When using quotes in academic articles there is often a need to simplify things, without being accused of manipulating the original meaning. Consider the paragraph below in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations:
The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition, when suffered to exert itself with freedom and security, is so powerful a principle, that it is alone, and without any assistance, not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions, with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations
I want to use
The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition, when suffered to exert itself with freedom and security, is so powerful a principle, that it is alone, and without any assistance, ... capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity.
I think it is fair enough because the original phrase could also be rewritten as this:
The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition, when suffered to exert itself with freedom and security, is so powerful a principle, that it is alone, and without any assistance, capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity. Such effort is also capable of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions, with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations.
What would convention dictate? Is mine a misquotation?
