the course of the conversation happened to require. It was a subject,
indeed, which occurred pretty frequently, in consequence of the
inquiries which his friends, who came to see him, naturally made
concerning the state of his health. The conversation which I
mentioned above, and which passed on Thursday the 8th of August, was
the last, except one, that I ever had with him. He had now become so
very weak, that the company of his most intimate friends fatigued him;
for his cheerfulness was still so great, his complaisance and social
disposition were still so entire, that when any friend was with him,
he could not help talking more, and with greater exertion, than suited
the weakness of his body. At his own desire, therefore, I agreed to
leave Edinburgh, where I was staying partly upon his account, and
returned to my mother's house here, at Kirkaldy, upon condition that
he would send for me whenever he wished to see me; the physician who
saw him most frequently, Dr. Black, undertaking in the mean time to
write me occasionally an account of the state of his health.

On the 22d of August, the doctor wrote me the following letter:

"Since my last, Mr. Hume has passed his time pretty easily, but is
much weaker. He sits up, goes down stairs once a day, and amuses
himself with reading, but seldom sees any body. He finds, that the
conversation of his most intimate friends fatigues and oppresses him;
and it is happy that he does not need it, for he is quite free from
anxiety, impatience, or low spirits, and passes his time very well
with the assistance of amusing books."

I received the day after a letter from Mr. Hume himself, of which the
following is an extract: