THE DEATH OF HUME
1776
After the publication of his book in the beginning of March, Smith
still dallied in London, without taking any steps to carry out his
plan of going to see Hume in Edinburgh and bring him up to London. But
some hope seems to have been entertained of Hume coming up even
without Smith's persuasion and escort. John Home, who was in London
and was in correspondence with him, thought so, but he at length
received a direct negative to the idea in a letter from Hume himself,
written on the 12th of April; and then Smith and John Home set out
together immediately for the northern capital, but when the coach
stopped at Morpeth, whom should they see standing in the door of the
inn but Colin, their friend's servant? Hume had determined to
undertake the journey to London after all to consult Sir John Pringle,
and was now so far on his way. John Home thereupon accompanied Hume
back to London, but Smith, having heard of his mother being taken ill,
and being anxious about her, as she was now over eighty years old,
continued his journey on to Kirkcaldy. At Morpeth, however, he and
Hume had time to discuss the question of the publication, in the event
of Hume's death, of certain of his unpublished works. Hume had already
on the 4th of January 1776 made Smith his literary executor by will,
leaving him full power over all his papers except the _Dialogues on
Natural Religion_, which he explicitly desired him to publish. It was
years since this work had been written, but its publication had been
deferred in submission to the representations of Sir Gilbert Elliot
and other friends as to the annoying clamour it was sure to excite.
Its author, however, had never ceased to cherish a peculiar paternal
pride in the work, and now that his serious illness forced him to face
the possibility of its extinction, he resolved at last to save it from
that fate, clamour or no clamour. If he lived, he would publish it
himself; if he died, he charged his executor to do so.
But this was a duty for which Smith had no mind. He was opposed to the
publication of these _Dialogues_ on general grounds and under any
editorship whatever, as will appear in the course of the
correspondence which follows, but he had also personal scruples
against editing them, of the same character as those which had already
so long prevented their author himself from publishing them. He shrank
from the public clamour in which it would involve him, and the injury
it might do to his prospects of preferment from the Crown. When he met
Hume at Morpeth accordingly he laid his mind fully before his friend,
and the result was that Hume agreed to leave the whole question of
publication or no publication absolutely to Smith's discretion, and on
reaching London sent Smith a formal letter of authority empowering him
to deal with the _Dialogues_ as he judged best.
LONDON, _3rd May 1776_.
MY DEAR FRIEND--I send you enclosed a new ostensible letter,
conformably to your desire. I think, however, your scruples
groundless. Was Mallet anywise hurt by his publication of
Lord Bolingbroke? He received an office afterwards from the
present king and Lord Bute, the most prudent men in the
world, and he always justified himself by his sacred regard
to the will of a dead friend. At the same time I own that
your scruples have a specious appearance, but my opinion is
that if upon my death you determine never to publish these
papers, you should leave them sealed up with my brother and
family, with some inscription that you reserve to yourself
the power of reclaiming them whenever you think proper. If I
live a few years longer I shall publish them myself. I
consider an observation of Rochefoucault that the wind,
though it extinguishes a candle, blows up a fire.
You may be surprised to hear me talk of living years,
considering the state you saw me in and the sentiments both
I and all my friends at Edinburgh entertained on that
subject. But though I cannot come up entirely to the
sanguine notions of our friend John, I find myself very much
recovered on the road, and I hope Bath waters and further
journies may effect my cure.
By the little company I have seen I find the town very full
of your book, which meets with general approbation. Many
people think particular parts disputable, but this you
certainly expected. I am glad that I am one of the number,
as these parts will be the subject of future conversation
between us. I set out for Bath, I believe, on Monday, by Sir
John Pringle's directions. He says that he sees nothing to
be apprehended in my case. If you write to me (hem! hem!)--I
say if you write to me, send your letter under cover to Mr.
Strahan, who will have my direction.[255]
The ostensible letter which accompanied the other is--
LONDON, _3rd May 1776_.
MY DEAR SIR--After reflecting more maturely on that article
of my will by which I leave you the disposal of all my
papers, with a request that you should publish my _Dialogues
concerning Natural Religion_, I have become sensible that
both on account of the nature of the work and of your
situation it may be improper to hurry on that publication. I
therefore take the present opportunity of qualifying that
friendly request. I am content to leave it entirely to your
discretion at what time you will publish that piece, or
whether you will publish it at all.
