Haribol Acharya
When we hear the name of Adam Smith, most of us think about economics and nothing else. Even the students of economics seldom read his books though he is considered the Father of Economics. We by and large think economics is outside the literary genre. But that is not so if we deeply immerse our mind in the book or essays of Adam Smith, particularly The Theory of Moral Sentiments. His public persona as the Father of Economics seems to limit all his writings essentially to works of Economics and nothing more. This is a big blunder to oversight some of his highly literary essays that deal with human behaviors, social and moral issues apart from Economic ideas and philosophy. . Of late I have read a book of essays by him named The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Forget the message he conveys for a while and concentrate on the splendor of his style it will stick you spellbound. He was a matchless essayist like the rest of other great classical essayists like Francis Bacon, Montaigne, and Joseph Addison. Outside the genre of economics he is accredited to a great body of literary works that has enshrined his contribution to the advancement of essay writings.
I would like to quote a line from The Theory of Moral Sentiments that speaks more elegantly than a thousand words I may use in my admiration of his writings: “In solitude, we are apt to feel too strongly whatever relates to ourselves: we are apt to over-rate the good offices we may have done, and the injuries we may have suffered: We are apt to be too much elated by our own good, and too much dejected by our own bad fortune. The conversation of a friend brings us to a better, that of a stranger to a still better temper.”
Any serious reader or writer can feel the sublimity of writing which proves he is that kind of prose writer, par excellence. Literature is ubiquitous and to narrow down it to conventional genres of fiction, poetry and motivational prose does disservice to a world of literature. If one is a passionate reader of prose and goes forward in his essays he may be profoundly absorbed in the lines he commits to paper.
Literature has two ends in a general sense: First and foremost, amusement. People enjoy reading poetry and feel awestruck by the sheer beauty of prose, sense of humor, arresting plot, a good dose of aestheticism and lofty themes. That is not the end; the other equally, sometimes more profoundly accepted end of literature is edification. Art is not for art’s sake argued by Tolstoy in his famous essay “What is Art?” He says: “By words a man transmits his thoughts to another, by means of art he transmits his feelings.” In the following lines he writes eloquently:
“It is said that it is all done for the sake of art, and that art is a very important thing. But is it true that art is so important that such sacrifices should be made for its sake? This question is especially urgent, because art, for the sake of which the labor of millions, the lives of men, and, above all, love between man and man, are being sacrificed,—this very art is becoming something more and more vague and uncertain to human perception.”
This substantiates that art whether it is a piece of paint or poetry or bodies of fiction and nonfiction, must have a distinct purpose that may help to lift people out of their dejection, atrocity, poverty etc. Simultaneously art must transform human beings. Through stories, dramas or poetry people can know what is happening in their society and ultimately it helps to get people out of their miserable conditions
The second objective of literature, though its aestheticism must go unruffled at all times, and style and grandiosity uncompromised, that literature must be the voice of the voiceless, social issues or human predicaments must be the great concerns of writers or artists. If we take this important purpose of literature all that we find in the writings of Adam Smith, particularly in his the Theory of Moral Sentiments is the voice of people. By this standard he sits beside some of the internationally famed writers of literature.
Take this sentence, the philosophy of it, for few can say this truth this much grandiosely and forcefully.
“The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations.”
I often think, if not always Adam Smith is brutally right in his point of view on the nature and habit of the poor since we all know that the poor are mostly spendthrifts. They do not believe in saving and spend their hard earned bucks on alcohol and other unnecessary things. They do not look forward to a future of abundance and all they do is spend for the present. From a different point of view they are living for the present whereas the rich and misers are living for the future. A good writer can be immensely evocative through their grand style, use of good words and spontaneous expressions unlike politicians who are mostly provocative and contemptibly assertive.
After reading this wonderful book of essays titled The Theory of Moral Sentiments, I became convinced of the ubiquity of literature. Any writing can be a work of art or literature if the writer can club its expression with a fair amount of style, sophistication and elegance with a profusion of apt words and strikingly arresting sentences.
We are not unfamiliar with the science fiction of Carl Sagan. He makes use of plenty of scientific jargon but the reader becomes deeply immersed in the flight of wonder and imagination while reading his books. Writers broaden their perspective going beyond the traditional genres of reading. Stereotyping leads to the death of literature at the end of the day.
Whether one writes beautiful economic dissertations or scientific or metaphysical treatises one can find abundance of poetry, though ostensibly literature and economics fall poles apart. Taking these considerations into account you can see ample use of literary crafts in the writings of Adam Smith.
