re[a]ding lately, Stewart's "life of Robertson", Smith's "wealth of nations", and Kames' "Essays on the principles of morality". The first is a sensible sort of book - unworthy, however, of Stewart. Dr Smith is a man of much research, & appears to understand completely all the bearings of his complicated subject. I have read his first and second volumes with much pleasure. He always writes like a philosopher. With regard to Lord Kames - his works are generally all an awkward compound of ingenuity and absurdity and in this volume the latter quality it appears to me, considerably preponderates. It is Metaphysical; upon Belief, identity, Necessity &c &c and I devoutly wish that no friend of mine may ever come to study it - unless he wish to learn -
To weave fine cobwebs fit for scull
That's empty when the moon is full.
- and in that case he cannot study under a more proper master.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book
'Read Adam Smith's "History of Astronomy", in his posthumous tracts, published by Dugald Stewart...'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book
'I have read since I saw you Burke's works, some books of Homer, Suetonius, a great deal of agricultural reading, Godwin's "Enquirer", and a great deal of Adam Smith. As I have scarcely looked at a book for five years, I am rather hungry'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sydney Smith Print: Book
'Thursday March 16th. [...] Read the Life of Adam Smith [makes notes on this] [...] In Smith's
Treatise concerning the Imitative Arts I find the following: "The Minuet, where the Lady passes &
repasses the Gentleman, then gives him one hand and then another, and at last both, is
supposed to be a[...] Moorish dance emblematic of the passion of love." So little did our prudish
grandmother's [sic] know what they were about.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont Print: Book
'I know I shall never be wise enough in a tete a tete with a girl who does not read poetry & novels but Adam Smith, Niall etc. & "has no sense of humour but takes everything literally".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Miss Thompson Print: Book
Robert Southey to Charles Collins, 30 October -7 November 1793: 'In this interval however my baggage has arrived & no poor devil at the foot of the gallows was more overjoyd at a reprieve than I was at the recovery. I have begun to transcribe Joan of Arc — read Enfield History of Philosophy, Gillies History of Greece V.2nd & begun Adam Smith since my return so you see Bristol does not make me idle. I may not form a taste here but I can increase a stock of useful knowledge and you know the prettiest nosegays are formed of various flowers.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book
Robert Southey to Horace Walpole Bedford, 3-4 November 1793: 'I am reading Adam Smith on the Wealth of Nations.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book
From the diary kept by George Grote for his fiancee, Harriet Lewin (September 1818):
'Rose at 7 [...] Sat reading Smith's "Wealth of Nations" until 8.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book
From the diary kept by George Grote for his fiancee, Harriet Lewin (autumn 1818):
'Rose at 8. Read once again the "Dissertation on Virtue" which is subjoined to Butler's "Analogy" with very great pleasure [...] After breakfast I opened the second volume of the "Wealth of Nations" and read the first chapter on the employment and accumulation of capital stock. With the exception of a few points, chiefly I believe of phraseology, I agree with him in all he says.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book
From the diary kept by George Grote for his fiancee, Harriet Lewin (autumn 1818):
'Rose at 1/2 past 6 [...] Read Say and Turgot until 12, and put down some remarks on the manner in which accumulation takes place. Neither Say nor Turgot completely satisfy my mind on this subject [...] Dined alone. Read some scenes in Schiller's "Don Carlos." Considered as complete dramas, I think both "Don Carlos" and "Marie Stuart" are very defective. There is too much mixture of paltry and unimportant intrigue in each [...] There are, however, most masterly single scenes to be found in them [...] After reading this, I practised on the bass for about an hour, then drank tea, and read Adam Smith's incomparable chapter on the Mercantile System until 11, when I went to bed.
'Rose at 6. Read some more of A. Smith on the Mercantile System [...] Dined at 1/2 past 5. Read Don Carlos, and played on the bass for the next two hours, when I went and locked up [the family banking house]; drank tea at 1/2 past 8, and began some more of Say; but I found my mind languid, so that I was obliged to change my study, and took up a dissertation of Turgot, "Sur les valeurs et monnoies," which I read with considerable attention. Went to bed soon after 11.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book
From the diary kept by George Grote for his fiancee, Harriet Lewin (autumn 1818):
'Rose at 1/2 past 6 [...] Read Say and Turgot until 12, and put down some remarks on the manner in which accumulation takes place. Neither Say nor Turgot completely satisfy my mind on this subject [...] Dined alone. Read some scenes in Schiller's "Don Carlos." Considered as complete dramas, I think both "Don Carlos" and "Marie Stuart" are very defective. There is too much mixture of paltry and unimportant intrigue in each [...] There are, however, most masterly single scenes to be found in them [...] After reading this, I practised on the bass for about an hour, then drank tea, and read Adam Smith's incomparable chapter on the Mercantile System until 11, when I went to bed.
'Rose at 6. Read some more of A. Smith on the Mercantile System [...] Dined at 1/2 past 5. Read Don Carlos, and played on the bass for the next two hours, when I went and locked up [the family banking house]; drank tea at 1/2 past 8, and began some more of Say; but I found my mind languid, so that I was obliged to change my study, and took up a dissertation of Turgot, "Sur les valeurs et monnoies," which I read with considerable attention. Went to bed soon after 11.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: George Grote Print: Book
'Read Smith's "Wealth of Nations" in evening: the most naive assumption of Nature that ever was'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Ruskin Print: Book
