Life and Correspondence of David Hume, Volume 2

David Hume · en
Jean Jacques Rousseau, persecuted for having writ what he
     thinks good, or rather, as some folks think, for having
     displeased persons in great power, who attributed to him what
     he never meant, came here to seek retreat, which I readily
     granted; and the king of Prussia not only approved of my so
     doing, but gave me orders to furnish him his small
     necessaries, if he would accept them; and though that king's
     philosophy be very different from that of Jean Jacques, yet he
     does not think that a man of an irreproachable life is to be
     persecuted because his sentiments are singular. He designs to
     build him a hermitage with a little garden, which I find he
     will not accept, nor perhaps the rest which I have not yet
     offered to him. He is gay in company, polite, and what the
     French call _aimable_, and gains ground daily in the opinion
     of even the clergy here. His enemies elsewhere continue to
     persecute him: he is pestered with anonymous letters. This is
     not a country for him: his attachment and love to his native
     town is a strong tie to its neighbourhood. The liberty of
     England, and the character of my good and honoured friend, D.
     Hume, F----i D----r, (perhaps more singular than that of J.
     Jacques, for I take him to be the only historian impartial,)
     draws his inclinations to be near to the F----i D----r. For my
     part, though it be to me a very great pleasure to converse
     with the honest savage, yet I advise him to go to England,
     where he will enjoy

          ----placidam sub libertate quietem.

     He wishes to know, if he can print all his works, and make
     some profit, merely to live, from such an edition. I entreat
     you will let me know your thoughts on this, and if you can be
     of use to him in finding him a bookseller to undertake the
     work: you know he is not interested, and little will content
     him. If he goes to Britain, he will be a treasure to you, and
     you to him, and perhaps both to me (if I were not so old.) I
     have offered him lodging in Keith-hall. I am ever, with the
     greatest regard, your most obedient servant,

                                                      M----.

At the same time Madame de Boufflers wrote as follows:--


MADAME DE BOUFFLERS _to_ HUME.

(_Translation._)

     _Paris, 16th June, 1762._