622 MR small's biographical SKETCH OF PROF. ADAM FERGUSON. 



merit, and undoubted success, of this valuable performance. The persons of this 

 place whose judgment you will value most, agree in opinion, that you have 

 made a great addition to the classical literature of England, and given us what 

 Thucydides proposed leaving with his own countrymen, a possession in perpetuity. 

 Men of a certain modesty and merit always exceed the expectations of their 

 friends ; and it is with very great pleasure I tell you, that although you must 

 have observed in me every mark of consideration and regard, that this is, never- 

 theless, the case, I receive your instruction, and study your model, with great 

 deference, and join with every one else in applauding the extent of your plan, 

 in hands so well able to execute it. Some of your readers, I find, were impatient 

 to get at the fifteenth chapter, and began at that place. I have not heard much 

 of their criticism, but am told that many doubt of your orthodoxy. I wish to 

 be always of the charitable side, while I own you have proved that the clearest 

 stream may become foul when it comes to run over the muddy bottom of human 

 nature. I have not stayed to make any particular remarks. If any should occur 

 on the second reading, I shall not fail to lay in my claim to a more needed and 

 more useful admonition from you, in case I ever produce anything that merits 

 your attention. And am, with the greatest respect, dear Sir, your most obliged, 

 and most humble servant, Adam Ferguson." * 



Gibbon's reply to this letter was as follows : — 



" Bentick Street, April the 1st, 1776. 



" Dear Sir,— I shall not pretend to deny that your approbation, and that of 

 your literary friends at Edinburgh, has given me very great pleasure. I am not 

 proud enough to be above vanity ; and I have always looked up with the most 

 sincere respect towards the northern part of our island, whither taste and phi- 

 losophy seemed to have retired from the smoke and hurry of this immense 

 capital. Your good opinion, in particular, I should wish to cultivate ; and am 

 pleased to understand from some passages in your letter that you are engaged in 

 a work, which I am convinced will stand in the same proportion to my imperfect 

 essay, as the Roman Republic may be considered to have done, if compared with 

 the lower ages of the declining empire. 



" What an excellent work is that with which our common friend Mr Adam 

 Smith has enriched the public !— an extensive science in a single book, and the 

 most profound ideas expressed in the most perspicuous language. He proposes 

 visiting you very soon ; and I find that he means to exert his most strenuous 

 endeavours to persuade Mr Hume to return with him to town. I am sorry to 

 hear that the health and spirits of that truly great man are in a less favourable 

 state than his friends could wish ; and I am sure that you will join your efforts 

 in convincing him of the benefits of exercise, dissipation, and change of air. 



* Gibbon's Miscellaneous Works, By Lord Sheffield, vol. ii. p. 499. 



