the unfortunate man
whom he had inveigled over to a barbarous island. The only part of the
indictment about which there could be the least doubt, was the
possibility of Hume having been an accomplice in Walpole's very small
pleasantry. Some of his friends in Paris suspected that he had had a
hand in the supposed letter from the King of Prussia. Although the
letter constituted no very malignant jest, and could not by a sensible
man have been regarded as furnishing just complaint against one who,
like Walpole, was merely an impudent stranger, yet if it could be
shown that Hume had taken an active part either in the composition or
the circulation of a spiteful bit of satire upon one towards whom he
was pretending a singular affection, then we should admit that he
showed such a want of sense of the delicacy of friendship as amounted
to something like treachery. But a letter from Walpole to Hume sets
this doubt at rest. "I cannot be precise as to the time of my writing
the King of Prussia's letter, but ... I not only suppressed the letter
while you stayed there, out of delicacy to you, but it was the reason
why, out of delicacy to myself, I did not go to see him as you often
proposed to me, thinking it wrong to go and make a cordial visit to a
man, with a letter in my pocket to laugh at him."[369]

With this all else falls to the ground. It would be as unwise in us,
as it was in Rousseau himself, to complicate the hypotheses. Men do
not act without motives, and Hume could have no motive in entering
into any plot against Rousseau, even if the rival philosophers in
France might have motives. We know the character of our David Hume
perfectly well, and though it was not faultless, its fault certainly
lay rather in an excessive desire to make the world comfortable for
everybody, than in anything like purposeless malignity, of which he
never had a trace. Moreover, all that befell Rousseau through Hume's
agency was exceedingly to his advantage. Hume was not without vanity,
and his letters show that he was not displeased at the addition to his
consequence which came of his patronage of a man who was much talked
about and much stared at. But, however this was, he did all for
Rousseau that generosity and thoughtfulness could do. He was at great
pains in establishing him; he used his interest to procure for him the
grant of a pension from the king; when Rousseau provisionally refused
the pension rather than owe anything to Hume, the la