Arbuthnot the first man among them.'" _Ante_,
i. 425.
[69] 'We found that by the interposition of some invisible friend
lodgings had been provided for us at the house of one of the professors,
whose easy civility quickly made us forget that we were strangers.'
_Works_, ix. 3.
[70] He is referring to Beattie's _Essay on Truth_. See _post_, Oct. 1,
and _ante_, ii. 201.
[71] See _ante_, ii. 443, where Johnson, again speaking of Hume, and
perhaps of Gibbon, says:--'When a man voluntarily engages in an
important controversy, he is to do all he can to lessen his antagonist,
because authority from personal respect has much weight with most
people, and often more than reasoning.'
[72] Johnson, in his Dictionary, calls _bubble_ 'a cant [slang] word.'
[73] Boswell wrote to Temple in 1768:--'David [Hume] is really amiable:
I always regret to him his unlucky principles, and he smiles at my
faith; but I have a hope which he has not, or pretends not to have. So
who has the best of it, my reverend friend?' _Letters of Boswell_,
p.151. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. pp. 274-5) says:--'Mr. Hume gave both
elegant dinners and suppers, and the best claret, and, which was best of
all, he furnished the entertainment with the most instructive and
pleasing conversation, for he assembled whosoever were most knowing and
agreeable among either the laity or clergy.
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