more
enthusiastic view we expect from the recluse, and the man who has
spent his life in his library taking the more critical and measured
view we expect from the man of the world.

Another statesman whom Smith knew well in Paris was Necker. His wife
had very possibly begun by this time her rather austere salon, where
free-thinking was strictly tabooed, and Morellet, her right-hand man
in the entertainment of the guests, confesses the restraint was really
irksome; and if she had, Morellet would probably have brought Smith
there. But anyhow Sir James Mackintosh, who had means of hearing about
Smith from competent sources, states explicitly that he was upon
intimate terms with Necker during his residence in the French capital,
that he formed only a poor opinion of that minister's abilities, and
that he used to predict the fall of his political reputation the
moment his head was put to any real proof, always saying of him with
emphasis, "He is a mere man of detail."[169] Smith was not always
lucky in his predictions, but here for once he was right.

While Smith was frequenting these various literary and philosophical
salons they were all thrown into a state of unusual commotion by the
famous quarrel between Rousseau and Hume. The world has long since
ceased to take any interest in that quarrel, having assured itself
that it all originated in the suspicions of Rousseau's insane fancy,
but during the whole summer of 1766 it filled column after column of
the English and continental newspapers, and it occupied much of the
attention of Smith and the other friends of Hume in Paris. It will be
remembered that when Rousseau was expelled from Switzerland, Hume, who
was an extravagant admirer of his, offered to find him a home in
England, and on the offer being accepted, brought him over to this
country in January 1766. Hume first found quarters for him at
Chiswick, but the capricious philosopher would not live at Chiswick
because it was too near town. Hume then got him a gentleman's house in
the Peak of Derby, but Rousseau would not enter it unless the owner
agreed to take board. Hume induced the owner to gratify even this
whim, and Rousseau departed and established himself comfortably at
Wootton in the Peak of Derby. Hume next procured for him a pension of
L100 a year from the king. Rousseau would not touch it unless it were
kept secret; the king agreed to keep it secret. Rousseau then would
not have it unless it were made publ