You will find among my papers a very inoffensive piece
called "My Own Life," which I composed a few days before I
left Edinburgh, when I thought, as did all my friends, that
my life was despaired of. There can be no objection that the
small piece should be sent to Messrs. Strahan and Cadell and
the proprietors of my other works, to be prefixed to any
future edition of them.[256]
The ink of those letters was scarcely dry before Hume's heart softened
again towards his _Dialogues_, and in order to make more sure of their
eventual publication than he could feel while they were entrusted to
Smith's hands, he wrote Strahan from Bath on the 8th of June asking if
he would agree to act as literary executor and undertake the editing
and publishing of the work. In this letter he says: "I have hitherto
forborne to publish it because I was of late desirous to live quietly
and keep remote from all clamour, for though it be not more
exceptionable than some things I had formerly published, yet you know
some of them were thought exceptionable, and in prudence perhaps I
ought to have suppressed them. I there introduce a sceptic who is
indeed refuted and at last gives up the argument; nay, confesses that
he was only amusing himself by all his cavils, yet before he is
silenced he advances several topics which will give umbrage and will
be deemed for bold and free as well as much out of the common road. As
soon as I arrive at Edinburgh I intend to print a small edition of
500, of which I may give away about 100 in presents, and shall make
you the property of the whole, provided you have no scruple, in your
present situation, of being the editor. It is not necessary you should
prefix any name to the Title-page. I seriously declare that after Mr.
Miller and you and Mr. Cadell have publicly avowed your publication of
the _Inquiry concerning Human Understanding_, I know no reason why you
should have the least scruple with regard to these _Dialogues_. They
will be much less obnoxious to the Law and not more exposed to popular
clamour. Whatever your resolution be, I beg you would keep an entire
silence on this subject. If I leave them to you by will, your
executing the desire of a dead friend will render the publication
still more excusable. Mallet never suffered anything by being the
editor of Bolingbroke's works."[257]
Strahan agreed to undertake this duty, and Hume on the 12th of June
added a codicil to his will making Strahan his literary executor and
entire master of all his manuscripts. Hume, however, got rapidly worse
in health, so that he never printed the small edition he spoke of, and
feeling his end to be near, he added a fresh codicil to his will on
the 7th of August, desiring Strahan to publish the _Dialogues_ within
two years, and adding that if they were not published in two years and
a half the property should return to his nephew (afterwards Baron of
Exchequer), "whose duty," he says, "in publishing them, as the last
request of his uncle, must be approved of by all the world."[258]
Hume had meanwhile on the 4th of July 1776 gathered his group of more
intimate friends about him to eat together a last farewell dinner
before he made the great departure. Smith was present at this touching
and unusual reunion, and may possibly have remained some days
thereafter, for he speaks in a letter in the following month of having
had several conversations with Hume lately, among them being that
which he afterwards published in his letter to Strahan. But he was in
Kirkcaldy again in the beginning of August, and received there on the
22nd of August the following letter which Hume had written on the
15th, and which, having gone, through some mistake, by the carrier
instead of the post, had lain for a week at the carrier's house
without being delivered. The delay occasioned by this accident was the
more unfortunate on account of the earnest appeal for an early answer
with which the letter closes, and which seems to contain a
recollection of many past transgressions, for Smith was always a
dilatory and backward correspondent, the act of writing, as he
repeatedly mentions, being a real pain to him.
EDINBURGH, _15th August 1776_.
MY DEAR SMITH--I have ordered a new copy of my _Dialogues_
to be made besides that wh. will be sent to Mr. Strahan,
and to be kept by my nephew. If you will permit me, I shall
order a third copy to be made and consigned to you. It will
bind you to nothing, but will serve as a security. On
revising them (which I have not done these five years) I
find that nothing can be more cautiously and more artfully
written. You had certainly forgotten them. Will you permit
me to leave you the property of the copy, in case they
should not be published in five years after my decease? Be
so good as write me an answer soon. My state of health does
not permit me to wait months for it.--Yours affectionately,
DAVID HUME.[259]
To this letter Smith, immediately on receiving it, sent the following
reply:--
KIRKALDY, _22nd August 1776_.
MY DEAREST FRIEND--I have this moment received yr. letter of
the 15th inst. You had, in order to save me the sum of one
penny sterling, sent it by the carrier instead of the Post,
and (if you have not mistaken the date) it has lain at his
quarters these eight days, and was, I presume, very likely
to lie there for ever.
