"Edinburgh, 20th April, 1756.
"Dear Doctor,—There is certainly nothing so unaccountable as my long silence with you; that is, with a man whose friendship I desire most to preserve of any I know, and whose conversation I would be the most covetous to enjoy, were I in the same place with him. But to tell the truth, we people in the country, (for such you Londoners esteem our city,) are apt to be troublesome to you people in town; we are vastly glad to receive letters which convey intelligence to us of things which we should otherwise have been ignorant of, and can pay them back with nothing but provincial stories, which are no way interesting. It was perhaps an apprehension of this kind which held my pen: but really, I believe, the truth is, when I was idle, I was lazy—when I was busy, I was so extremely busy, that I had no leisure to think of any thing else. For, dear Doctor, what have we to do with news on either side, unless it be literary news, which I hope will always interest us? and of these, London seems to me as barren as Edinburgh; or rather more so, since I can tell you that our friend Hume's 'Douglas,' is altered and finished, and will be brought out on the stage next winter, and is a singular, as well as fine performance, [ [433:1]] of the spirit of the English theatre, not devoid of Attic and French elegance. You have sent us nothing worth reading this winter; even your vein of wretched novels is dried up, though not that of scurrilous partial politics. We hear of Sir George Lyttleton's History, from which the populace expect a great deal: but I hear it is to be three quarto volumes. 'O, magnum horribilem et sacrum Libellum.'—This last epithet of sacrum will probably be applicable to it in more senses than one. However, it cannot well fail to be readable, which is a great deal for an English book now-a-days.
"But, dear Doctor, even places more hyperborean than this, more provincial, more uncultivated, and more barbarous, may furnish articles for a literary correspondence. Have you seen the second volume of Blackwell's 'Court of Augustus?' I had it some days lying on my table, and, on turning it over, met with passages very singular for their ridicule and absurdity. He says that Mark Antony, travelling from Rome in a post-chaise, lay the first night at Redstones: I own I did not think this a very classical name; but, on recollection, I found, by the Philippics, that he lay at Saxa Rubra. He talks also of Mark Antony's favourite poet, Mr. Gosling, meaning Anser, who, methinks, should rather be called Mr. Goose. He also takes notice of Virgil's distinguishing himself, in his youth, by his epigram on Crossbow the robber! Look your Virgil, you'll find that, like other robbers, this man bore various names. Crossbow is the name he took at Aberdeen, but Balista at Rome. The book has many other flowers[434:1] of a like nature, which made me exclaim, with regard to the author,
But other people, who have read through the volume, say that, notwithstanding these absurdities, it does not want merit; and, if it be so, I own the case is still more singular. What would you think of a man who should speak of the mayorality of Mr. Veitch; meaning the consulship of Cicero?—Is not this a fine way of avoiding the imputation of pedantry? Perhaps Cicero, to modernize him entirely, should be called Sir Mark Veitch, because his father was a Roman knight.
"I do not find your name among the subscribers of my friend Blacklock's poems, you have forgot; buy a copy of them and read them, they are many of them very elegant, and merit esteem, if they came from any one, but are admirable from him. [ [435:2]] Spence's industry in so good a work, but there is a circumstance of his conduct that will entertain you. In the Edinburgh edition there was a stanza to this effect:
"Mr. Spence would not undertake to promote a London subscription, unless my name, as well as Lord Shaftesbury's, (who was mentioned in another place,) were erased: the author frankly gave up Shaftesbury, but said that he would forfeit all the profit he might expect from a subscription, rather than relinquish the small tribute of praise which he had paid to a man whom he was more indebted to than to all the world beside. I heard by chance of this controversy, and wrote to Mr. Spence, that, without farther consulting the author, I, who was chiefly concerned, would take upon me to empower him to alter the stanza where I was mentioned. He did so, and farther, having prefixed the life of the author, he took occasion to mention some people to whom he had been obliged, but is careful not to name me; judging rightly that such good deeds were only splendida peccata, and that till they were sanctified by the grace of God they would be of no benefit to salvation.[436:1]
"I have seen (but, I thank God, was not bound to read) Dr. [Birch's] 'History of the Royal Society.' Pray make my compliments to him, and tell him, that I am his most obliged humble servant. I hope you understand that the last clause was spoken ironically. You would have surprised him very much had you executed the compliment. I shall conclude this article of literature by mentioning myself. I have finished the second volume of my History, and have maintained the same unbounded liberty in my politics which gave so much offence: religion lay more out of my way; and there will not be . . .[436:2] in this particular: I think reason, and even some eloquence, are on my side, and . . . will, I am confident, get the better of faction and folly, which are the . . .[436:2] least they never continue long in the same shape. I am sorry, however, that you speak nothing on this head in your postscript to me.
