Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/70

130 turn; but in fixing my eyes against his, I felt the most inexpressible terror, and was obliged soon to turn them away. The speech and physiognomy of the good David is that of an honest man ; but where, great God ! did this good man borrow those eyes he fixes so sternly and unaccountably on those of his friends? The impression of this look remained with me, and gave me much uneasiness. My trouble increased even to a degree of fainting ; and if I had not been relieved by an effusion of tears I had been suffocated. Presently after this I was seized with the most violent remorse ; I even despised myself; till at length, in a transport, which I still remember with delight, I sprang on his neck, embraced him eagerly, while almost choked with sobbing, and bathed in tears, I cried out in broken accents, No, no, David Hume cannot be treacherous. If he be riot the best of men, he must be the basest of mankind. David Hume politely returned my embraces, and, gently tapping me on the back, repeated several times, in a good-natured and easy tone, Why, what, my dear sir! nay, my dear sir! Oh, my dear sir! He said nothing more. I felt my heart yearn within me. We went to bed ; and I set out the next day for the country."

The charge terminates with accusing Hume of wilful blindness, in not being aware, from the neglect with which Rousseau treated him, that the blackness of his heart had been discovered. Soon after the controversy was terminated, a ludicrous account of its amusing circumstances was given to the public; the extreme wit, and humorous pungency of which will excuse our insertion of it, while we may also mention, that with its air of raillery, it gives an extremely correct abstract of the charge of Rousseau. It is worthy of remark, that the terms made use of show the author to have been colloquially acquainted with the technicalities of Scottish law, although it is not likely that a professional person would have introduced terms applicable only to civil transactions, into the model of a criminal indictment. We have found this production in the Scots Magazine. Mr Ritchie says it appeared in the St James's Chronicle: in which it may have been first published.

1. That the said David Hume, to the great scandal of philosophy, and not having the fitness of things before his eyes, did concert a plan with Messrs Froachin, Voltaire, and D'Alembert, to ruin the said J. J. Rousseau for ever by bringing him over to England, and there settling him to his heart's content.

2. That the said David Hume did, with a malicious and traitorous intent, procure, or cause to be procured, by himself or somebody else, one pension of the yearly value of 100, or thereabouts, to be paid to the said J. J. Rousseau, on account of his being a philosopher, either privately or publicly, as to him the said J. J. Rousseau should seem meet

3. That the said David Hume did, one night after he left Paris, put the said J. J. Rousseau in bodily fear, by talking in his sleep ; although the said J. J. Rousseau doth not know whether the said David Hume was really asleep, or whether he shammed Abraham, or what he meant.

4. That, at another time, as the said David Hume and the said J. J. Rousseau were sitting opposite each other by the fire-side in London, he the said David Hume did look at him, the said J. J. Rousseau, in a manner of which it is difficult to give any idea ; that he the said J. J. Rousseau, to get rid of the embarrassment he was under, endeavoured to look full at him, the said David Hume, in return, to try if he could not stare him out of countenance; but in fixing his eyes against his, the said David Hume's, he felt the most inexpressible terror, and was obliged to turn them away, insomuch that the said J. J. Rousseau doth