come to Edinburgh, for in a
subsequent letter to Strahan on 13th of November Smith again mentions
having written Mr. Home to engage lodgings for him from Christmas.
This letter is as follows:--

DEAR SIR--The enclosed is the small addition which I propose
to make to the account which our late invaluable friend left
of his own life.

I have received L300 of the copy money of the first edition
of my book. But as I got a good number of copies to make
presents of from Mr. Cadell, I do not exactly know what
balance may be due to me. I should therefore be glad he
would send me the account. I shall write to him upon this
subject.

With regard to the next edition, my present opinion is that
it should be printed in four vol. octavo; and I would
propose that it should be printed at your expense, and that
we should divide the profits. Let me know if this is
agreeable to you.

My mother begs to be remembered to Mrs. Strahan and Miss
Strahan, and thinks herself much obliged both to you and
them for being so good as to remember her.--I ever am, dear
sir, most affectionately yours,

ADAM SMITH.

KIRKALDY, FIFESHIRE, _13th November 1776_.

I shall certainly be in town before the end of the Christmas
holidays. I do not apprehend it can be necessary for me to
come sooner. I have therefore written to Mr. Home to bespeak
my lodgings from Christmas.[268]

Strahan acknowledges this letter on the 26th of November, and asks
Smith's opinion on an idea that has occurred to him of publishing the
interesting series of letters from Hume to himself which he possessed,
and which, after a curious and remarkable history, have been now
preserved for the world through the liberality of Lord Rosebery and
the learned devotion of Mr. Birkbeck Hill. To these letters Strahan,
if he obtained Smith's concurrence, would like to add those of Hume to
Smith himself, to John Home, to Robertson, and other friends, which
have now for the most part been lost. But Smith put his foot on this
proposal decisively, on the ground apparently that it was most
improper for a man's friends to publish anything he had written which
he had himself given no express direction or leave to publish either
by his will or otherwise. Strahan's letter runs thus:--

DEAR SIR--I received yours of the 13th enclosing the
addition to Mr. Hume's Life, whi