I have already finished the reign of King James.

My friends flatter me (by this I mean that they don't flatter me) that I have succeeded." In 1752, the Faculty of Advocates elected Hume their librarian, an office which, though it yielded little emolument--the salary was only forty pounds a year--was valuable as it placed the resources of a large library at his disposal.

The proposal to give Hume even this paltry place caused a great outcry, on the old score of infidelity.

But as Hume writes, in a jubilant letter to Clephane (February 4, 1752):-- "I carried the election by a considerable majority....

What is more extraordinary, the cry of religion could not hinder the ladies from being violently my partisans, and I owe my success in a great measure to their solicitations.