I shall be very happy to receive a copy of your _Dialogues_,
and if I should happen to die before they are published, I
shall take care that my copy shall be as carefully preserved
as if I was to live a hundred years. With regard to leaving
me the property in case they are not published within five
years after yr. decease, you may do as you think proper. I
think, however, you should not menace Strahan with the loss
of anything, in case he does not publish yr. work within a
certain time. There is no probability of his delaying it,
and if anything could make him delay it, it wd. be a clause
of this kind, wh. wd. give him an honourable pretence for
doing so. It would then be said I had published, for the
sake of an emolument, not from respect to the memory of my
friend, what even a printer, for the sake of the same
emolument, had not published. That Strahan is sufficiently
jealous you will see by the enclosed letter, wh. I will beg
the favour of you to return to me, but by the Post, and not
by the carrier.
If you will give me leave I will add a few lines to yr.
account of your own life, giving some account in my own name
of your behaviour in this illness, if, contrary to my own
hopes, it should prove your last. Some conversations we had
lately together, particularly that concerning your want of
an excuse to make to Charon, the excuse you at last thought
of, and the very bad reception wh. Charon was likely to give
it, would, I imagine, make no disagreeable part of the
history. You have in a declining state of health, under an
exhausting disease, for more than two years together now
looked at the approach of death with a steady cheerfulness
such as very few men have been able to maintain for a few
hours, tho' otherwise in the most perfect Health.
I shall likewise, if you give me leave, correct the sheets
of the new edition of your works, and shall take care that
it shall be published exactly according to your last
corrections. As I shall be at London this winter, it will
cost me very little trouble.
All this I have written upon the supposition that the event
of yr. disease should prove different from what I still hope
it may do. For your spirits are so good, the spirit of life
is still so very strong in you, and the progress of your
disorder is so slow and gradual, that I still hope it may
take a turn. Even the cool and steady Dr. Black, by a letter
I received from him last week, seems not to be averse to the
same hopes.
I hope I need not repeat to you that I am ready to wait on
you whenever you wish to see me. Whenever you do so I hope
you will not scruple to call on me. I beg to be remembered
in the kindest and most respectful manner to yr. Brother,
your sister, your nephew, and all other friends.--I ever am,
my dearest friend, most affectionately yours,
ADAM SMITH.[260]
Hume answered this letter next day.
EDINBURGH, _23rd August 1776_.
MY DEAREST FRIEND--I am obliged to make use of my nephew's
hand in writing to you, as I do not rise to-day.
There is no man in whom I have a greater confidence than Mr.
Strahan, yet I have left the property of that manuscript to
my nephew David, in case by any accident it should not be
published within three years after my decease. The only
accident I could foresee was one to Mr. Strahan's life, and
without this clause my nephew would have had no right to
publish it. Be so good as to inform Mr. Strahan of this
circumstance.
You are too good in thinking any trifles that concern me are
so much worth of your attention, but I give you entire
liberty to make what additions you please to the account of
my life.
I go very fast to decline, and last night had a small fever,
wh. I hoped might put a quicker period to this tedious
illness, but unluckily it has in a great measure gone off. I
cannot submit to your coming over here on my account, as it
is possible for me to see you so small a portion of the day,
but Dr. Black can better inform you concerning the degree of
strength which may from time to time remain with me.--Adieu,
my dearest friend,
DAVID HUME.
_P.S._--It was a strange blunder to send yr. letter by the
carrier.[261]
These were the last words of this long and memorable friendship. Two
days after they were written Hume passed peacefully away, and his
bones were laid in the new cemetery on the Calton Crags, and covered a
little later, according to his own express provision, with that great
round tower, designed by Robert Adam, which Smith once pointed out to
the Earl of Dunmore as they were walking together down the North
Bridge, and said, "I don't like that monument; it is the greatest
piece of vanity I ever saw in my friend Hume."
Smith was no doubt at the funeral, and seems to have been present when
the will was read, and to have had some conversation about it with
Hume's elder brother, John Home of Ninewells,[262] for on the 31st of
August he writes from Dalkeith House, where he had gone on a visit to
his old pupil, discharging Ninewells of any obligation to pay the
legacy of £200 which he had been left by Hume in consideration of
acting as his literary executor, and which had not been revoked in the
codicil superseding him by Strahan. This legacy Smith felt that he
could not in the circumstances honourably accept, and he consequently
lost no time in forwarding to Ninewells the following letter:--
DALKEITH HOUSE, _31st August 1776_.