"It gives me great affliction, dear Doctor, when you speak of gouts and old age. Alas! you are going down hill, and I am tumbling fast after you. I have, however, very entire health, notwithstanding my studious sedentary life. I only grow fat more than I could wish. When shall I see you? God knows. I am settled here; have no pretensions, nor hopes, nor desires, to carry me to court the great. I live frugally on a small fortune, which I care not to dissipate by jaunts of pleasure. All these circumstances give me little prospect of seeing London. Were I to change my habitation, I would retire to some provincial town in France, to trifle out my old age, near a warm sun in a good climate, a pleasant country, and amidst a sociable people. My stock would then maintain me in some opulence; for I have the satisfaction to tell you, dear Doctor, that on reviewing my affairs, I find that I am worth £1600 sterling, which, at five per cent, makes near 1800 livres a-year—that is, the pay of two French captains.
"Edmonstone left this town for Ireland. I wish he were out of the way: he has no prospect of advancement suitable to his merit. Sir Harry, I hope, has only run backwards to make a better jump. Pray imitate not my example—delay not to write; or, if you do, I will imitate yours, and write again without waiting for an answer. Ever most sincerely."[437:1]
FOOTNOTES:
[367:1] The appointment is thus recorded in the minutes of the Faculty of Advocates.
"28th January, 1752.
"The Faculty proceeded to the choice of a keeper of their library, in place of the said Mr. Thomas Ruddiman; and some members proposed that a dignified member of their own body, viz. Mr. Kenneth Mackenzie, Advocate, Professor of the Civil Law in the University of Edinburgh, should be named to that office, and others inclining that Mr. David Hume should be elected, it was agreed that the matter should be put to a vote. And the rolls being called, and votes distinctly marked and taken down and numbered, it was found that the majority had declared for the latter; upon which, the Dean and Faculty declared the said Mr. David Hume duly elected keeper of their library, and appointed that the usual salary of forty pounds sterling should be paid to him yearly on that account. And in regard that he was to have their minutes, acts, and records, under his custody, they appointed him also clerk to the Faculty, which office had been lately resigned by Mr. David Falconer, with power to the said Mr. Hume to officiate therein by a depute.
"Mr. Gilbert Elliot, senior, curator of the library, here proposed, that in consideration that there would be a good deal of labour and trouble in delivering over the library to Mr. Hume, and his receiving the same, and doing several other things requisite and necessary relating thereto, that the Faculty should name a certain salary to some person as under keeper for some time till that business may be accomplished. The Dean and Faculty resolved, that they would name no person, nor no salary, but leave Mr. Hume, their library keeper, himself the nomination and choice of his own depute, as he was to be answerable and accountable to the Faculty for his whole charge and intromissions; but that, against the next anniversary meeting, they would take under their consideration what extraordinary work should be then accomplished, and do therein as should be found reasonable.
"Lastly, the Dean and Faculty appointed Mr. George Brown to intimate to Mr. David Hume their election of him for their library keeper, and that he should be present at their next meeting to have the oath de fideli administered to him."
