Note 394:1 — Chapter IX

It is out of some vague rumour as to this transaction, that Lord Charlemont must have constructed the following romantic story of Hume. "He was tender-hearted, friendly, and charitable in the extreme, as will appear from a fact, which I have from good authority. When a member of the University of Edinburgh, and in great want of money, having little or no paternal fortune, and the collegiate stipend being very inconsiderable, he had procured, through the interest of some friend, an office in the university, which was worth about £40 a-year. On the day when he had received this good news, and just when he had got into his possession the patent or grant entitling him to his office, he was visited by his friend Blacklock, the poet, who is much better known by his poverty and blindness than by his genius. This poor man began a long descant on his misery, bewailing his want of sight, his large family of children, and his utter inability to provide for them, or even procure them the necessaries of life. Hume, unable to bear his complaints, and destitute of money to assist him, ran instantly to his desk, took out the grant, and presented it to his miserable friend, who received it with exultation, and whose name was soon after, by Hume's interest, inserted instead of his own."—Hardy's Memoirs of Charlemont, p. 9. This story is constructed after the received model of the current anecdotes of Fielding, Goldsmith, and others, and is perhaps as close to the truth as many of them would be found to be, if they were minutely investigated. It is pretty clear that Hume's generosity,—for generosity he certainly had, to a very large extent, by the testimony of all who knew him,—was not so much the creature of impulse, as that of the authors who have been mentioned above: but such an instance as that just given, is a warning to distrust those anecdotes of the inconsiderate generosity of men of genius, that are put into a very dramatic shape.