DEAR SIR--As the Duke proposes to stay here till Thursday
next I may not have an opportunity of seeing you before yr.
return to Ninewells. I therefore take the opportunity of
discharging you and all others concerned of the Legacy which
you was so good as to think might upon a certain event
become due to me by your Brother's will, but which I think
could upon no event become so, viz. the legacy of two
hundred pounds sterling. I hereby therefore discharge it for
ever, and least this discharge should be lost I shall be
careful to mention it in a note at the bottom of my will. I
shall be glad to hear that you have received this letter,
and hope you will believe me to be, both on yr. Brother's
account and your own, with great truth, most affectionately
yours,
ADAM SMITH.
_P.S._--I do not hereby mean to discharge the other Legacy,
viz. that of a copy of his works.[263]
Mr. Home answered him on the 2nd of September as follows:--
DEAR SIR--I was favoured with yours of Saturday, and I
assure you that on perusing the destination I was more of
oppinion than when I saw you that the pecuniary part of it
was not altered by the codicil, and that it was intended for
you at all events, that my brother, knowing your liberal way
of thinking, laid on you something as an equivalent, not
imagining you would refuse a small gratuity from the hands
it was to come from as a testimony of his friendship, and
tho' I most highly esteem the motives and manner, I cannot
agree to accept of your renunciation, but leave you full
master to dispose of it which way is most agreeable to you.
The copys of the _Dialogues_ are finished, and of the life,
and will be sent to Mr. Strahan to-morrow, and I will
mention to him your intention of adding to the last
something to finish so valuable a life, and will leave you
at liberty to look into the correction of the first as it
either answers your leisure or ideas with regard to his
composition or what effects you think it may have with
regard to yourself. The two copys intended for you will be
left with my sister when you please to require them, and the
copy of the new edition of his works you shall be sure to
receive, tho' you have, no better title to that part than
the other, tho' much you have to the friendship and esteem,
dr. sir, of him who is most sincerely yours,
JOHN HOME.
EDINBURGH, _2nd September 1776_.[264]
Smith's reply was that though the legacy might be due to him in strict
law, he was fully satisfied it was not due to him in justice, because
it was expressly given in the will as a reward for a task which he had
declined to undertake. This reply was given in a letter of the 7th
October, in which he enclosed a copy of the account of Hume's death
which he proposed to add to his friend's own account of his life.
DEAR SIR--I send you under the same cover with this letter
what I propose should be added to the account which your
never-to-be-forgotten brother has left of his own life. When
you have read it I beg you will return it to me, and at the
same time let me know if you wd. wish to have anything
either added to it or taken from it. I think there is a
propriety in addressing it as a letter to Mr. Strahan, to
whom he has left the care of his works. If you approve of it
I shall send it to him as soon as I receive it from you.
I have added at the bottom of my will the note discharging
the legacy of two hundred pounds which your brother was so
kind as to leave me. Upon the most mature deliberation I am
fully satisfied that in justice it is not due to me. Tho' it
should be due to me therefore in strict law, I cannot with
honour accept of it. You will easily believe that my refusal
does not proceed from any want of the highest respect for
the memory of your deceased brother.--I have the honour to
be, with the highest respect and esteem, dear sir, most
sincerely and affectionately yours,
ADAM SMITH.
KIRKALDY, FIFESHIRE, _7th October 1776_.[265]
Mr. Home returned Smith's manuscript to him on the 14th of October,
and expressed his entire approbation of it except "that as it is to be
added to what is wrote in so short and simple a manner, he would have
wished that the detail had been less minutely entered into,
particularly of the journey which, being of a private concern and
having drawn to no consequences, does not interest the publick," but
still he expressed that opinion, he said, with diffidence, and
thought the piece would perhaps best stand as it was. He says, too,
that instead of the words, "as my worst enemies could wish" in the
remark to Dr. Dundas, he was told that the words his brother actually
used were, "as my enemies, if I have any, could wish"--a correction
which was adopted by Smith. And he repeats that by his interpretation
of his brother's will he considers the legacy to belong to Smith both
in law and in equity.
