32 HUME ii 



nothing could be more useful to me, and I should pick up 

 more literary knowledge in one campaign by being in the 

 General's family, and being introduced frequently to the 

 Duke's, than most officers could do after many years' ser- 

 vice. But to what can all this serve? I am a philosopher, 

 and so I suppose must continue." 



But this vaticination was shortly to prove 

 erroneous. Hume seems to have made a very 

 favourable impression on General St. Clair, as he 

 did upon every one with whom he came into per- 

 sonal contact; for, being charged with a mission 

 to the Court of Turin, in 1748, the General insisted 

 upon the appointment of Hume as his secretary. 

 He further made him one of his aides-de-camp; 

 so that the philosopher was obliged to encase his 

 more than portly, and by no means elegant, figure 

 in a military uniform. Lord Charlemont, who 

 met him at Turin, says he was " disguised in 

 scarlet," and that he wore his uniform " like a 

 grocer of the train-bands." Hume, always ready 

 for a joke at his own expense, tells of the con- 

 siderate kindness with which, at a reception at 

 Vienna, the Empress-dowager released him and 

 his friends from the necessity of walking back- 

 wards. " We esteemed ourselves very much 

 obliged to her for this attention, especially my 

 companions, who were desperately afraid of my 

 falling on them and crushing them." 



Notwithstanding the many attractions of this 

 appointment, Hume writes that he leaves home 



