Hume to Andrew Millar.

"Edinburgh, 20th January, 1757.

"Dear Sir,—The dedication of my Dissertations to Mr. Hume[18:2] was shown to some of his friends here, men of very good sense, who were seized with an apprehension that it would hurt that party in the church, with which he had always been connected, and would involve him, and them of consequence, in the suspicion of infidelity. Neither he nor I were in the least affected with their panic; but to satisfy them, we agreed to stand by the arbitration of one person, of great rank and of known prudence; and I promised them to write to you to suspend the publication for one post, in case you should have resolved to publish it presently. Next post you shall be sure to hear from me; and if we be obliged to suppress it, you'll be pleased to place the charges of print and paper to my account. I indorse this day your two bills to Mr. Alexander Cunningham. I am," &c.

"Edinburgh, January 8, 1757.

"Sir,—A few days ago, I sent the Faculty a verbal resignation; but as I am told that it is expected I

should give a resignation under my hand, and as I am very desirous to deliver over the charge of the library as soon as possible, I have been induced to write you at present, and beg of you to inform the Faculty, that they may choose me a successor whenever they think proper. I am, sir, your most humble servant.[19:1]

"To Mr. Charles Binning,
Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Advocates."

Hume to William Mure of Caldwell.

"Dear Mure,—I hope you do not think yourself obliged, by saying civil things, to make atonement for the too homely truths, which you told me formerly.

I will not believe so. I take for granted, that you are equally sincere in both: though I must own that I think my first volume a great deal better than the second. The subject admitted of more eloquence, and of greater nicety of reasoning, and more acute distinctions. The opposition, I may say the rage, with which it was received by the public, I must confess, did not a little surprise me. Whatever knowledge I pretend to in history, and human affairs, I had not so bad an opinion of men as to expect that candour, disinterestedness, and humanity, could entitle me to that treatment. Yet such was my fate. After a long interval, I at last collected so much courage, as to renew my application to the second volume, though with infinite disgust and reluctance; and I am sensible that, in many passages of it, there are great signs of that disposition, and that my usual fire does not every where appear. At other times, I excited myself, and perhaps succeeded better.

"I leave you to judge whether your letter came in a very seasonable time. I own that I had the weakness to be affected by it, when I found that a person, whose judgment I very much valued, could tell me, though I was not asking his opinion——But I will not proceed any farther. The matter gave me uneasiness at the time, though without the least resentment.

At present the uneasiness is gone; and all my usual friendship, confirmed by years and long acquaintance, still remains.

"Pray, whether do you pity or blame me most, with regard to this dedication of my Dissertations to my friend, the poet? I am sure I never executed any thing which was either more elegant in the composition, or more generous in the intention; yet such an alarm seized some fools here, (men of very good sense, but fools in that particular,) that they assailed both him and me with the utmost violence; and engaged us to change our intention. I wrote to Millar to suppress that dedication; two posts after, I retracted that order. Can any thing be more unlucky than that, in the interval of these four days, he should have opened his sale, and disposed of eight hundred copies, without that dedication, whence, I imagined, my friend would reap some advantage, and myself so much honour? I have not been so heartily vexed at any accident of a long time. However, I have insisted that the dedication shall still be published.

"I am a little uncertain what work I shall next undertake; for I do not care to be long idle. I think you seem to approve of my going forward: and I am sensible that the subject is much more interesting to us, and even will be so to posterity, than any other I could choose: but can I hope that there are materials for composing a just and sure history of it? I am afraid not. However, I shall examine the matter. I fancy it will be requisite for me to take a journey to London, and settle there for some time, in order to gather such materials as are not to be found in print. But, if I should go backwards, and write the History of England from the accession of Henry the Seventh, I might remain where I am; and I own to you, at

my time of life, these changes of habitation are not agreeable, even though the place be better to which one removes.

"I am sorry my fair cousin does not find London so agreeable as, perhaps, she expected. She must not judge by one winter. It will improve against next winter, and appear still better the winter after that. Please make my compliments to her, and tell her that she must not be discouraged. By the by, Mrs. Binnie tells me that she writes her a very different account of matters, so that I find my cousin is a hypocrite.

"I shall make use of your criticisms, and wish there had been more of them. That practice of doubling the genitive is certainly very barbarous, and I carefully avoided it in the first volume; but I find it so universal a practice, both in writing and speaking, that I thought it better to