A far more remarkable contribution is a letter to the editors, which appeared in the second number. It is a protest against the reviewers confining themselves to accounts of books published in Scotland, a country “which is but just beginning to attempt figuring in the learned world.” He proposes therefore that they should enlarge their scope, and observe with regard to Europe the same plan that was being followed with regard to England, that is to say, examine all books of permanent value while contriving to take notice “of every Scotch production that is tolerably decent.” Smith illustrated his plea by a very luminous and masterly survey of French literature, and a comparison of the French, German, and Italian genius with the English. The review was intended to appear every six months, but it never reached a third number, either because it was not well received by the public, or because a formidable theologian spied heresy lurking in its pages. It was at this time that the General Assembly was proposing to pass a censure on Hume’s _Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals_, and to excommunicate the author. Hume wrote to Allan Ramsay in Rome: “You may tell that reverend gentleman the Pope, that there are men here who rail at him, and yet would be much greater persecutors had they equal power. The last Assembly sat on me. They did not propose to burn me, because they cannot, but they intended to give me over to Satan. My friends prevailed, and my damnation has accordingly been postponed a twelve-month, but next Assembly will surely be upon me.” Lord Kames was also attacked; but Smith seems to have escaped, though his turn was to come later. The pupil of Hutcheson was also in many ways the philosophical disciple and ally of Hume. Their intercourse during all these years was close and constant. They paid mutual visits, and interchanged many letters, too few of which have been preserved. Hume had been abroad, or at Ninewells, during most of Smith’s stay in Edinburgh, and had only just made Edinburgh his home when Smith obtained the professorship at Glasgow; but, as Mr. Rae notes, before a year was out, Smith’s “dear sir” had ripened into “my dearest friend,” and on these terms the two philosophers remained until death parted them.