Note 2. Hume must have found reason to substitute for this codicil that of August 7 (post, p. 345).

Note 3. In his will he showed his anxiety, not only for the publication of the Dialogues, but also for the general suppression of his other manuscripts. In this he was unlike Johnson, who, when he was asked by Boswell 'whether it would be improper to publish his letters after his death,' replied, 'Nay, Sir, when I am dead, you may do as you will.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 60.

Note 4. On June 15 he wrote to Mr. Crawford :-'The true cause of my distemper is now discovered. It lies in my liver, not in my bowels. You ask me how I know thus; I answer, John Hunter, the greatest anatomist in Europe, felt it with his fingers, and I myself can now feel it. The devil's in it if this do not convince you. Even St. Thomas, the infidel apostle, desired no better authority than the testimony of his fingers.... They tell me that motion and exercise are my best remedies, and here I believe them, and shall put the recipe in practice. The same remedy wou'd serve you. Will you meet me positively, and as a man of honour, this day month, the 15th July at Coventry, the most central town in England, and let us wander during the autumn throughout every corner of that kingdom and of the principality of Wales?' Morrison Autographs, ii. 319.

Note 5. On his way back he sent the following note, written in his own hand and dated Doncaster, June 27:-'Mr. John Hume, alias Home, alias The Home, alias the late Lord Conservator, alias the late minister of the Gospel at Athelstaneford, has calculated matters so as to arrive infallibly with his friend in St. David's Street on Wednesday evening. He has asked several of Dr. Blair's friends to dine with him there on Thursday, being the 4th of July, and begs the favour of the Doctor to make one of the number.' Home's Works, i. 161. Home had held the office of Conservator of Scots Privileges at Campvere. He represented the Dutch ecclesiastical establishment there in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, to which that establishment had long had the privilege of sending a member.' Ib. pp. 52, 59, 60.

On the day on which the old Epicurean gathered his old friends once more, and perhaps for the last time, round his friendly board in Edinburgh, far away at Philadelphia, on the other side of the broad Atlantic, the curtain had risen on one of the noblest scenes in the great drama of the world. For it was on this very fourth of July that the long-suffering and greatly wronged Colonies put forth their Declaration of Independence:-'We, the Representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT States.... And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the

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HUME'S RETURN TO EDINBURGH.

339

protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.' Ann. Reg. 1776, i. 264. The news of this great deed must have reached Hume five or six days before his death. It is reported in the London Chronicle of Aug. 17. Upon him it would have come with no surprise. The London politicians had not his foresight. General Conway had written to him so late as June 16:-'I think by the late Quebec news it look's [sic] as if your friends, the Americans, did not think their cause worth fighting for; if so, we shall at last have peace on easy terms; and they must take the consequences.' M.S.R.S. E.

LETTER LXXXVI.

Return to Edinburgh: A dying Man's Corrections.
EDINBURGH, 27 of July, 1776.

DEAR SIR

I arriv'd here about three weeks ago in a very shattered Condition: The Motion of the Chaise, especially during the last days, made me suffer very much; and my Physicians are now of Opinion (which was always my Sentiment) that all Exercise is hurtful to me. I am however in very good Spirits during the Intervals of my Colics; and employ myself in my usual Occupations. As a proof of it, I send you three Leaves of the sixth Volume of my History, which you will please to substitute, instead of the three correspondent Leaves as they stand at present. They contain some Corrections, or rather Omissions, which I think Improvements1. You will wonder, that, in my present Situation I employ myself about such Trifles, and you may compare me to the modern Greeks, who, while Constantinople was besieged by the Turks and they themselves were threatened with total Destruction, occupyed themselves entirely in Disputes concerning the Procession of the holy Ghost 2. Such is the Effect of long Habit! I am Dear Sir

Your most obedient humble Servant
DAVID HUME 3.

Note 1. On leaves 89-90, 147-8, 251-4 in the edition of 1773, there are long passages which are not found in the edition of 1778. The first is about the meeting of the clergy at St. Andrews; the second, about Philip IV of Spain and the Earl of Bristol; and the third about Charles the First's message to the House of Commons as delivered by Secretary Coke.

