real satisfaction in living at Paris, from the great number of
sensible, knowing, and polite company with which that city abounds
above all places in the universe. I thought once of settling there
for life.

I was appointed secretary to the embassy; and in summer, 1765, Lord
Hertford left me, being appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. I was
chargé d'affaires till the arrival of the Duke of Richmond, towards
the end of the year. In the beginning of 1766 I left Paris, and next
summer went to Edinburgh, with the same view as formerly of burying
myself in a philosophical retreat. I returned to that place, not
richer, but with much more money, and a much larger income, by means
of Lord Hertford's friendship, than I left it; and I was desirous of
trying what superfluity could produce, as I had formerly made an
experiment of a competency. But in 1767 I received from Mr. Conway an
invitation to be under-secretary; and this invitation, both the
character of the person, and my connexions with Lord Hertford,
prevented me from declining. I returned to Edinburgh in 1769, very
opulent, (for I possessed a revenue of 1000L. a year,) healthy, and,
though somewhat stricken in years, with the prospect of enjoying long
my ease, and of seeing the increase of my reputation.

In spring, 1775, I was struck with a disorder in my bowels, which at
first gave me no alarm, but has since, as I apprehend it, become
mortal and incurable. I now reckon upon a speedy dissolution. I have
suffered very little pain from my disorder; and what is more strange
have, notwithstanding the great decline of my person, never suffered a
moment's abatement of my spirits, inasmuch that were I to name a
period of my life which I should most choose to pass over again, I
might be tempted to point to this later period. I possess the same