[478:1] MS. R.S.E.

[479:1] Lit. Gazette , 1822, p. 637. Corrected from original MS. R.S.E.

[482:1] MS. R.S.E. Addressed, "Mr. David Hume, at Mr. Professor Millar's, at Glasgow." The blanks are caused by a stripe having been torn off the side of the letter.

[483:1] Mackenzie's Account of Home, p. 160.

[484:1] MS. R.S.E.

[485:1] Life of Gibbon.

[486:1] From this it would appear that Hume had opened up in his own mind, the theory of rent, afterwards successively suggested by Dr. Anderson and Ricardo, without the latter, it is believed, knowing that he had been anticipated by the author of the Bee .

[487:1] MS. R.S.E.

[488:1] The letter is of such a character, as one medical man might be supposed to write to another. Black was no pedant, and he writes as if his correspondent knew the technicalities of the science in their full practical meaning,—an addition to the many illustrations of the varied range of scientific knowledge, at the command of the master of political economy.

[489:1] The following provision is in a codicil: "I also leave for rebuilding the bridge of Churnside the sum of a hundred pounds; but on condition that the manager of the bridge shall take none of the stones for building the bridge from the quarry of Ninewells, except from that part of the quarry which has been already opened." With reference to this, Dr. Cullen, in the letter cited, p. 516, says, "In the neighbourhood of his brother's house, in Berwickshire, is a brook, by which the access in time of floods is frequently interrupted. Mr. Hume bequeaths £100 for building a bridge over this brook, but upon the express condition that none of the stones for that purpose shall be taken from a quarry in the neighbourhood, which forms part of a romantic scene, in which, in his earlier days, Mr. Hume took particular delight." This is the only authenticated instance that I remember to have met with of Hume's attachment to local scenery. It is a tradition in Edinburgh, that he was fond of walking along the base of Salisbury Crags.

[490:1] In 1773, Smith, apparently in bad health, wrote to Hume, desiring him to take charge of his manuscripts in case of his own predecease, (MS. R.S.E.) This, and some other letters by Smith, I might have been tempted to print in this work, had I not the satisfaction of knowing that they are likely soon to be published under the auspices of Lord Brougham.

[490:2] MS. R.S.E.

[492:1] MS. R.S.E.

[493:1] MS. R.S.E.

[494:1] MS. R.S.E.

[494:2] MS. R.S.E.

[495:1] In the Appendix to Mackenzie's Account of the Life of Home.

[497:1] It is curious to observe, that the object of this united prediction was that same Loménie de Brienne, who was put at the head of affairs before the outbreak of the revolution, and who left behind him so undisputed a character of utter incapacity to be a statesman in difficult times.

[499:1] Probably M. Trudaine de Montigny, frequently mentioned above, whose son translated Hume's "Natural History of Religion." See above, p. 167.

[499:2] This anecdote is told nearly in the same words, in one of Walpole's posthumous works. Memoirs of George III. vol. ii. p. 240.

[504:1] αιμα.

[505:1] This paragraph is printed by Mackenzie.

[506:1] MS. R.S.E.

[506:2] MS. R.S.E.

[506:3] David Hume, as many of his letters must have shown, persisted in spelling his friend's name thus. To commemorate this dispute, and Home's dislike of port wine, he added this codicil to his will on 7th August:—

"I leave to my friend Mr. John Home of Kilduff, ten dozen of my old claret, at his choice; and one single bottle of that other liquor called port. I also leave to him six dozen of port, provided that he attests under his hand, signed John Hume, that he has himself alone finished that bottle at two sittings. By this concession, he will at once terminate the only two differences that ever arose between us concerning temporal matters." The original is in the MSS. R.S.E.

[507:1] Subjoined to the card, there is this note in Dr. Blair's handwriting:—"Mem. —This the last note received from Mr. David Hume. He died on the 25th of August, 1776."—Mackenzie's Account of Home.

[508:1] His nephew, Joseph, had just returned from abroad in very bad health.

[508:2] Colonel Edmondstoune was a member of what was called the Ruffian Club; men whose hearts were milder than their manners, and their principles more correct than their habits of life. Mackenzie.

[508:3] Mackenzie's Account of Home. On the 13th he wrote thus to his brother:—

"Dear Brother,—Dr. Black tells me plainly, like a man of sense, that I shall die soon, which was no disagreeable news to me. He says I shall die of weakness and inanition, and perhaps give little or no warning. But though I be growing sensibly weaker every day, this period seems not to be approaching; and I shall have time enough to inform you, and to desire your company, which will be very agreeable to me. But at this time your presence is necessary at Ninewells, to settle Josey, and comfort his mother. Davie will be also very useful with you. I am much pleased with his tenderness and friendship. I beg, therefore, that neither you nor he may set out; and as the communication between us is open and frequent, I promise to give you timely information."—Lit. Gaz. 1822, p. 746. MS. R.S.E.

[509:1] MS. R.S.E.

[510:1] Colonel Edmondstoune's letter has been preserved, and is as follows:—

"Linlithgow, Wednesday.

"My dear, dear David,—My heart is very full. I could not see you this morning. I thought it was better for us both. You can't die, you must live in the memory of all your friends and acquaintances, and your works will render you immortal. I could never conceive that it was possible for any one to dislike you or hate you. He must be more than savage who could be an enemy to a man of the best head and heart, and of the most amiable manners.

