222 HUME. 



facts and authorities. It is remarkable, however, that he 

 hesitated much as to the subject he should choose for his 

 historical labours, and more strange still that he should 

 have balanced between England and the Church. 

 From this he was dissuaded chiefly by the strong 

 recommendations of Adam Smith and Sir Gilbert 

 Elliott. I have this fact upon the authority of Dr. 

 Robertson, who, in relating it to the late Lord 

 Meadowbank, added, " It would, at any rate, have 

 suited me had he adhered to the plan he himself pro- 

 posed, as the ' History of England ' would have thus 

 been left open, which fell in with an early plan of my 



own." 



After the publication of his ' History' was closed in 

 1761, being now fifty years old, and possessed of an 

 ample competency, Mr. Hume resolved, he tells us, 

 " never more to set his foot out of his native country, 

 enjoying the satisfaction of never having asked a 

 favour, or made advances to any great man's acquaint- 

 ance." In less than two years, however, a great 

 man's repeated solicitation to him changed his plan 

 of life ; and he accompanied Lord Hertford, the 

 British Ambassador, to Paris, with the immediate 

 prospect of being appointed Secretary of Embassy. 

 This was realized ; and in 1765, when the Ambas- 

 sador went to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, the phi- 

 losopher was for part of the year charge d'affaires. 

 His station, his agreeable manners, but above all his 

 philosophical, including his irreligious, fame, were 

 well suited to make a deep impression upon the society 

 of the Paris circles. He was as popular among the 

 wits, the philosophers, the coteries, and the women, 



