224 ADAM SMITH. 



so. It would then be said that I had published, for the s"ake 

 of an Establishment, not from respect to the memory of my 

 friend, what even a Printer for the sake of the same emolu- 

 ment had not published. 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 ac- 

 count 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 had 

 lately together, particularly that concerning your want of an 

 excuse to make to Charon, the excuse you at last thought of, 

 and the very bad reception which Charon was likely to give 

 it, would, I imagine, make no disagreeable part of the history. 

 You have in a declining state of health, under an exhausting 

 disease, for more than two years together, now looked at the 

 approach, or what you at least believed to be the approach of 

 Death with a steady cheerfulness such as very few men have 

 been able to maintain for a few hours, though otherwise in 

 the most perfect health. J shall likewise, if you will give me 

 leave, correct the sheets of the new edition of your Works, 

 and shall take care that it shall be published exactly according 

 to your late corrections. As I shall be at London this winter 

 it will cost me very little trouble. All this I have written 

 upon the supposition that the event of your disease should 

 prove different from what I still hope it may do. For your 

 spirits are so good, the spirit of life is still so very strong in you, 

 and the progress of your disorder is so slow and gradual, that 

 I still hope it may take a turn. Even the cool and steady Dr. 

 Black, by a letter I received from him last week, seems not 

 to be averse to the same hopes. 



" I hope I need not repeat to you, that I am ready to wait 

 on you whenever you wish to see me. Whenever you do so, 

 I hope you will not scruple to call on me. I beg to be re- 

 membered in the kindest and most respectful manner to your 

 Brother, your Sister, your Nephew, and all other Friends. 



" I ever am, 



" My dearest friend, 



" Most affectionately yours, 



" ADAM SMITH." 