In this office, Hume succeeded the celebrated Thomas Ruddiman. The life of this distinguished critic and philologist was written in an 8vo volume by George Chalmers, (1794.) This book is valuable as containing some of the finest specimens of mixed bombast and bathos in the English language. Chalmers was a distinguished antiquary, and his high fame in that department of research was well earned; but this did not content his ambition, and like an eminent Anglo-Saxon antiquary of the present day, he must needs mount a cap and bells on his head, by aping the style of the fine writers of his age. Gibbon and Johnson seem to have been honoured with an equal share in the elements of his style. He can say nothing without a due pomp and state; when he tells us how John Love was the son of a bookseller in Dumbarton, he must put it thus: "He was born in July, 1695, at Dunbarton, the Dunbriton of the British, the arx Britonum of the Romans, the Dunclidon of Ravennas, the Alcluyd of Bede, and he was the son of John Love, a bookseller, who, like greater dealers in greater towns, supplied his customers with such books as their taste required, and, like the father of Johnson, occasionally exhibited his books at the neighbouring fairs." We are then of course provided with a list of what these books sold by Love's father might or might not probably be, which has this reference to the life of Ruddiman, that young Love quarrelled with him. We then find such solemn announcements as the following: "Love had scarcely animadverted on Trotter, when he was carried before the judicatories of the kirk by Mr. Sydserf, the minister of Dumbarton, who accused him of brewing on a Sunday; and who, after a juridical trial, was obliged to make a public apology for having maliciously accused calumniated innocence." A printer publishing books calculated for an extensive sale is thus described:—"To these other qualities of prudence, of industry, and of attention, Ruddiman added judgment. He did not print splendid editions of books for the public good; he did not publish volumes for the perusal of the few; but he chiefly employed his press in supplying Scotland with books, which, from their daily use, had a general sale; and he was by this motive induced to furnish country shopkeepers with school-books at the lowest rate."
[373:1] The state of the library in Hume's time may be guessed at by consulting the first volume of the catalogue, printed under Ruddiman's auspices in 1742, folio. It is a singular circumstance that this library has always been very deficient in the early editions of Hume's works—those which were published before his librarianship. Another set of works, which one misses in the early catalogues, consists in the controversial books, written by Logan against its previous librarian, Ruddiman.
[373:2] The assistant, whose remuneration was to be at the pleasure of the Faculty, according to the above minute, was Walter Goodall, an unfortunate scholar, whom Hume's predecessor in office, the celebrated Thomas Ruddiman, had attached to the library as a hanger-on and miscellaneous drudge. The extent of his emoluments may be appreciated from a minute of Faculty, (7th Jan. 1758,) which, in consideration of his long services, awards him a salary of "£5 a-year, over and above what he may receive from the keeper of the library." Goodall's character and fate are summed up in the sententious remark of Lord Hailes, that "Walter was seldom sober." Yet he did not a little for historical literature. He was a violent Jacobite and champion of the innocence of Queen Mary; and in 1754 he published, in two volumes 8vo, his "Examination of the Letters said to be written by Mary, Queen of Scots, to James, Earl of Bothwell, showing by intrinsick and extrinsick evidence that they are forgeries." In 1759 he edited the best edition of Fordun's Scotichronicon, in two volumes folio.
The following traditional anecdote has been preserved, of the keeper and his assistant. "One day, while Goodall was composing his treatise concerning Queen Mary, he became drowsy, and laying down his head upon his MSS. in that posture fell asleep. Hume entering the library, and finding the controversialist in that position, stepped softly up to him, and laying his mouth to Watty's ear, roared out with the voice of a stentor, that Queen Mary was a whore and had murdered her husband. Watty, not knowing whether it was a dream or a real adventure, or whether the voice proceeded from a ghost or a living creature, started up, and before he was awake or his eyes well opened, he sprang upon Hume, and seizing him by the throat, pushed him to the farther end of the library, exclaiming all the while that he was some base Presbyterian parson, who was come to murder the character of Queen Mary, as his predecessors had contributed to murder her person. Hume used to tell this story with much glee, and Watty acknowledged the truth of it with much frankness." Chambers's Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, voce Goodall.
