Colonel Edmondstoune's answer to these excuses is not a little curious.
Dear obstinate David,
Pravum et tenacem propositi virum
Non civium ardor recta jubentium
Non vultus instantis Baronnæ
Mente quatit stolida.
Will nothing move you, you obdurate philosopher? Your reasons are not worth a straw; and I'll prosecute you for scandalizing my house. The room next to your last is as cool as any room ought to be. It looks to the north, and you was put into a south room, merely because it was thought that the sun's vivifying ray would be of use to a man that had been worn out and so much epuisé in France. Besides, you scrub, have I not seen you basking for hours together in the sun, contemplating Shellie, and burning with envy at his prowess? and I heard nothing about your being heated till we came to Killin, and that was Crichen's doing, to season you for still a hotter place.[474:1]
Hume to his Nephew.[474:2]
"St. Andrew's Square, 30th August, 1775.
"Dear Davy,—Your letter gave me satisfaction, and I approve very much of your course of study. But I think you are unreasonably diffident of yourself with regard to the copia verborum: you are not wanting in that particular [consider]ing you as a beginner; and the course you take will tend very much to [produce] greater facility as well as correctness of expression. Stylus est optimus [magis]ter eloquentiæ. These, if not the words, are the sense of Quinctilian, for I cite from memory. You know that the Roman stylus was the same as the pen.