I am sensible how much I presume upon your indulgence in
giving you this trouble; but as it is to serve and comply
with a person for whom I have the most entire friendship, I
know you will excuse me though guilty of an indiscretion; at
least if you do not, you will not judge others as you would
desire to be judged yourself; for I am very sure a like
motive would carry you to be guilty of a greater.

I would have waited on you when you was last in Scotland had
the College allowed me three days' vacation; and it gave me
real uneasiness that I should be in the same country with
you, and not have the pleasure of seeing you. Believe it, no
man can more rejoice at your late success,[76] or at
whatever else tends to your honour and prosperity, than
does, Sir, your ever obliged and very humble servant,

ADAM SMITH.

Glasgow, _19th January 1752_, N.S.[77]

Pulteney abandoned the law in which Smith prophesied eminence for him,
but he was happily not cured entirely of his sincerity by his
subsequent experience, for it was greatly from that quality that he
derived the weight he enjoyed in the House of Commons. His
contemporary in Parliament, Sir John Sinclair, says Pulteney's
influence arose from the fact that he was known to be a man who never
gave a vote he did not in his heart believe to be right. Having no
taste for display, he lived when he had L20,000 a year about as simply
as he did when he had only L200, and on that account he is sometimes
accused of avarice, though he was constantly doing acts of signal
liberality.

Smith's chief friend in Edinburgh was David Hume. Though their first
relations were begun apparently in 1739, they could not have met much
personally before Smith's settlement in Glasgow. For when Smith came
to Edinburgh in 1748 Hume was abroad as secretary to General St. Clair
in the Embassy at Vienna and Turin, and though he left this post in
1749, he remained for the next two years at Ninewells, his father's
place in Berwickshire, and only settled in Edinburgh again just as
Smith was removing to Glasgow. He would no doubt visit town
occasionally, however, and before Smith was a year in Glasgow he had
already entered on that correspondence with the elder philosopher
which, beginning with the respectful "dear sir," grew shortly into the
warmer style of "my dearest friend" as their memorable and Roman
friendship ripened. Hume neve