[375:1] "Of Love and Marriage," and "Of the Study of History."
[376:1] Literary Gazette, 1821, p. 745. The original is in the MSS. R.S.E.
[378:1] Thus it appears that it was his original intention to continue the history down to 1714, before he went back to the earlier periods.
[379:1] From the original at Kilravock.
[379:2] Probably Alexander Wedderburn, afterwards Lord Chancellor Loughborough, who was then twenty years of age.
[379:3] From the original at Kilravock.
[381:1] Memorials of James Oswald, p. 72.
[383:1] Scots Mag. 1802, p. 794. Collated with original at Kilravock.
[385:1] Scots Magazine, 1802, p. 902.
[387:1] Alexander Hume, a director of the East India Company.
[387:2] Edinburgh Annual Register for 1809, p. 553.
[387:3] Singer's edition of Spence's Anecdotes of Books and Men, p. 448.
[394:1] It is out of some vague rumour as to this transaction, that Lord Charlemont must have constructed the following romantic story of Hume. "He was tender-hearted, friendly, and charitable in the extreme, as will appear from a fact, which I have from good authority. When a member of the University of Edinburgh, and in great want of money, having little or no paternal fortune, and the collegiate stipend being very inconsiderable, he had procured, through the interest of some friend, an office in the university, which was worth about £40 a-year. On the day when he had received this good news, and just when he had got into his possession the patent or grant entitling him to his office, he was visited by his friend Blacklock, the poet, who is much better known by his poverty and blindness than by his genius. This poor man began a long descant on his misery, bewailing his want of sight, his large family of children, and his utter inability to provide for them, or even procure them the necessaries of life. Hume, unable to bear his complaints, and destitute of money to assist him, ran instantly to his desk, took out the grant, and presented it to his miserable friend, who received it with exultation, and whose name was soon after, by Hume's interest, inserted instead of his own."—Hardy's Memoirs of Charlemont, p. 9. This story is constructed after the received model of the current anecdotes of Fielding, Goldsmith, and others, and is perhaps as close to the truth as many of them would be found to be, if they were minutely investigated. It is pretty clear that Hume's generosity,—for generosity he certainly had, to a very large extent, by the testimony of all who knew him,—was not so much the creature of impulse, as that of the authors who have been mentioned above: but such an instance as that just given, is a warning to distrust those anecdotes of the inconsiderate generosity of men of genius, that are put into a very dramatic shape.
[394:2] It is along with the letter to Smith in the MSS. R.S.E.
[396:1] The fastidious Gray's appreciation of La Fontaine, is thus recorded. "The sly, delicate, and exquisitely elegant pleasantry of La Fontaine he thought inimitable, whose muse, however licentious, is never gross; not perhaps on that account the less dangerous."—Nicholls' Reminiscences. Gray's Works, v. 45.
[396:2] In 1756, some disputes appear to have arisen between the Faculty and their curators, owing to the arbitrary disposal of the books by the latter. On 6th January it was represented by Mr. William Johnstone, that the curators had ordered certain books to be sold, and that the practice was a very questionable one, "seeing as one curator succeeded another yearly, and different men had different tastes, the library might by that means happen to suffer considerably." It was declared that the curators had no right to dispose of books.
[399:1] From the original at Kilravock.
[399:2] Edinburgh: published by Hamilton, Balfour, and Neill. It is entered in the Gentleman's Magazine list for October.
[401:1] Carte's last volume was posthumously published in the year after Hume's first.
[403:1] He does not appear to have suffered any persecutions before he wrote the first volume of the History of the Stuarts, unless the opposition to his appointment as a professor deserves that name. The tone of the History itself was indeed one of the grounds on which he was attacked in the ecclesiastical courts.