Note 2. In the Council held at Ferrara and Florence in 1438, fifteen years before the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, when the Greek Church sought union with the Latin in the hope of receiving assistance against the common enemy of the faith, 'the single or double procession of the Holy Ghost' was one of the four questions which for nine months was agitated between the two Churches. On the substance of the doctrine the controversy was equal and endless; reason is confounded by the procession of a deity; the gospel which lay on the altar was silent. . . . The danger and relief of Constantinople might excuse some prudent and pious dissimulation; and it was insinuated that the obstinate heretics who should resist the consent of the East and West would be abandoned in a hostile land to the revenge or justice of the Roman pontiff. . . . It was agreed (I must entreat the attention of the reader) that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, as from one principle and one substance, that he proceeds by the Son, being of the same nature and substance, and that he proceeds from the Father and the Son by one spiration and production. It is less difficult to understand the articles of the preliminary treaty; that the Pope should defray all the expenses of the Greeks in their return home; that he should annually maintain two gallies and three hundred soldiers for the defence of Constantinople,' etc. Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ed. 1807, xii. 88-92. Voltaire, describing the capture of the city, says:-'On s'occupait toujours de controverses, et les Turcs étaient aux portes. Euvres de Voltaire, xiv. 408.

Note 3. Strahan replied on Aug. 1:-'This will be a very correct edition, and I will take care it shall be printed accurately and neatly; and what is very encouraging, your History sells better of late years than before; for the late edition will be gone some time before this can be finished. In short, I see clearly, your reputation is gradually rising in the public esteem.-A flattering circumstance this, even in the decline of life; and when by the unalterable course of nature, nothing will soon be left of us but a Name.-By the bye, does not this almost universal solicitude to live after we close our eyes to this present scene, mean something1?—I hope, I almost believe it

It must be so-Plato, thou reason'st well!—
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?

Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,

Of falling into nought? why shrinks the soul

LXXXVII.]

REGARD FOR POSTERITY.

341

does. Else why are we on a variety of occasions, so much interested in what is to pass after our deaths? And do we not, in most of our labours, regard posterity, and look forward to times long posterior to our existence here? You yourself are a living evidence of the truth of what I am now saying.

'I sincerely congratulate you on your retaining your spirits, which people seldom do in the midst of so much pain as you have lately suffered. . . . There is yet little news of importance from 'tother side the Atlantic; but the period cannot be very distant when the fate of America, or rather our fate with regard to America must be determined. -I wish, and still hope and expect this foolish quarrel may end happily.' M. S. R. S. E.

LETTER LXXXVII.

A further Correction: Hume's Physicians report a cure. EDINBURGH, 30 of July, 1776.

DEAR SIR

I must give you the trouble of making a new Correction, which however will be easily done. It is in the second Volume of my philosophical Pieces: That whole Passage from Page 231 till Page 239 line 3 must be thrown into an Appendix under the Title Of Self-love1: It must be the second Appendix; consequently the second Appendix becomes the third, and the third Appendix, the fourth. In like manner, what is called in Page 239, Part 2 must be Part 12, as also that in Page 241 must be Part 2. Let the Printer observe this Alteration with regard to the Appendixes in the Table of the Contents.

I feel myself a good deal better since I am settled here,

Back on herself, and startles at destruction?

'Tis the divinity that stirs within us;

"Tis heaven itself, that points out an hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man.'

Addison's Cato, v. I.

Gibbon in his Autobiography, speaking of an author's regard for 'the fair testimonies of private and public esteem,' says:-' Even his moral sympathy may be gratified by the idea that one day his mind will be familiar to the grandchildren of those who are yet unborn.' Gibbon's Misc. Works, i. 273.

and never stir abroad except in a Chair. My Physicians say everywhere that they have cured me, which is very agreeable Intelligence, though somewhat new to me.

I am glad to hear, that you and Dr. Robertson are fully agreed: It gives me pleasure on his account, and I hope, in the Issue, upon yours. I am dear Sir

Yours sincerely

DAVID HUME.

P.S.-The Title of the Section in Page 231 remains the same as before, viz. Of Benevolence.

Note 1. See Hume's Philosophical Works, ed. 1854, iv. 364.

Note 2.

See ib. p. 237.

Note 3. The agreement most likely is about the price to be paid for Robertson's History of America, which was published the following year.

DEAR SIR

LETTER LXXXVIII.

The last Correction: Life a Burthen.

EDINBURGH, 12 of August, 1776.

Please to make with your Pen the following Correction. In the second Volume of my philosophical Pieces, p. 245, 1. 1, and 2, eraze these words, that there is such a sentiment in human nature as benevolence1.

This, Dear Sir, is the last Correction I shall probably trouble you with: For Dr. Black has promised me, that all shall be over with me in a very little time 2: This Promise he makes by his power of Prediction, not that of Prescription. And indeed I consider it as good News: For of late, within these few weeks, my Infirmities have so multiplyed, that Life has become rather a Burthen to me3. Adieu, then, my good and old Friend.

DAVID HUME.