he revision and alteration to which it was
being incessantly subjected during that whole term. The particular
Indian appointment for which Pulteney had recommended him could have
nothing to do with the delay, inasmuch as the proposed office was
suppressed altogether within two months after this letter was written;
and even if he entertained expectations of any other sort from the
East India Company, there is no reason why he should on that account
have withheld his work from publication. The more elaborate criticism
of that Company in the chapter on Public Works did not appear in the
original edition of the book at all, but the only remarks on Indian
administration which did appear in that edition, although they are
merely incidental in character, are very strong and decided, and might
easily have been omitted, had the author been so minded, to please the
Company, without any injury to the general argument with which they
are connected.

On the other hand, there exists abundance of evidence that Smith was
busy for most of three years after this date, and mainly in London,
altering, improving, and adding to the manuscript of the book. New
lines of investigation would suggest themselves, new theories to be
thought out, and the task would grow day by day by a very simple but
unforeseen process of natural accretion. Hume thought it near
completion in 1769; but towards the end of 1772, a couple of months
after Smith's answer to Pulteney, he gives it most of another year yet
for being finished. He writes from his new quarters in St. Andrew
Square, asking Smith to break off his studies for a few weeks'
relaxation with him in Edinburgh about Christmas, and then to return
and finish his work before the following autumn.

ST. ANDREW'S SQUARE, _23rd November 1772_.

DEAR SMITH--I should agree to your Reasoning if I could
trust your Resolution. Come hither for some weeks about
Christmas; dissipate yourself a little; return to Kirkaldy;
finish your work before autumn; go to London, print it,
return and settle in this town, which suits your studious,
independent turn even better than London. Execute this plan
faithfully, and I forgive you....

Ferguson has returned fat and fair and in good humour,
notwithstanding his disappointment,[224] which I am glad of.
He comes over next week to a house in this neighbourhood.
Pray come over this winter and join us.--I am, my dear