I would like to thank Professor Brewer for pointing out that I was closer   
rather than further from the truth when I made my first comment about Smith,   
the English, and the Scots.  I again thank Professor Brewer for pointing out   
this quotation where Smith seems to identify with the "nation" of savages as   
others maybe would call them.  The role outsiders played in reducing the   
Highlanders to savage status should be examined before anyone that reads this   
list should shoot their mouth off.  Now those that believed Smith did not think   
highly of religion should examine the texts and their own prejudices!  While   
there was much about the papacy he disagreed with--like religious belief guided   
by authority rather than personal conscience--he still respected the role   
religion played in elevating the moral and ethical conduct of a nation.  The   
Scots Smith talks about in this passage were Christian, but Catholic.  
  
My grandfather, whose father was born in England before emmigrating to   
Nebraska, taught me about the Jacobites and their Charles and did so with great   
pride.  He was not Catholci.  As a consequence I've always respected savages   
and will now have to investigate those of sub-Sahara for their courage   
and "vigor to resist the most formidable foe".  By the way: Even savages can   
practice cultivating arts.  Savages may just be people fighting against the   
forces that would exterminate them, and in the process call them savages to   
lend credibility to their own human endeavors.  
  
Scot Stradley