Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 168.: From DAVID HUME - Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith

Return to Title Page for Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith

168.: From 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).

Part of: The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 7 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


168.

From DAVID HUME

  • Address: Adam Smith Esqr Kirkaldy

MS., RSE ii. 60; HL ii. 335–6.

My Dearest Friend

I am obliged to make use of my Nephews hand in writing to you as I do not rise to day.

There is No Man in whom I have a greater Confidence than Mr Strahan, yet have I left the property of that Manuscript1 to my Nephew David in case by any accident it should not be published within three years after my decease. The only accident I could forsee, was one to Mr Strahans Life, and without this clause My Nephew would have had no right to publish it. Be so good as to inform Mr Strahan of this Circumstance.

You are too good in thinking any trifles that concern me are so much worth your attention, but I give you entire liberty to make what Additions you please to the account of my Life.2

I go very fast to decline, and last night had a small fever, which I hoped might put a quicker period to this tedious Illness, but unluckily it has in a great measure gone of. I cannot submit to your coming over here on my account as it is possible for me to see you so small a Part of the day but Dr Black can better inform you concerning the degree of strength which may from time to time remain with Me.3

Adieu My dearest Friend

David Hume

P.S. It was a strange blunder to send your Letter by the Carrier.

[1 ]Dialogues concerning Natural Religion: see Letter 167 n. 1.

[2 ]In 1777, Smith arranged that with Hume’s autobiography, My Own Life, there was printed Letter 178 addressed to Strahan, dated 9 Nov. 1776. This letter includes extracts from Letters 166, 168, and 169. See Letter 163, n. 2.

[3 ]See the opening sentence of Letter 169 from Joseph Black, dated 26 Aug.