href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@42844@[email protected]#Footnote_VI@3aA_1" class="fnanchor pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">[vi:A]

1765-1766. Æt. 54-55. Hume's Sentiments as to the Popularity of his works—A letter to the Scottish Clergy—Correspondence with Elliot continued—Sir Robert Liston—Mallet—Hume appointed Secretary of Legation—Chargé d' Affaires at Paris—Proposal to appoint him Secretary for Ireland—Reasons of the Failure of the Project—Lord Hertford—Resumption of Communication with Rousseau—Rousseau in Paris—Notices of his History and Character—Hume's Solicitude for his welfare—Return to Britain—Disposal of Rousseau—Death of Jardine. 263

CHAPTER XV.

1766-1767. Æt. 55-56. Rousseau at Wooton—Mr. Davenport—Negotiations as to Rousseau's pension—Origin and rise of his excitement against Hume—Proper method of viewing the dispute—Incidents illustrative of Rousseau's state of mind—His charges against Hume—Smith's opinion—Opinion of the French friends—Hume's conduct in the publication of the papers—Voltaire—Rousseau's flight and wanderings—Hume's subsequent conduct to him. 319 CHAPTER XVI. 1766-1770. Æt. 55-59. Hume Under Secretary of State—Church Politics—Official abilities—Conduct as to Ferguson's book—Quarrel with Oswald—Baron Mure's sons—Project of continuing the History—Ministerial convulsions—Hume's conduct to his Family—His Brother—His Nephews—Baron Hume—Blacklock—Smollett—Church Patronage—Gibbon—Robertson—Elliot—Gilbert Stuart—The Douglas Cause—Andrew Stewart—Morellet—Return to Scotland. 382 CHAPTER XVII. 1771-1776. Æt. 60-65. Hume's social character—His conversation—His disposition—Traditional anecdotes regarding him—Correspondence—Letter about the Pretender—Gilbert Stuart's quarrel with Dr. Henry—Commercial State of Scotland—Letter to his nephew on Republicanism—Smith's "Wealth of Nations"—Hume's illness—His Will—Smith appointed Literary Executor—Strahan substituted—His journey to England with Home—Prospects of Death—Communications with his Friends and Relations—His Death—General view of his influence on Thought and Action. 437 INDEX. 523

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FOOTNOTES:

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THE LIFE

OF

DAVID HUME.

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CHAPTER X.

1756-1759. Æt. 45-48.

We have now followed the personal history of David Hume through nearly twenty years of authorship. We have seen him approach the tribunal of public opinion with the strongest internal assurance of success, and in a form so different from that of his predecessors, as a high reliance on his own powers could alone have prompted. Baffled in the first, and in the second, and in the third attempt, he still persevered; and while the coldness of each reception showed him that his last effort had proved a failure, it never extinguished the fire of literary ardour which he felt burning within him, or quenched the hope, that it would one day blaze forth before the world. It is only towards the termination of this long period of laborious authorship that we find the

philosopher's early visions of intellectual greatness beginning to be fulfilled. At the period at which we have now arrived, his name was famous over Europe. It was a fame that, once spread abroad, was not soon to die; for those to whom his name was first made known in his new popular work, speedily discovered that, in his earliest neglected effort, he had laid the foundation of a still surer claim on their admiration, and justified the sagacity with which, in the pride and strength of youthful genius, he had thrown its first fruits before the world unaided and unadvised.

The year 1756 seems to have been in a great measure devoted by Hume to the printing of the second volume of his History, to which the following letters to Millar refer. A great part of the correspondence with this sagacious publisher relates to minute business arrangements. It is presumed, that the reader may wish to see some specimens of the manner in which Hume transacted such matters, but that he will not care to have the whole of the arrangements between the author and publisher laid before him. A few specimens of the business part of the letters are accordingly selected, while those portions which have any general interest, literary, philosophical, or political, are given in full. The reader will see, perhaps, with some surprise, that he was very anxious to subject his style to the critical eye of Mallet. We shall hereafter have to disclose some curious features of his literary intercourse with this extraordinary person.