146.: 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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146.
To DAVID HUME
MS., Muzeum Czartoryskich, Cracow, Poland; ed. Tadeusz Kozanecki, ‘Dawida Hume’a Nieznane Listy W Zbiorach Muzeum Czartoryskich (Polska)’, Archiwum Historii Filozofii I Myśli Spolecznej, ix (1963), 150.
No. 24 Suffolk Street, Charing Cross, London, 9 May 1775
My Dear Friend
I should be ashamed to write to you, if I had not long ago conquered all modesty of that sort. Taking it for granted, therefore, that you hate apologies as much as I do, I meant both making them and receiving them, I shall not pretend to make any for my having so long neglected to write to you. I hope I need not tell you that my long silence did not arise from any want of the most affectionate and most grateful remembrance of you.
Mr Bonnet, the Gentelman mentioned in the enclosed letter from Mr Clawson, is one of the worthiest, and best hearted men in Geneva or indeed in the world; notwithstanding he is one of the most religious. I delayed sending you this letter, till I should have an opportunity of sending you the Books which your Neighbour Mr Ross will bring you.
Your friends here have been all much diverted with Priestly’s answer to Beatie. We were in great hopes that Beatie would have replyed and we are assured he has a reply ready written; but your old friend Hurd, whom my Lord Mansfield, has with great judgement, made a Bishop, wrote to Beatie, I am assured, and advised him against answering; telling him that so excellent a work as the immutability of truth required no defence. We by this means have lost a most incomparable controversy. Priestly was perfectly prepared to carry it on thro’ at least twenty rejoinders. I have some hopes still of getting somebody to provoke Beatie to draw his Pen again. I shall send my own book to the Press in the end of this month or the beginning of the next.
There is a young man at Edinburgh, Mr Hugh Dalrymple, for whom, on account of his Father, I at first conceived a most august aversion. Upon conversing with him, I found him one of the most amiable men I have ever known. His Father is not the only one of his family connections in which he has been unfortunate. But, in my opinion, he is upon that very account more entitled to the Protection of all good men. If he falls in your way I most earnestly recommend him to your countenance and good advice. I ought to have done this, I am ashamed to say, how many months ago. I ever am
My Dear Friend Most faithfully yours
Adam Smith
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