reach a fortune
which I called independent, though most of my friends were inclined to
smile when I said so: in short, I was now master of near a thousand
pounds.

I had always entertained a notion, that my want of success in
publishing the Treatise of Human Nature, had proceeded more from the
manner than the matter, and that I had been guilty of a very usual
indiscretion, in going to the press too early. I therefore cast the
first part of that work anew in the Enquiry concerning Human
Understanding, which was published while I was at Turin. But this
piece was at first little more successful than the Treatise of Human
Nature. On my return from Italy, I had the mortification to find all
England in a ferment, on account of Dr. Middleton's Free Enquiry,
while my performance was entirely over-looked and neglected. A new
edition which had been published in London, of my Essays, moral and
political, met not with a much better reception.

Such is the force of natural temper, that these disappointments made
little or no impression on me. I went down in 1749, and lived two
years with my brother at his country-house, for my mother was now
dead. I there composed the second part of my Essay, which I called
Political Discourses, and also my Enquiry concerning the Principles of
Morals, which is another part of my treatise that I cast anew.
Meanwhile my bookseller, A. Miller, informed me that my former
publications (all but the unfortunate Treatise) were beginning to be
the subject of conversation; that the sale of them was gradually
increasing; and that new editions were demanded. Answers by Reverends
and Right Reverends came out two or three in a year; and I found, by
Dr. Warburton's railing, that the books were beginning to be esteemed
in good company. However, I had a fixed resolution, which I
inflexibly maintained, never to reply to any body; and not being very
irascible in my temper, I have easily kept myself clear of all
literary squabbles. These symptoms of a rising reputation gave me
encouragement, as I was ever more disposed to see the favourable than
the unfavourable side of things; a turn of mind which it is more happy
to possess, than to be born to an estate of ten thousand a year.

In 1751 I removed from the country to the town, the true scene for a
man of letters. In 1752 were published at Edinburgh, where I then
lived, my Political Discourses, the only work of mine that was
successful on the first publica