[403:2] Article by Lord Jeffrey in The Edinburgh Review, xii. 276.
[405:1] Article on History by Mr. Macaulay. Edinburgh Review, xlvii. p. 359.
[407:1] Printed in the Appendix of Voltaire et Rousseau, par Henry Lord Brougham, p. 340.
[408:1] See the letters in Appendix. The French bibliographical works of reference, which are in general very full, do not mention any translation of the History of the Stuarts earlier than 1760, when Querard and Brunet give the following:
Histoire de la Maison de Stuart sur le trône d'Angleterre, jusqu'au détrônement de Jacques II. traduite de l'Anglois de David Hume, (par L'Abbé Prévost.) Londres (Paris) 1760. 3 vols. in 4to.
The edition about to appear in Holland, which threw Le Blanc into despair, seems to have been overlooked. This Prévost, or Prévôt, is the well-known author of the "Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut," which still holds its place in French popular literature, though it bears but a small proportion to the bulk of his other voluminous works which are forgotten. The authors of the Dictionnaire Historique, say they find in his translation of Hume, "un air étranger, un style souvent embarrassé, sémé d'Anglicismes, d'expressions peu Françoises, de tours durs, de phrases louches et mal construites." This abbé led an irregular life, being a sort of disgraced ecclesiastic, and his death was singularly tragical. He had fallen by the side of a wood in a fit of apoplexy. Being found insensible, he was removed as a dead body to the residence of a magistrate, where a surgeon was to open the body to discover the cause of death. At the first insertion of the knife, a scream from the victim terrified all present: but it was too late; the instrument had entered a vital part.
[408:2] Colonel Abercrombie.
[409:1] From the original at Kilravock.
[410:1] MS. R.S.E.
[411:1] "I presume this was 'Douglas;' and the expression, 'he now discovers a great genius for the theatre,' I suppose was meant to imply Mr. D. Hume's opinion of its being better fitted for the stage than Agis."—Mackenzie.
[411:2] Mackenzie's Account of Home, p. 102. The original in the MS. R.S.E.
[413:1] "Lives of the Lindsays, or a Memoir of the Houses of Crawford and Balcarres, by Lord Lindsay." Hume's correspondent was James, the fifth earl. He had had the misfortune to be "out in the fifteen," and though a zealous and hardy soldier, he in vain attempted to rise in the army; and at last retiring in disgust, he betook himself to learned leisure. In the pleasing work above referred to, he is thus picturesquely described: "Though his aspect was noble, and his air and deportment showed him at once a man of rank, yet there was no denying that a degree of singularity attended his appearance. To his large brigadier wig, which hung down with three tails, he generally added a few curls of his own application, which I suspect would not have been considered quite orthodox by the trade. His shoe, which resembled nothing so much as a little boat with a cabin at the end of it, was slashed with his pen-knife, for the benefit of giving ease to his honest toes; here—there—he slashed it where he chose to slash, without an idea that the world or its fashions had the smallest right to smile at his shoe; had they smiled, he would have smiled too, and probably said, 'Odsfish! I believe it is not like other people's; but as to that, look, d' ye see? what matters it whether so old a fellow as myself wears a shoe or a slipper.'"
[414:1] Mackenzie's Account of Home, p. 175.
[416:1] He does not, however, mention it in any of the subsequent editions of his History.
[417:1] Scott of Scotstarvet's Staggering State of Scots Statesmen.—A collection of contemporary characters, drawn by a shrewd but bitter and unscrupulous observer.
[417:2] MS. R.S.E.
[417:3] Evidently the Philosophical Society. It was instituted in 1731, chiefly as a medical society; but, in 1739, its plan was so far enlarged, as to admit of the above comprehensive denomination.
[418:1] Sic in MS.
[418:2] Lit. Gazette, 1822, p. 745. The original is in the MSS. R.S.E.