O toi, qui de mon ame es la chère moitié;
Toi, qui joins la délicatesse
Des sentimens d'une maitresse
À la solidité d'une sure amitié,
David, il faut bien-tôt que la parque cruelle
Vienne rompre des si doux noeuds,
Et malgré nos cris et nos voeux
Bien-tôt nous assuirons une absence eternelle.

Adieu! adieu!"—MS. R.S.E.

[512:1] It is from more, perhaps, than the mere force of contrast, that, after reading this account of the manner in which the dying philosopher's thoughts were occupied,—the spelling of the family name, the imagined interview with Charon, &c. the following letter, addressed to him by a distant friend, possesses a peculiarly solemn interest.

William Strahan to Hume.

"My dear Sir,—Last Friday I received your affectionate farewell, and therefore melancholy letter, which disabled me from sending an immediate answer to it, as I now do, in hopes this may yet find you, not much oppressed with pain, in the land of the living. I need not tell you, that your corrections are all duly attended to, as every particular shall be that you desire or order. Nor shall I now trouble you with a long letter.

"Only permit me to ask you a question or two, to which I am prompted, you will believe me, not from a foolish or fruitless curiosity, but from an earnest desire to learn the sentiments of a man, who had spent a long life in philosophic inquiries, and who, upon the extreme verge of it, seems, even in that awful and critical period, to possess all the powers of his mind in their full vigour, and in unabated tranquillity.

"I am more particularly led to give you this trouble, from a passage in one of your late letters, wherein you say, It is an idle thing in us to be concerned about any thing that shall happen after our death; yet this, you added, is natural to all men. Now I would eagerly ask, if it is natural to all men, to be interested in futurity, does not this strongly indicate that our existence will be protracted beyond this life?

"Do you now believe, or suspect, that all the powers and faculties of your own mind, which you have cultivated with so much care and success, will cease and be extinguished with your vital breath?

"Our soul, or immaterial part of us, some say, is able, when on the brink of dissolution, to take a glimpse of futurity; and for that reason I earnestly wish to have your last thoughts on this important subject.

"I know you will kindly excuse this singular application; and believe that I wish you, living or dying, every happiness that our nature is capable of enjoying, either here or hereafter; being, with the most sincere esteem and affection, my dear sir, faithfully yours."—MS. R.S.E.

"London, August 19, 1776."

This letter, if it ever reached him for whom it was designed, must have done so too late to receive an answer. But if he did peruse it, with his mind so collected and clear, yet so close on the point of being severed from those objects of literary ambition which had been its chief glory and occupation, how valuable would have been the first thought that passed across it, when the great question was brought thus so distinctly before his understanding!

[514:1] Edinburgh Review , xvii. 306.

[515:1] This letter, and Dr. Black's, are in the MSS. R.S.E.

[516:1] In reference to a work so entitled, published at Amsterdam.—Dr. Thomson.

[516:2] The passage here omitted describes the conversation about Lucian, and other incidents which have been already narrated.

[517:1] Thomson's Life of Cullen, p. 607.

[517:2] In a little book, called "Supplement to the Life of David Hume, Esq." there is the following curious statement.

"The anxious attention with which the public viewed every circumstance respecting Mr. Hume's illness was not terminated even by his death. From the busy curiosity of the mob, one would have presumed them to entertain notions that the ashes of Mr. Hume were to have been the cause or the object of miraculous exertion. As the physicians of London and Edinburgh were divided about the seat of his disorder, those of the city where he died proposed that his body should be opened; but this his brother, who was also his executor, agreeably to the orders of the deceased, would not permit. It is hardly to be credited that the grave-diggers, digging with pick-axes Mr. Hume's grave, should have attracted the gaping curiosity of the multitude; that, notwithstanding a heavy rain which fell during the interment, multitudes of all ranks gazed on the funeral procession, as if they had expected the hearse to have been consumed in livid flames, or encircled with a ray of glory; that people in a sphere much above the rabble would have sent to the sexton for the keys of the burying-ground, and paid him to have access to visit the grave. And that on a Sunday evening, (the gates of the burying-ground being opened for another funeral,) the company from a public walk in the neighbourhood flocked in such crowds to Mr. Hume's grave, that his brother actually became apprehensive upon the unusual concourse, and ordered the grave to be railed in with all expedition."

[519:1] On peut dire que Hume est la fantôme perpétuel de Kant. Dès que le philosophe Allemand est tenté de faire un pas en arrière, dans l'ancienne route, Hume lui apparaît et l'en détourne, et tout l'effort de Kant est de placer la philosophie entre l'ancien dogmatisme et le sensualisme de Locke et de Condillac, a l'abri des attaques du scepticisme de Hume.—Cousin, Leçons sur la Philosophie de Kant , 18.

[519:2] While this sheet is passing through the press, the French newspapers announce a new translation of Hume's History, "precedée d'un essai sur la vie et les écrits de Hume, par Campenon, de l'académie Française."

[520:1] In one of his epistles to the great Frederic, Voltaire says of the distribution of the fruits of the earth:—

Il murit, à Moka, dans le sable Arabique,
Ce caffé nécessaire aux pays des frimats;
Il met la fièvre en nos climats,
Et le remède en Amerique.

But the policy of the earth's distribution, with many other truths not to be at once penetrated, even by the keenest mortal vision, were mysteries to the auto-theist, and being so, were therefore to his self-sufficient wisdom, absurd and ludicrous. Could that be right of which the sage of Ferney could not understand the ruling principle!

INDEX.