LXXXVIII.]

DR. BLACK.

343

P.S.-My Brother will inform you of my Destination. with regard to my Manuscripts.

Another Correction.

In the same Page, 1. 4, instead of possession of it read sentiment of benevolence.

Note 1. Upon the whole then it seems undeniable that there is such a sentiment in human nature as benevolence; that nothing can bestow more merit on any human creature than the possession of it in an eminent degree; and that a part, at least, of its merit arises from its tendency to promote the interests of our species, and bestow happiness on human society.' Essays and Treatises, ed. 1770, iv. 30. The correction was made. See Philosophical Works, ed. 1854, iv. 243.

V. III.

Note 2. Writing to his brother on Aug. 6, Hume said :-' Dr. Black says I shall not die of a dropsy, as I imagined, but of inanition and weakness. He cannot however fix with any probability the time, otherwise he would frankly tell me.... In spite of Dr. Black's caution, I venture to foretel that I shall be yours cordially and sincerely till the month of October next.' Home's Works, i. 65. Dr. Joseph Black, the eminent chemist, was Professor of Medicine and Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. 'Adam Smith used to say that "no man had less nonsense in his head than Dr. Black." Dict. of Nat. Biog. By Black, Smith was attended in his last illness. Stewart's Life of Adam Smith, p. 118. Boswell, writing to Temple on June 19, 1775, says :-'I have not begun to read, but my resolution is lively, and I trust I shall have it in my power soon to give you an account of my studies: all that I can say for myself at present is, that I attend, along with John Swinton and others, a course of lectures and experiments by Dr. Black, Professor of Chemistry,-a study which Dr. Johnson recommends much.' Letters of Boswell, p. 206. Lord Cockburn describes Black as 'a striking and beautiful person; tall, very thin, and cadaverously pale; his hair carefully powdered, though there was little of it except what was collected into a long thin queue; his eyes dark, clear, and large, like deep pools of pure water. He wore black speckless clothes, silk stockings and silver buckles. The general frame and air were feeble and slender. The wildest boy respected Black. No lad could be irreverent towards a man so pale, so gentle, so elegant, and so illustrious. So he glided like a spirit, through our rather mischievous sportiveness, unharmed. He died seated, with a bowl of milk on his knee, of which his ceasing to live did not spill a drop.' Cockburn's Memorials of his Time, p. 50. See Quarterly Review, No. 71, p. 197, for an account of him by Sir Walter Scott. Scott says that he owed his life to him. 'I was,' he writes, 'an

uncommonly healthy child, but had nearly died in consequence of my first nurse being ill of a consumption, a circumstance which she chose to conceal, though to do so was murder to both herself and me. She went privately to consult Dr. Black, who put my father on his guard. The woman was dismissed, and I was consigned to a healthy peasant, who is still [in 1808] alive to boast of her laddie being what she calls a grand gentleman.' Lockhart's Scott, i. 19.

Note 3. On Aug. 20 Hume wrote to his old friend the Countess de Boufflers :-Though I am certainly within a few weeks, dear Madam, and perhaps within a few days of my own death, I could not forbear being struck with the death of the Prince of Conti, so great a loss in every particular. My reflection carried me immediately to your situation in this melancholy incident. What a difference to you in your whole plan of life! Pray write me some particulars; but in such terms that you need not care in case of decease into whose hands your letter may fall.

My distemper is a diarrhoea, or disorder in my bowels, which has been gradually undermining me these two years, but within these six months has been visibly hastening me to my end. I see death approach gradually, without any anxiety or regret. I salute you, with great affection and regard, for the last time.-DAVID HUME.' Hume's Private Corres., p. 285.

Adam Smith wrote to Hume on Aug. 22, 1776 :-'You have in a declining state of health, under an exhausting disease, for more than two years together, now looked at the approach, or what you at least believed to be the approach of Death with a steady cheerfulness such as very few men have been able to maintain for a few hours, though otherwise in the most perfect health.' He mentions in a letter of the same date a matter trifling in itself, but one which shows how the habit of 'rigid frugality,' by which Hume in his youth had 'supplied his deficiency of fortune,' clung to him to the end. 'I have this moment,' Smith writes, 'received your Letter of the 15 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.' Hume added a postscript to his answer of August 23, written in his nephew's hand :-'It was a strange blunder to send your Letter by the carrier.' M. S. R. S. E. See post, p. 364, n. 4, for this answer.

Note 4. Hume's friends, I am persuaded, would have maintained that there was something not unsuitable to his disposition, in his long train of corrections thus ending with 'the sentiment of benevolence.'

There were among them however those to whom his Philosophical Pieces were objects of suspicion and dislike. When, shortly before he died, he took leave of the widow of his old friend, Baron Mure, 'and gave her as a parting present a complete copy of his History, she

LXXXIX.]

HUME'S DEATH AND WILL.

345

thanked him, and added in her native dialect, which both she and the historian spoke in great purity, "O David, that's a book you may weel be proud o'; but before ye dee, ye should burn a' your wee bookies." To which, raising himself on his couch, he replied with some vehemence, half offended, half in joke, "What for should I burn a' my wee bookies?" But feeling too weak for further discussion, he shook her hand and bade her farewell.' Caldwell Papers, i. 40.

[John Home of Ninewells to William Strahan.]

LETTER LXXXIX.

Hume's Will: Disposition about his unpublished Works.

SIR

My brother died on the 25th of August (as you would probably see by the newspapers1) and in a codicill to his latter will and testament of the 7th of August, has the following clauses. 'In my latter will and disposition I made some destinations with regard to my manuscripts. All these I now retract; and leave my manuscripts to the care of Mr. William Strahan of London, member of Parliament: trusting to the friendship that has long subsisted betwixt us, for his careful and faithful execution of my intentions. I desire that my Dialogues concerning natural religion may be printed and published any time within two years after my death; to which he may add, if he thinks proper, the two essays formerly printed but not published. My account of my own life, I desire may be prefixed to the first edition of my works, printed after my Death, which will probably be the one at present in the press. I desire that my brother may supress all my other manuscripts.' On the bottom of the same codicill is the following clause: 'I also ordain that if my dialogues from whatever cause, be not published within two years and a half of my death, as also the account of my life, the property shall return to my Nephew, David, whose duty in publishing them as the last request of his uncle, must be approved of by all the World. Day and date as above. DAVID HUME.'

In consequence of which, and in execution of his intentions,