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