r that this is perhaps the only opportunity we shall
ever have of getting you to town. I dare swear that you
think the difference of Place is worth paying something for,
and yet it will really cost you nothing. You made above a
hundred pound a year by your class when in this Place,
though you had not the character of Professor. We cannot
suppose that it will be less than a hundred and thirty after
you are settled. John Stevenson[97]--and it is John
Stevenson--makes near a hundred and fifty, as we were
informed upon Enquiry. Here is a hundred pounds a year for
eight years' Purchase, which is a cheap purchase, even
considered in the way of a Bargain. We flatter ourselves
that you rate our company at something, and the Prospect of
settling Ferguson will be an additional inducement. For
though we think of making him take up the Project if you
refuse it, yet it is uncertain whether he will consent; and
it is attended in his case with many very obvious
objections. I beseech you therefore to weigh all these
motives over again. The alteration of these circumstances
merit that you should put the matter again in deliberation.
I had a letter from Miss Hepburn, where she regrets very
much that you are settled at Glasgow, and that we had the
chance of seeing you so seldom.--I am, dear Smith, yours
sincerely,

DAVID HUME.

_8th June 1758._

_P.S._--Lord Milton can with his finger stop the foul mouths
of all the Roarers against heresy.[98]

The postscript shows what we have already indicated, that Smith had
not escaped the general hue and cry against heresy which was now for
some years abroad in the country.

The Miss Hepburn who regrets so much the remoteness of Smith's
residence is doubtless Miss Hepburn of Monkrig, near Haddington, one
of those gifted literary ladies who were then not infrequently to be
found in the country houses of Scotland. It was to Miss Hepburn and
her sisters that John Home is said to have been indebted for the
first idea of Douglas, and Robertson submitted to her the manuscript
of his _History of Scotland_ piece by piece as he wrote it. When it
was finished the historian sent her a presentation copy with a letter,
in which he said: "Queen Mary has grown up to her present form under
your eye; you have seen her in many different shapes, and you have now
a right to her.