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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) 93.: To DAVID HUME - Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith
93.: To DAVID HUME - Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith [1740]Edition used:Correspondence of Adam Smith, ed. E. C. Mossner and I. S. Ross, vol. VI of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987).
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93.
To DAVID HUME
- Address: To David Hume Esqr at Miss Elliots, Lisle Street, Leicester fields, London
MS., RSE vii. 35; Rae 208; HL ii. 409. Paris, 6 July 1766 My dear friend
I am thoroughly convinced that Rousseau is as great a Rascal as you, and as every man here believes him to be; yet let me beg of you not to think of publishing anything to the world upon the very great impertinence which he has been guilty of to you. By refusing the Pension which you had the goodness to sollicit for him with his own consent, he may have thrown, by the baseness of his Proceeding some little ridicule upon you in the eyes of the Court and the ministry. Stand this ridicule, expose his brutal letter, but without giving it out of your own hand so that it may never be printed, and if you can, laugh at yourself, and I shall pawn my life that before three weeks are at an end, this little affair, which at present gives you so much uneasiness, shall be understood to do you as much honor as any thing that has ever happened to you. By endeavouring to unmask before the Public this hypocritical Pedant, you run the risk, of disturbing the tranquillity of your whole life. By letting him alone he cannot give you a fortnights uneasiness. To write against him, is, you may depend upon it, the very thing he wishes you to do. He is in danger of falling into obscurity in England and he hopes to make himself considerable by provoking an illustrious adversary. He will have a great party. The church, the Whigs, the Jacobites, the whole wise English nation, who will love to mortify a Scotchman, and to applaud a man that has refused a Pension from the King. It is not unlikely too that they may pay him very well for having refused it, and that even he may have had in view this compensation. Your whole friends here wish you not to write, the Baron, D’Alembert, Madame Riccaboni, Mademoiselle Riancourt, Mr Turgot etc. etc. Mr Turgot, a friend every way worthy of you, desired me to recommend this advice to you in a Particular manner, as his most earnest entreaty and opinion. He and I are both afraid that you are surrounded with evil counsellours, and that the Advice of your English literati, who are themselves accustomed to publish all their little gossiping stories in Newspapers, may have too much influence upon you. Remember me to Mr Walpole and believe me to be with the most sincere affection ever yours
Adam Smith
Make my apology to Millar for not having yet answered his last very kind letter. I am preparing the Answer to it which he will certainly receive by next post. Remember me to Mrs Millar Do you ever see Mr Townshend.
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