[419:1] This name changed to Randolph, after the first representation.—Mackenzie.
[420:1] Changed to Norval, before the tragedy was brought on the stage.—Mackenzie.
[420:2] Mackenzie's Account of Home, p. 100.
The following paper made its first appearance in The Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle, a few years ago, when it was edited by Mr. Hislop, a gentleman said to be well acquainted with theatrical matters. It is here repeated, not as being believed, but because having excited some attention when it first appeared, it found its way into some books connected with Scottish literature.
"It may not be generally known, that the first rehearsal took place in the lodgings in the Canongate, occupied by Mrs. Sarah Warde, one of Digges's company; and that it was rehearsed by, and in presence of the most distinguished literary characters Scotland ever could boast of. The following was the cast of the piece on the occasion:—
| DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. | |
| Lord Randolph, | Dr. Robertson, Principal, Edinburgh. |
| Glenalvon, | David Hume, Historian. |
| Old Norval, | Dr. Carlyle, Minister of Musselburgh. |
| Douglas, | John Home, the Author. |
| Lady Randolph, | Dr. Ferguson, Professor. |
| Anna, (the Maid,) | Dr. Blair, Minister, High Church. |
"The audience that day, besides Mr. Digges, and Mrs. Warde, were, the Right Honourable Patrick Lord Elibank, Lord Milton, Lord Kames, Lord Monboddo, (the two last were then only lawyers,) the Rev. John Steele and William Home, ministers. The company, all but Mrs. Warde, dined afterwards in the Erskine Club, in the Abbey."
The reader must take this statement at its own value, which he will probably not consider high. The "cast," has no pretensions to be a transcript of any contemporary document; for Dr. Robertson was not then Principal of the University, but minister of the country parish of Gladsmuir; and Ferguson was not a Professor, but an army chaplain, with leave of absence, spending his time chiefly in Perthshire. Lord Kames, spoken of as "only" a lawyer, had been raised to the bench in 1752.
[421:1] This last appears to have been suppressed. The publication of the others is mentioned further on.
[422:1] MS. R.S.E.
[423:1] Account of John Home, p. 24.
[424:1] There is an amusing traditional anecdote, with which this periodical has some connexion. Dr. Walter Anderson, minister of Chirnside, having caught the fire of literary ambition, made the remark to Hume, one afternoon when they had been enjoying the hospitalities of Ninewells: "Mr. David, I daresay other people might write books too; but you clever fellows have taken up all the good subjects. When I look about me, I cannot find one unoccupied."—"What would you think, Mr. Anderson," said Hume, in reply, "of a History of Crœsus, king of Lydia? This has never yet been written." Dr. Anderson was a man who understood no jesting, and held no words as uttered in vain; so away he goes, pulls down his Herodotus, and translates all the passages in the first book relating to Crœsus, with all the consultations of the oracles, and all the dreams; only interweaving with them, from his own particular genius, some very sage and lengthy remarks on the extent to which there was real truth in the prophetic revelations of the Pythoness. This book, which is now a great rarity, was reviewed with much gravity and kindness in The Edinburgh Review. It was more severely treated in The Critical Review, edited by Smollett, where it is said, "There is still a race of soothsayers in the Highlands, derived, if we may believe some curious antiquaries, from the Druids and Bards that were set apart for the worship of Apollo. The author of the History before us may, for aught we know, be one of these venerable seers, though we rather take him to be a Presbyterian teacher, who has been used to expound apothegms that need no explanation."
[427:1] Page 342. MS. R.S.E.
[428:1] Attributed to Dr. Blair by Tytler, (Life of Kames, i. 142,) as well as by Mackenzie; as on the preceding page.
