ADAM SMITH. 287 



that the papers I carry with me shall be carefully sent to 

 you. 



" I ever am, my dear friend, 



" Most faithfully yours, 



"ADAM SMITH." 



" To DAVID HUME, Esq., 



of St. Andrew's Square, Edinburgh." 



" MY DEABEST FRIEND, KIRKALDY, August 22nd, 1776. 



" I have this moment received your letter of the 15th 

 instant. You had, in order to save me the sum of one 

 penny sterling, sent it by the carrier instead of the post ; 

 and (if you have not mistaken the date) it has lain at his 

 quarters these eight days, and was, I presume, very likely 

 to lie there for ever. 



" I shall be very happy to receive a copy of your Dia- 

 logues ; and, if I should happen to die before they are pub- 

 lished, I shall take care that my copy shall be as carefully 

 preserved as if I was to live a hundred years. With regard 

 to leaving me the property in case they are not published 

 within five years after your decease, you may do as you think 

 proper. I think, however, you should not menace Strahan 

 with the loss of any thing in case he does not publish your 

 Work within a certain time.* There is no probability of 

 his delaying it, and if any thing could make him delay it, 

 it would be a clause of this kind ; which would give him an 

 honourable pretence for doing so. It would then be said 

 that I had published, for the sake of an Establishment, not 

 from respect to the memory of my friend, what even a 

 Printer for the sake of the same emolument had not pub- 

 lished. That Strahan is sufficiently zealous you will see 

 by the enclosed letter, which I will beg the favour of you 

 to return to me, but by the post and not by the carrier. If 

 you will give me leave I will add a few lines to your account 

 of your own Life ; giving some account in my own name, 

 of your behaviour in this illness, if, contrary to my own 

 hopes, it should prove your last. Some conversations we. 



* This refers to the passage of Mr. Hume's will, imposing a penalty in 

 case of not printing one of his posthumous works. See ' Life of Hume,' 

 vol. i. 



