the _Sublime and
Beautiful_."[33]

The interest of the contest is sufficiently great from the candidature
of one philosopher of the first rank, and to Smith himself--already
that philosopher's very close friend--it must have been engrossing. It
will be observed that in his letter to Cullen he expresses himself
with great caution on the subject. He is quite alive to the fact that
the appointment of a notorious sceptic like Hume might be so unpopular
with the Scottish public as to injure the interests of the University.
But when Hume came forward Cullen threw himself heart and soul into
his cause, as we know from Hume's own acknowledgments; and if Cullen
and Smith are found acting in concert at the initiation of the
candidature, it is not likely that Smith lagged behind Cullen in the
prosecution of the canvass, though nothing remains to give us any
decisive information on the point. Their exertions failed, however,
in consequence, Hume himself always believed, of the interference of
the Duke of Argyle, and the chair was given to a young licentiate of
the Church named Clow, who was at the time entirely unknown, and
indeed never afterwards established any manner of public reputation.

Smith's preference for the Moral Philosophy chair came mainly no doubt
from preference for the subjects he would be called upon to teach in
it, but the emoluments also seem to have been somewhat better, for
Smith was expressly required, as a condition of acceptance of the
office, to content himself until the 10th of October of that year (the
opening day of the new session) "with the salary and emoluments of his
present profession of Logic," even though he might be actually
admitted to the other professorship before that date. It must not be
supposed, however, that the emoluments of his new office were by any
means very lordly. They accrued partly from a moderate endowment and
partly from the fees paid by the students who attended the lectures--a
principle of academic payment which Smith always considered the best,
because it made the lecturer's income largely dependent on his
diligence and success in his work. The endowment was probably no more
than that of the Mathematical chair, and the endowment of the
Mathematical chair was L72 a year.[34] The fees probably never
exceeded L100, or even came up to that figure, for Dr. Thomas Reid,
Smith's successor in the Moral Philosophy chair, writes an Aberdeen
friend, after two years' experience of G