Meanwhile Smith had also written Strahan from Dalkeith:--
MY DEAR STRAHAN--By a codicil to the will of our late most
valuable friend Mr. Hume, the care of his manuscripts is
left to you. Both from his will and from his conversation I
understand that there are only two which he meant should be
published--an account of his life and _Dialogues concerning
Natural Religion_. The latter, tho' finely written, I could
have wished had remained in manuscript to be communicated
only to a few people. When you read the work you will see my
reasons without my giving you the trouble of reading them in
a letter. But he has ordered it otherwise. In case of their
not being published within three years after his decease, he
has left the property of them to his nephew. Upon my
objecting to this clause as unnecessary and improper, he
wrote to me by his nephew's hand in the following terms:
"There is no man in whom I have a greater confidence than
Mr. Strahan, yet have I left the property of that manuscript
to my nephew David, in case by any accident they should not
be published within three years after my decease. The only
accident I could foresee was one to Mr. Strahan's life, and
without this clause my nephew would have had no right to
publish it. Be so good as inform Mr. Strahan of this
circumstance." Thus far this letter, which was dated on the
23rd of August. He dyed on the 25th at 4 o'clock afternoon.
I once had persuaded him to leave it entirely to my
discretion either to publish them at what time I thought
proper, or not to publish them at all. Had he continued of
this mind the manuscript should have been most carefully
preserved, and upon my decease restored to his family; but
it never should have been published in my lifetime. When you
have read it you will perhaps think it not unreasonable to
consult some prudent friend about what you ought to do.
I propose to add to his Life a very well authenticated
account of his behaviour during his last illness. I must,
however, beg that his life and those _Dialogues_ may not be
published together, as I am resolved for many reasons to
have no concern in the publication of the _Dialogues_. His
life, I think, ought to be prefixed to the next edition of
his former works, upon which he has made many very proper
corrections, chiefly in what concerns the language. If this
edition is published while I am at London, I shall revise
the sheets and authenticate its being according to his last
corrections. I promised him that I would do so.
If my mother's health will permit me to leave her, I shall
be in London by the beginning of November. I shall write to
Mr. Home to take my lodgings as soon as I return to Fife,
which will be on Monday or Tuesday next. The Duke of
Buccleugh leaves this on Sunday. Direct for me at Kirkaldy,
Fifeshire, where I shall remain all the rest of the
season.--I remain, my dear Strahan, most faithfully yours,
ADAM SMITH.
DALKEITH HOUSE, _5th September 1776_.
Let me hear from you soon.[266]
To this Strahan replied on the 16th of September, and then towards the
end of October Smith wrote the following answer, of which the first
draft, in Smith's own handwriting, unsigned and undated and containing
considerable erasures, exists in the R.S.E. Library. It shows that
Smith submitted his account of Hume's illness to the whole circle of
Hume's intimate friends, and that at the moment of writing he was
waiting for the arrival of John Home, the poet, in Edinburgh, to
obtain his remarks upon it.
DEAR SIR--When I received your last letter I had not begun
the small addition I proposed to make to the life of our
late friend. It is now more than three weeks since I
finished it, and sent one copy to his brother and another
to Dr. Black. That which I sent to his brother is returned
with remarks, all of which I approve of and shall adopt. Dr.
Black waits for John Home, the Poet, who is expected every
day in Edinburgh, whose remarks he proposes to send along
with those of all our common friends. The work consists only
of two sheets, in the form of a letter to you, but without
one word of flattery or compliment. It will not cost my
servant a forenoon to transcribe it, so that you will
receive it by the first post after it is returned to me.
I am much obliged to you for so readily agreeing to print
the life together with my additions separate from the
_Dialogues_. I even flatter myself that this arrangement
will contribute not only to my quiet but to your interest.
The clamour against the _Dialogues_, if published first,
might hurt for some time the sale of the new edition of his
works, and when the clamour has a little subsided the
_Dialogues_ may hereafter occasion a quicker sale of another
edition.
I do not propose being with you till the Christmas holidays;
in the meantime I should be glad to know how things stand
between us, what copies of my last book are either sold or
unsold, and when the balance of our bargain is likely to be
due to me. I beg my most respectful and affectionate
compliments to Mr. Cadell; I should have written him, but
you know the pain it gives me to write with my own hand, and
I look upon writing to him and you as the same thing. I have
been since I came to Scotland most exceedingly idle. It is
partly in order to bring up in some measure my leeway that I
propose to stay here two months longer than I once intended.
If my presence, however, was at all necessary in London, I
could easily set out immediately.
I beg the favour of you to send the enclosed to Mr. Home.
