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171.: From JOHN HOME OF NINEWELLS - 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.


171.

From JOHN HOME OF NINEWELLS

  • Address: To Adam Smith Esq, att Dalkeith house

MS., RSE viii. 17; Rae 303.

Edinburgh, 2 Sept. 1776

Dear Sir

I was favoured with yours of Saturday,1 and I asure you, that on peruseing the destinations; I was more of opinion, than when I saw you, that the pecuniary part of it, was not was not altered by the codocill: and that it was intended for you at all events, that my brother knowing your liberal way of thinking, laid on you something as an equivalent, not imagineing you would refuse, a small gratuity from the funds it was to come from, as a testimony of his freindship. And tho I must highly esteem the motives and manner: I cannot agree to accept of your renounciation, but leave you full master, to dispose of it which way is most agreeable to you.

The Copys of the Dialogues are finished and of the life, and will be sent to Mr Strahan to morrow;2 and I will mention to him your intention of adding to the last, something to finish so valuable a life, and will leave you at liberty, to look into the correction of the first, as it either answers your leisure, or ideas with regard to the composition, or what effects you think it may have with regard to your self. The two copys intended for you, will be left with my sister, when you please to require them; and the copy of the new edition of his works,3 you shall be sure to receive; tho you have no better title to that part, than the other. Tho much you have to the freindship and esteem of Dear Sir of him who is most sincerely

Yours

John Home

[1 ]Letter 170, dated 31 Aug.

[2 ]Strahan replied by promising to fulfill Hume’s intentions ‘most exactly’ (Cochrane, Dr Johnson’s Printer, 167), but his resolution was affected by Smith’s Letters 172, dated 5 Sept.

[3 ]Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects (1777): which Hume wished to be regarded as ‘containing his philosophical sentiments and principles’, and from which he excluded A Treatise of Human Nature (Advertisement–preface).