There is too much history in the _Wealth of Nations_ to make tenable the hypothesis of complete abstraction.

And there is even clear a sense of a nature behind his custom when he speaks of a "sacred regard" for life, and urges that every man has property in his own labor.

The truth here surely is that Smith was living in a time of commercial expansion.

What was evident to him was the potential wealth to be made available if the obsolete system of restraint could be destroyed.

Liberty to him meant absence of restraint not because its more positive aspect was concealed from him but rather because the kind of freedom wanted in the environment in which he moved was exactly that for which he made his plea.