Nature for Smith is simply the spontaneous action of human character unchecked by hindrances of State.

It is, as Bonar has aptly said, "a vindication of the unconscious law present in the separate actions of men when these actions are directed by a certain strong personal motive." Adam Smith's argument is an assumption that the facts can be made to show the relative powerlessness of institutions in the face of economic laws grounded in human psychology.

The psychology itself is relatively simple, and, at least in the _Wealth of Nations_ not greatly different from the avowed assumptions of utilitarianism.

He emphasizes the strength of reason in the economic field, and his sense that it enables men to judge much better of their best interests than an external authority can hope to do.

And therefore the practices accomplished by this reason are those in which the impulses of men are to be found.