176.: From JOHN HOME OF NINEWELLS - Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith [1740]
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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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176.
From JOHN HOME OF NINEWELLS
MS., RSE viii. 18; unpubl.
Ninewells, 14 Oct. 1776
Dear Sir
I was favoured with yours of the 7th instant; along with the addition you proposed should be printed of our worthy friend, and my deceast brothers account of himself: in consequence of your request to him, and his aprobabation of it. I reckon myself much obliged to you, for having communicated it to me, and of haveing asked my oppinion of it, of which I should be very unworthy, if I did not give you an ingenous one; such as it is: and it is this, that I much approve of your thought in addressing it in a letter to Mr Strahan; as well as of the whole performance, only you will forgive me, for observeing that as it is to be aded, to what is wrote in so short and simple a manner would have wished, that the detail had been less minutely entered into, particularly of the journey, which being of a private concern, and haveing drawn to no consequences, does not interest the publick. But on the other hand, when I consider, that any alterations, might require the new modeling of the whole: as well as with what diffidence, I must give my oppinion when deviating from you I beleive it had best be published as it is. I imagine however that in page 2d line 2d the words submitted to or some such words to prevent the obscurity of the sense, is wanted and near the bottom of the same page, instead of ‘as my worst enemies [ ] I was told he said, ‘as my enemies,—If I have any, could wish’ which if it was [true was] better: but if I am wrong informed, I stand corrected. Colonel Edmiston wrote his letter from Lithgow, which I saw, and is in toun.
Since I came here I had a letter from Mr Strahan, informing me of his haveing received the account of his life and the Dialogues on Natural Religion; which last he makes no difficulty of publishing, as he had promised, and will print the first [w]ith the edition of his works, at present in the press, along with what you are to send him.
I wrote you directed to Dalkeith house, immediately on the receit, and in answer to yours from thence, which if it came to hand, would show you, that In [my] oppinion, [that] the legacy was due you, both in Law and equity, and tho by a[n] uncommo[n] [g]enerous way of thinking you refuse it, that it was still [ ] or at any time after to accept of it, which I again repeat in case my letter has not come to hand.
I shall leave this in less then 3 weeks for toun, and if you write me after please direct it there, and where at all times, it would be a great favour to see you, and to cultivate a connexion, that is so much regarded, and so justly esteemed by
Dear Sir your much obliged and sincere humble Servant
John Home
Tho it cannot enter properly into the publication, I thought it proper, to transcribe a copy of a letter dated the 13th of August as a strong mark of the [courage?] and Spirits our friend [possessed]. [There follows a transcription of the letter of 13 Aug. printed at HL, ii. 332.]
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