ROBERTSON, 273 



all the while thoroughly versed in all the arts of com- 

 position, had the salutary effect of making his first 

 work as mature as his latest production. This is per- 

 haps a singular instance of one who had from his early 

 youth been studying diction, who had been constantly 

 writing, and had for long years been almost as expert as 

 he ever became, withholding himself from employing 

 the faculty which he had acquired, except to render 

 himself still more dexterous in its use, and continuing 

 four and twenty years ere he appeared before the 

 world, nay, eighteen years before he even began 

 to write the work which should lay the foundation 

 of his fame. He was eight and thirty when he 

 published it. But then it is another singularity 

 as great, that considerable doubt remains if any 

 of his subsequent works surpassed this first pro- 

 duction. 



Among his exulting friends, David Hume deserve 

 to be singled out for the heartiness of his disinterested 

 joy. Far from not bearing a brother near the 

 throne, he entirely rejoiced in his rival's success, and 

 even in the uniting of all testimonies to his merits, so 

 strongly contrasted with the universal clamour for 

 some years raised against his own 'History,' and the 

 niggard praise which, even after five years, that work 

 received. Among other kind acts, he encouraged 

 some literary men at Paris to translate the new ' His- 

 tory ;' and he thus jocosely touches upon the loss of 

 his undivided superiority as an historian : " I warn 

 you, however, this is the last time I shall ever speak 

 the least good of it. A plague take you ! Here I sat 



