Mr.
Millar told me that in a twelvemonth he sold only forty-five copies of it.

I scarcely, indeed, heard of one man in the three kingdoms, considerable for rank or letters, that could endure the book.

I must only except the primate of England, Dr.Herring, and the primate of Ireland, Dr.Stone, which seem two odd exceptions.

These dignified prelates separately sent me messages not to be discouraged." It certainly is odd to think of David Hume being comforted in his affliction by the independent and spontaneous sympathy of a pair of archbishops.

But the instincts of the dignified prelates guided them rightly; for, as the great painter of English history in Whig pigments has been careful to point out,[10] Hume's historical picture, though a great work, drawn by a master hand, has all the lights Tory, and all the shades Whig.
Hume's ecclesiastical enemies seem to have thought that their opportunity had now arrived; and an attempt was made to get the General Assembly of 1756 to appoint a committee to inquire into his writings.
But, after a keen debate, the proposal was rejected by fifty votes to seventeen.