XJi juiiili. 



130 HlStORT of the SOCIEfr. 



Accountof chronic obdruclion in his bowels, was lingering "and painful ; 



I J r .-Mill r h O O \ 



but had every confolation to footh it which he could derive 

 from the tendered: fympathy of his friends, and from the com- 

 plete refignation of his own mind. 



A few days before his death, finding his end approach rapidly,, 

 he gave orders to dedroy all his manufcripts, excepting fome de- 

 tached effays, which he entrufted to the care of his executors; and 

 they were accordingly committed to the flames. What were the 

 particular contents of thefe papers, is not known even to his mod: 

 intimate friends ; but there can be no doubt that they confided, 

 in part, of the lectures on rhetoric, which he read at Edinburgh 

 in the year 1748, and of the lectures on natural religion and 

 on jurifprudence, which formed part of his courfe at Glafgow. 

 That this irreparable injury to letters proceeded, in fome de- 

 gree, from an excefTive folicitude in the author about his pod- 

 humous reputation, may perhaps be true ; but with refpect to 

 fome of his manufcripts, may we not fuppofe, that he was in- 

 fluenced by higher motives ? It is but feldom that a philofo- 

 pher, who has been occupied from his youth with moral or 

 with political enquiries, fucceeds completely to his wifh in da- 

 ting to others, the grounds upon which his own opinions are 

 founded ; and hence it is, that the known principles of an indi- 

 vidual, who has approved to the public his candour, his libe- 

 rality, and his judgment, are entitled to a weight and an 

 authority, independent of the evidence which he is able, up- 

 on any particular occafion, to produce in their fupport. A 

 fecret confcioufnefs of this circumdance, and an apprehenfion, 

 that by not doing juftice to an important argument, the pro- 

 grefs of truth may be rather retarded than advanced, have pro- 

 bably induced many authors to with-hold from the world the 

 unfinifhed refults of their mod: valuable labours ; and to con- 

 tent themfelves with giving the general fancUon of their fuf- 

 3 frages 



