[345:1] It is stated in Ritchie's "Account of the Life and Writings of Hume," from which the above letter is taken, and in some works of reference, which appear to have depended on the authority of that book, that Hume was a competitor with Balfour for the chair. This statement has probably arisen out of some misapprehension as to his previous competition for the chair. [347:1] See the dawning of this view in his correspondence with Hutcheson, _supra_, p. 112. An essay, entitled "Of some Verbal Disputes," published in the later editions of the work now under consideration, contains some curious elucidations of it. [351:1] Thomson--Life of Cullen, 72-73--where the above letter is first printed. Dr. Thomson tells me, that the evidence of Burke having been a candidate is merely traditional, but that it was enough to satisfy his own mind. In the "Outlines of Philosophical Education," by Professor Jardine, who afterwards filled the same chair, there is this passage, (p. 21:) "Burke, whose genius led him afterwards to shine in a more exalted sphere, was thought of by some of the electors as a proper person to fill it. He did not, however, actually come forward as a candidate." [353:1] Dr. Thomson says, "It might afford curious matter of speculation to conjecture what effect the appointment of Mr. Hume, or of Mr. Burke, to the chair of logic in Glasgow, would have had upon the character of that university, or upon the metaphysical, moral, and political inquiries of the age in which they lived; and what consequences were likely to have resulted from the influence which the peculiar genius and talents of either of these great men, had they been exerted in that sphere, must necessarily have had in forming the minds of such of their pupils as were to be afterwards employed in the pursuits of science, or the conduct and regulation of human affairs. It seems difficult to conceive how, as instructors of youth, they could either of them, without a considerable modification of their opinions, have taught philosophy upon the sceptical or the Berkeleian systems which they had respectively adopted; while the strict purity of their moral characters, and the great reverence which they both entertained for established institutions, give the fullest assurance, that, had either of them been appointed to the chair of logic, their academical duties would have been executed with an unceasing regard to the improvement of their pupils, and to the reputation of the society into which they had been admitted." Life of Cullen, p. 73.