The purpose of it is to bespeak my lodgings.[267]
The second and third paragraphs of this letter as they stood at first
are erased entirely, but their original substance is in no way altered
in their corrected form. One of the original sentences about the
clamour he dreaded may perhaps be transcribed. "I am still," he says,
"uneasy about the clamour which I foresee they will excite." It may
also be noticed that he does not seem to have dictated his account of
Hume's illness to his amanuensis, but to have written it with his own
hand and then got his amanuensis to transcribe it. The Mr. Home whom
he wishes to bespeak lodgings for him must be John Home the poet, in
spite of the circumstance that he speaks of John Home the poet as
being expected in Edinburgh every day at the time of writing; and in
the event Home does not seem to have come to Edinburgh, for in a
subsequent letter to Strahan on 13th of November Smith again mentions
having written Mr. Home to engage lodgings for him from Christmas.
This letter is as follows:--
DEAR SIR--The enclosed is the small addition which I propose
to make to the account which our late invaluable friend left
of his own life.
I have received £300 of the copy money of the first edition
of my book. But as I got a good number of copies to make
presents of from Mr. Cadell, I do not exactly know what
balance may be due to me. I should therefore be glad he
would send me the account. I shall write to him upon this
subject.
With regard to the next edition, my present opinion is that
it should be printed in four vol. octavo; and I would
propose that it should be printed at your expense, and that
we should divide the profits. Let me know if this is
agreeable to you.
My mother begs to be remembered to Mrs. Strahan and Miss
Strahan, and thinks herself much obliged both to you and
them for being so good as to remember her.--I ever am, dear
sir, most affectionately yours,
ADAM SMITH.
KIRKALDY, FIFESHIRE, _13th November 1776_.
I shall certainly be in town before the end of the Christmas
holidays. I do not apprehend it can be necessary for me to
come sooner. I have therefore written to Mr. Home to bespeak
my lodgings from Christmas.[268]
Strahan acknowledges this letter on the 26th of November, and asks
Smith's opinion on an idea that has occurred to him of publishing the
interesting series of letters from Hume to himself which he possessed,
and which, after a curious and remarkable history, have been now
preserved for the world through the liberality of Lord Rosebery and
the learned devotion of Mr. Birkbeck Hill. To these letters Strahan,
if he obtained Smith's concurrence, would like to add those of Hume to
Smith himself, to John Home, to Robertson, and other friends, which
have now for the most part been lost. But Smith put his foot on this
proposal decisively, on the ground apparently that it was most
improper for a man's friends to publish anything he had written which
he had himself given no express direction or leave to publish either
by his will or otherwise. Strahan's letter runs thus:--
DEAR SIR--I received yours of the 13th enclosing the
addition to Mr. Hume's Life, which I like exceedingly. But
as the whole put together is very short and will not make a
volume even of the _smallest size_, I have been advised by
some very good judges to annex some of his letters to me on
political subjects. What think you of this? I will do
nothing without your advice and approbation, nor would I for
the world publish any letter of his but such as in yr.
opinion would do him honour. Mr. Gibbon thinks such as I
have shown him would have that tendency. Now if you approve
of this in any manner, you may perhaps add partly to the
collection from your own cabinet and those of Mr. John Home,
Dr. Robertson, and others of your mutual friends which you
may pick up before you return hither. But if you wholly
disapprove of this scheme say nothing of it, here let it
drop, for without your concurrence I will not publish a
single word of his. I should be glad, however, of your
sentiments as soon as you can, and let me know at the same
time as nearly as may be what day you purpose to be in
London, for I must again repeat to you that without your
approbation I will do nothing.
Your proposal to print the next edition of your work in 4
vols. octavo at _our_ expense and to divide the Profits is a
very fair one, and therefore very agreeable to Mr. Cadell
and me. Enclosed is the List of Books delivered to you of
the 1st edit.
My wife and daughter join kindest compliments to your
amiable Parent, who, I hope, is still able to enjoy your
company, which must be her greatest comfort.--Dear sir,
your faithful and affectionate humble servant,
WILL. STRAHAN.
LONDON, _26th November 1776_.[269]
The following is Smith's reply:--
DEAR SIR--It always gives me great uneasiness whenever I am
obliged to give an opinion contrary to the inclination of my
friend. I am sensible that many of Mr. Hume's letters would
do him great honour, and that you would publish none but
such as would. But what in this case ought principally to be
considered is the will of the Dead. Mr. Hume's constant
injunction was to burn all his Papers except the _Dialogues_
and the account of his own life. This injunction was even
inserted in the body of his will. I know he always disliked
the thought of his letters ever being published. He had been
in long and intimate correspondence with a relation of his
own who dyed a few years ago. When that gentleman's health
began to decline he was extremely anxious to get back his
letters, least the heir should think of publishing them.
