II LATER YEARS 49 



fame, my ruling passion, never soured my temper, notwith- 

 standing my frequent disappointments. My company 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 exposed 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 August, 

 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 prospect 

 unequalled by any to be seen from the midst of a 

 great city. Westward lies the Forth, and beyond 

 it, dimly blue, the far away Highland hills ; east- 

 ward, rise the bold contours of Arthur's Seat and 

 the rugged crags of the Castle rock, with the gray 

 Old Town of Edinburgh ; while, far below, from a 



VOL. VI E 



