I may mention that, aware that Hume had written to Franklin, I thought it not unlikely that the letters might be incorporated in the elaborate edition of his "Life and Correspondence" by Sparkes. Unfortunately trusting to the copy in the British Museum, I found, at the last moment, that that copy was imperfect, and did not afford the means of ascertaining whether they were published in the work.
[471:2] MS. R.S.E.
[472:1] A specimen of the Scots Review , a thin duodecimo pamphlet, is now very rare. Its chief object of attention is "that great necromancer and magician David Hume." It is not inaptly described by the Scots Magazine :—
"It professes to give a prospectus, and a specimen of an intended new review; but the whole object seems to have been to laugh at some individuals obnoxious to the writer, and particularly to ridicule the virulence, and to lower the pretensions of those who had signalized themselves by their attacks upon the philosophical writings of Mr. Hume; a promise is held out, that this arch-infidel is himself to be reviewed in the first place; and next, those authors who have waged a holy war against him; of whom a list is given, with their characters, the delineation of which, in no very favourable colours, appears, as already mentioned, to have exhausted the main object of the piece, though one or two gentle hits are aimed at the historian himself."
[472:2] Rev. Thomas Hepburn, minister of Athelstaneford.
[472:3] Scots Mag. New Series. Vol. i.
[473:1] Original in possession of the Cambusmore family.
[474:1] MS. R.S.E.
[474:2] Addressed, "Mr. David Hume, at Ninewells, with a great coat."
[474:3] Professor Millar of Glasgow.