They were accordingly returned, and burnt as soon as
returned. If a collection of Mr. Hume's letters besides was
to receive the public approbation, as yours certainly would,
the Curls of the times would immediately set about rummaging
the cabinets of all those who had ever received a scrap of
paper from him. Many things would be published not fit to
see the light, to the great mortification of all those who
wish well to his memory. Nothing has contributed so much to
sink the value of Swift's works as the undistinguished
publication of his letters; and be assured that your
publication, however select, would soon be followed by an
undistinguished one. I should therefore be sorry to see any
beginning given to the publication of his letters. His life
will not make a volume, but it will make a small pamphlet. I
shall certainly be in London by the tenth of January at
furthest. I have a little business at Edinburgh which may
detain me a few days about Christmas, otherwise I should be
with you by the new year. I have a great deal more to say to
you; but the post is just going. I shall write to Mr. Cadell
by next post.--I ever am, dear sir, most affectionately
yours,
ADAM SMITH.
KIRKALDY, _2nd December 1776_.[270]
When we consider Smith's concern about the clamour he expected to
arise from the _Dialogues_, and his entire unconcern about the clamour
he did not expect to arise from the letter to Strahan on Hume's last
illness, the actual event seems one of those teasing perversities
which drew from Lord Bolingbroke the exclamation, "What a world is
this, and how does fortune banter us!" The _Dialogues_ fell flat; the
world had apparently had its surfeit of theological controversy. A
contemporary German observer of things in England states that while
the book made something of a sensation in his own country, it excited
nothing of that sort here, and was already at the moment he wrote
(1785) entirely forgotten.[271]
The letter to Strahan, on the other hand, excited a long reverberation
of angry criticism. Smith had certainly in writing it no thought of
undermining the faith, or of anything more than speaking a good word
for the friend he loved, and putting on record some things which he
considered very remarkable when he observed them, but in the ear of
that age his simple words rang like a challenge to religion itself.
Men had always heard that without religion they could neither live a
virtuous life nor die an untroubled death, and yet here was the
foremost foe of Christianity represented as leading more than the life
of the just, and meeting death not only without perturbation, but with
a positive gaiety of spirits. His cheerfulness without frivolity, his
firmness, his magnanimity, his charity, his generosity, his entire
freedom from malice, his intellectual elevation and strenuous labour,
are all described with the affection and confidence of a friend who
had known them well; and they are finally summed up in the conclusion:
"Upon the whole I have always considered him, both in his lifetime and
since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly
wise and virtuous man as perhaps the nature of human frailty will
permit."
Hume's character was certainly one of great beauty and nobleness, and
churchmen who knew him well speak of him in quite as strong admiration
as Smith. Robertson used to call him "the virtuous heathen"; Blair
said every word Smith wrote about him was true; and Lord Hailes, a
grave religious man and a public apologist of Christianity, showed
sufficient approbation of this letter to translate it into Latin
verse. But in the world generally it raised a great outcry. It was
false, it was incredible, it was a wicked defiance of the surest
verities of religion. Even Boswell calls it a piece of "daring
effrontery," and as he thinks of it being done by his old professor,
says, "Surely now have I more understanding than my teachers." Though
nothing was further from the intention of the author, it was generally
regarded as an attack upon religion, which imperatively called for
repulsion; and a champion soon appeared in the person of Dr. George
Horne, President of Magdalen College, Oxford, author of a well-known
commentary on the Psalms, and afterwards Bishop of Norwich. In an
anonymous pamphlet, entitled "A Letter to Adam Smith, LL.D., on the
Life, Death, and Philosophy of David Hume, Esq., by one of the People
called Christians," which ran rapidly through a number of editions,
Horne, begging the whole question he raises, contends that a man of
Hume's known opinions could not by any possibility be the good and
virtuous man Smith represented him to be, for had he been really
generous, or compassionate, or good-natured, or charitable, or
gentle-minded, he could never have thought of erasing from the hearts
of mankind the knowledge of God and the comfortable faith in His
fatherly care, or been guilty of "the atrocious wickedness of
diffusing atheism through the land." Horne goes on to charge this
"atrocious wickedness" against Smith too. "You would persuade us," he
says, "by the example of David Hume, Esq., that atheism is the only
cordial for low spirits and the proper antidote against the fear of
death, but surely he who can reflect with complacency on a friend thus
employing his talents in this life, and thus amusing himself with
Lucian, whist, and Charon at his death, can smile over Babylon in
ruins, esteem the earthquakes which destroyed Lisbon as agreeable
occurrences, and congratulate the hardened Pharaoh on his overthrow in
the Red Sea."