[429:1] Besides those mentioned above, the occasion seems to have called forth some blasts of the trumpet, still better suited to split the ears of the groundlings—such as "The Deist stretched on a Death-bed, or a lively Portraiture of a Dying Infidel." The contemporary Edinburgh Review, which carried on a guerilla warfare on the side of the threatened philosophers, thus commences a notice of this production. "This is a most extraordinary performance. The hero of it is an infidel, 'a humorous youth,' as the author describes him, 'a youth whose life was one successive scene of pleasantry and humour: who laughed at revelation, and called religion priestcraft and grimace: a gay and sprightly free-thinker. But yesterday,' says he 'this gay and sprightly free-thinker revelled his usual round of gallantry and applause, till, satiated at length, he staggered to bed devoid of sense and reason.' We suppose, (continues the reviewer,) the author's meaning is, that he went to bed very drunk.'"
[430:1] Scots Magazine, 1756, pp. 248, 280, where those who are partial to such reading, will find a pretty clear abstract of the debate. The General Assembly had its hands at that time pretty full. A deadly dispute had arisen between the partisans of the old and new church music, which is thus described in Ritchie's Life of Hume, p. 57:
"At this time the Scottish church was thrown into a general ferment by an attempt to introduce the reformed music. In accomplishing this, the most indecent scenes were exhibited. It was not uncommon for a congregation to divide themselves into two parties, one of which, in chaunting the psalms, followed the old, and the other the new mode of musical execution; while the infidel, who was not in the habit of frequenting the temple, now resorted to it, not for the laudable purpose of repentance and edification, but from the ungodly motive of being a spectator of the contest. . . . .
"During the present dispute, it was customary for the partisans of the different kinds of music to convene apart, in numerous bodies, for the purpose of practising, and to muster their whole strength on the Sabbath. The moment the psalm was read from the pulpit, each side, in general chorus, commenced their operations; and as the pastor and clerk, or precentor, often differed in their sentiments, the church was immediately in an uproar. Blows and bruises were interchanged by the impassioned songsters, and, in many parts of the country, the most serious disturbances took place."
They had, at the same time, to conduct the war against the tragedy of Douglas, and the frequenters of the theatre. Home himself, as is well known, escaped the odium of ecclesiastical punishment, by resigning his ministerial charge. Order was then taken with those clergy who could not resist being present on so memorable an occasion as the performance of a great national tragedy, written by a member of their own body. Among these the Rev. Mr. White of Libberton was subjected to the modified punishment of a month's suspension from office, because 'he had attended the representation only once, when he endeavoured to conceal himself in a corner, to avoid giving offence.' Scots Mag. for 1757, p. 47.
[432:1] Ritchie says, (p. 79,) that he was in his eightieth year. One is tempted to say with Lady Macbeth, "Who would have thought the old man had so much blood in him." Besides these conflicts in Scotland, he was conducting a war in England against Mallet, for the publication of Bolingbroke's works.
[433:1] Word illegible.
[434:1] That such flowers were not confined to Aberdeen, may be seen in the following passage of the "Carpentariana."
"Si l'on vouloit traduire les noms Grecs et Romains en François, on les rendroit souvent ridicules. J'ai vu une traduction des épitres de Cicéron à Atticus, imprimée chez Thiboust, en 1666, pag. 217, où l'auteur est tombé dans cette faute ridicule, en traduisant cet endroit: Pridie autem apud me Crassipes fuerat, Le jour précédent Gros-pied fut chez moi. Véritablement Crassipes, veut dire Gros-pied, mais il est ridicule de la traduire ainsi: et il ne faut jamais toucher aux noms propres, soit qu'ils fassent un bon ou mauvais effet, rendus dans notre langue. Un autre traducteur des épitres de Cicéron, lui fait dire, Mademoiselle votre fille, Madame votre femme; et je me souviens d'un auteur qui appelloit Brutus et Collatinus, les Bourgmestres de la ville de Rome."
[435:1] Satis.
[435:2] Words obliterated.
[436:2] Words obliterated by decay of the MS.
[437:1] Original at Kilravock.
APPENDIX.