DEAR SIR,

IT

Kirkaldy, Fifeshire, Nov. 9, 1776.

T is with a real, though a very melancholy pleafure, that I fit down to give you some account of the behaviour of our late excellent friend, Mr. Hume, during his laft illness.

THOUGH in his own judgment his difeafe was mortal and incurable, yet he allowed himself to be prevailed upon, by the entreaty of his friends, to try what might be the effects of a long journey. A few days before he fet out, he wrote that account of his own life, which, together with his other papers, he has left to your care. My account, therefore, fhall begin where his ends.

He fet out for London towards the end of April, and at Morpeth met with Mr. John Home and my. felf, who had both come down from London on pur

VOL. I.

pofe to fee him, expecting to have found him at Edinburgh. Mr. Home returned with him, and attended him during the whole of his ftay in England, with that care and attention which might be expected from a temper fo perfectly friendly and affectionate. As I had written to my mother that fhe might expect me in Scotland, I was under the neceffity of continuing my journey. His difeafe feemed to yield to exercise and change of air, and when he arrived in London, he was apparently in much better health than when he left Edinburgh. He was advised to go to Bath to drink the waters, which appeared for fome time to have fo good an effect upon him, that even he himself began to entertain, what he was not apt to do, a better opinion of his own health. His fymptoms, however, foon returned with their usual violence, and from that moment he gave up all thoughts of recovery, but fubmitted with the utmost cheerfulnefs, and the most perfect complacency and refignation. Upon his return to Edinburgh, though he found himself much weaker, yet his cheerfulness never abated, and he continued to divert himself, as ufual, with correcting his own works for a new edition, with reading books of amusement, with the converfation of his friends; and fometimes in the evening with a party at his favourite game of whift. His cheerfulness was fo great, and his converfation and amusements run fo much in their usual strain, that notwithstanding all bad fymptoms, many people could not believe he was dying. "I fhall tell your "friend, Colonel Edmondstone," faid Doctor Dundas to him one day, "that I left " and in a fair way of recovery." he," as I believe you would not

you much better,

"Doctor," faid chufe to tell any

thing but the truth, you had better tell him, that "I am dying as faft as my enemies, if I have any, "could wish, and as eafily and cheerfully as my best "friends could defire." Colonel Edmondstone foon afterwards came to fee him, and take leave of him; and on his way home he could not forbear writing him a letter, bidding him once more an eternal adieu, and applying to him, as to a dying man, the beautiful French verfes in which the Abbé Chaulieu, in expectation of his own death, laments his approaching separation from his friend the Marquis de la Fare. Mr. Hume's magnanimity and firmness were fuch, that his moft affectionate friends knew, that they hazarded nothing in talking or writing to him as to a dying man, and that fo far from being hurt by this frankness, he was rather pleased and flattered by it. I happened to come into his room while he was reading this letter, which he had just received, and which he immediately fhowed me. I told him, that though I was fenfible how very much he was weakened, and that appearances were in many re ́spects very bad, yet his cheerfulness was ftill fo great, the fpirit of life feemed ftill to be so very strong in him, that I could not help entertaining fome faint hopes. He answered, "Your hopes are groundless. "An habitual diarrhoea of more than a year's ftanding would be a very bad disease at any age: At my age it is a mortal one. When I lie down in the evening I feel myself weaker than when I rofe in "the morning; and when I rife in the morning "weaker than when I lay down in the evening. I "am sensible, befides, that fome of my vital parts "are affected, fo that I must soon die." "Well," faid I," if it muft be fo, you have at leaft the fatifA 2

"faction

"faction of leaving all your friends, your brother's family in particular, in great profperity." He faid, that he felt that fatisfaction fo fenfibly, that when he was reading, a few days before, Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead, among all the excufes which are alleged to Charon for not entering readily into his boat, he could not find one that fitted him; he had no house to finish, he had no daughter to provide for, he had no enemies upon whom he wished to revenge himself. "I could not well imagine," faid he, "what excufe I could make to Charon in order "to obtain a little delay. I have done every thing "of confequence which I ever meant to do, and I "could at no time expect to leave my relations and "friends in a better fituation than that in which I "am now likely to leave them: I therefore have all " reafon to die contented." He then diverted himfelf with inventing feveral jocular excufes which he fuppofed he might make to Charon, and with imagining the very furly anfwers which it might fuit the character of Charon to return to them. " Upon fur"ther confideration," faid he, "I thought I might fay to him, Good Charon, I have been correcting my works for a new edition. Allow me a little "time, that I may fee how the Public receives the "alterations." But Charon would answer, "When (c you have feen the effect of thefe, you will be for

making other alterations. There will be no end "of fuch excufes; fo, honeft friend, please step into "the boat." But I might ftill urge, "Have a little "patience, good Charon, I have been endeavouring "to open the eyes of the Public. If I live a few "years longer, I may have the fatisfaction of feeing "the downfal of fome of the prevailing fyftems of

fuperftition." But Charon would then lofe all temper and decency. You loitering rogue, that "will not happen thefe many hundred years. Do you fancy I will grant you a leafe for fo long a term? "Get into the boat this inftant, you lazy loitering rogue."

BUT though Mr. Hume always talked of his approaching diffolution with great cheerfulness, he never affected to make any parade of his magnanimity. He never mentioned the fubject but when the converfation naturally led to it, and never dwelt longer upon it than the courfe of the converfation happened to require: It was a fubject, indeed, which occurred pretty frequently, in confequence of the enquiries which his friends, who came to fee him, naturally made concerning the ftate of his health. The converfation which I mentioned above, and which paffed on Thursday the 8th of Auguft, was the laft, except one, that I ever had with him. He had now become fo very weak, that the company of his most intimate friends fatigued him; for his cheerfulness was ftill fo great, his complaifance and focial difpofition were still so entire, that when any friend was with him, he could not help talking more, and with greater exertion, than fuited the weakness of his body. At his own defire, therefore, I agreed to leave Edinburgh, where I was ftaying partly upon his account, and returned to my mother's houfe here, at Kirkaldy, upon condition that he would fend for me whenever he wished to see me; the phyfician who faw him most frequently, Doctor Black, undertaking, in the mean time, to write me occafionally an account of the ftate of his health.