Smith never wrote any reply to this attack, nor took any public notice
of it whatever, though he had too much real human nature in him to
agree with Bishop Horne's own ethereal maxim that "a man reproached
with a crime of which he knows himself to be innocent should feel no
more uneasiness than if he was said to be ill when he felt himself in
perfect health." It was of course quite unjust to accuse Smith of
atheism, or of desiring to propagate atheism. His published writings,
which the Bishop ought in fairness to have consulted, show him to have
been a Theist, and there is some ground for thinking that he believed
Hume, as many others of Hume's personal friends did, to have been a
Theist likewise. Though Hume was philosophically a doubter about
matter, about his own existence, about God, he did not practically
think so differently from the rest of the world about any of the three
as was often supposed. Dr. Carlyle always thought him a believer. Miss
Mure of Caldwell, the sister of his great friend the Baron of
Exchequer, says he was the most superstitious man she ever knew.[272]
He told Holbach that an atheist never existed, and once, while walking
with Adam Ferguson on a beautiful clear night, he stopped suddenly and
exclaimed, pointing to the sky, "Can any one contemplate the wonders
of that firmament and not believe that there is a God?"[273] That
Smith would not have been surprised to hear his friend make such a
confession is apparent from the well-known anecdote told of his
absence of mind in connection with Henry Mackenzie's story of "La
Roche." That story was written soon after Hume's death; it was
published in the _Mirror_ in 1779, while Horne's agitation was raging;
and the author introduced Hume as one of the characters of the piece
for the very purpose of presenting this more favourable view of the
great sceptic's religious position with which Mackenzie had been
impressed in his own intercourse with him. Hume appears in the story
as a visitor in Switzerland, an inmate of the simple household of the
pastor La Roche, and after describing him as being deeply taken with
the sweet and unaffected piety of this family's life and with the
faith that sustained them in their troubles, the author goes on to
observe, "I have heard him long after confess that there were moments
when, amidst the pride of philosophical discovery and the pride of
literary fame, he recalled to his mind the venerable figure of the
good La Roche and wished he had never doubted." Before publishing his
story Mackenzie read it to Adam Smith, in order to be told whether
anything should be omitted or altered as being out of keeping with
Hume's character, and so completely was Smith carried away by the
verisimilitude that he not only said he found not a syllable to object
to, but added that he was surprised he had never heard the anecdote
before. In his absence of mind he had forgotten for the moment that he
had been asked to listen to the story as a work of fiction, and his
answer was the best compliment Mackenzie could receive to his fidelity
to the probabilities of character.[274]
FOOTNOTES:
[255] Burton's _Life of Hume_, ii. 492.
[256] _Ibid._, ii. 493.
[257] Hill's _Letters of Hume to Strahan_, p. 330.
[258] Burton's _Life of Hume_, ii. 494.
[259] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library.
[260] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library.
[261] _Hume Correspondence,_ R.S.E. Library.
[262] Hume's brother always spelt his name with an _o_.
[263] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library.
[264] _Ibid._
[265] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library.
[266] _New York Evening Post,_ 30th April 1887. Original in possession
of Mr. Worthington C. Ford of Washington, U.S.A. The first draft of
this letter, in Smith's handwriting but without the last paragraph and
the signature, seems to have been preserved by him as a copy for
reference, and having been sent by him with his other Hume letters to
the historian's nephew, is now in the Royal Society Library,
Edinburgh.
[267] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library.
[268] _New York Evening Post_, 30th March 1887. Original in possession
of Mr. Worthington C. Ford of Washington, U.S.A.
[269] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library.
[270] Hill's _Letters of Hume_, p. 351.
[271] Wendeborn, _Zustand des Staats, etc., in Gross-britannien_, ii.
365.
[272] _Caldwell Papers_, i. 41.
[273] Burton's _Hume_, ii. 451.
[274] See Mackenzie's "La Roche," and Mackenzie's _Works of J. Home_,
i. 21.