ii LATER YEARS 49 



of great moderation in all my passions. Even my love of 

 literary fame, my ruling passion, never soured my temper, 

 notwithstanding my frequent disappointments. My com- 

 pany was not unacceptable to the young and careless, as well 

 as to the studious and literary ; and as I took a particular 

 pleasure in the company of modest women, I had no reason 

 to be displeased with the reception I met with from them. 

 In a word, though most men any wise eminent, have found 

 reason to complain of calumny, I never was touched or even 

 attacked by her baleful tooth ; and though I wantonly ex- 

 posed myself to the rage of both civil and religious factions, 

 they seemed to be disarmed in my behalf of their wonted 

 fury. My friends never had occasion to vindicate any one 

 circumstance of my character and conduct ; not but that 

 the zealots, we may well suppose, would have been glad to 

 invent and propagate any story to my disadvantage but 

 they could never find any which they thought would wear 

 the face of probability. I cannot say there is no vanity in 

 making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not 

 a misplaced one ; and this is a matter of fact which is easily 

 cleared and ascertained." 



Hume died in Edinburgh on the 25th of Au- 

 gust, 1776, and, a few days later, his body, attended 

 by a great concourse of people, who seemed to have 

 anticipated for it the fate appropriate to the re- 

 mains of wizards and necromancers, was deposited 

 in a spot selected by himself, in an old burial- 

 ground on the eastern slope of the Calton Hill. 



From the summit of this hill, there is a pros- 

 pect unequalled by any to be seen from the midst 

 of a great city. Westward lies the Forth, and be- 

 yond it, dimly blue, the far away Highland hills, 

 eastward, rise the bold contours of Arthur's Seat 



