One of the most engrossing of Adam Smith’s illustrations is the parable of the poor man’s son, who pursues wealth successfully yet in old age “curses ambition, and vainly regrets” having sacrificed “the ease and indolence of youth” to become rich. 

The story is a riddle. I will argue in this piece that the riddle might be fittingly answered through a continuation of the story.

Smith tells the story in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS), introducing us to:

The poor man’s son, whom heaven in its anger has visited with ambition, when he begins to look around him, admires the condition of the rich.

By citing an angry heaven, Smith portends a curse. The son will come to understand that his ambitions were largely misguided, but not until he has devoted much of his life to them. The story is one of “deception.” 

The story is paradoxical. I call it Smith’s visible parable.

From Adam’s rib, however, we may make an invisible parable, about Eva, daughter of the poor man’s son. She tastes knowledge of the visible parable while eschewing forbidden fruits. She resolves the paradox.

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