a day,
perquisites, and no expenses;" and, to another, he speculates on the
chance of procuring a company in an American regiment. "But this I build
not on, nor indeed am I very fond of it," he adds; and this was
fortunate, for the expedition, after dawdling away the summer in port,
was suddenly diverted to an attack on L'Orient, where it achieved a huge
failure and returned ignominiously to England.
A letter to Henry Home, written when this unlucky expedition was
recalled, shows that Hume had already seriously turned his attention to
history. Referring to an invitation to go over to Flanders with the
General, he says:
"Had I any fortune which would give me a prospect of leisure and
opportunity to prosecute my _historical projects_, nothing could be
more useful to me, and I should pick up more literary knowledge in
one campaign by being in the General's family, and being introduced
frequently to the Duke's, than most officers could do after many
years' service. But to what can all this serve? I am a philosopher,
and so I suppose must continue."
But this vaticination was shortly to prove erroneous. Hume seems to
have made a very favourable impression on General St. Clair, as he did
upon every one with whom he came into personal contact; for, being
charged with a mission to the court of Turin, in 1748, the General
insisted upon the appointment of Hume as his secretary. He further made
him one of his aides-de-camp; so that the philosopher was obliged to
encase his more than portly, and by no means elegant, figure in a
military uniform.
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