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![accompanied all her actions and ideas; a courageous adoption of
what seemed good to her in place of what might be fit. Her letters,
in their severe diction, give some notion of the writer's character, but
cannot convey so full an impression as when they are presented in
the bold, irregular, and most "unlady-like" hand in which they are
scribbled.[211:1]
The pleasant retailers of the literary chit-chat of that time,
Marmontel, Grimm, Bauchemont, and others, are full of details of
Madame Geoffrin, who, if she was not quite as formally approached
as Boufflers, or Deffand, was as much respected, loved, and feared.
The author of the Contes Moraux," tells us some of the weaknesses
of this gifted lady; and, according to his account, she had been
actually convicted, living as she was outwardly in the freest society
in the world, of a turn for secret devotion! "Elle avait un apartement
dans un couvent de religieuses et une tribune à l'Eglise des
Capucins,—mais avec autant de mystère que les femmes galantes de
ce temps-là avaient des petites maisons." The picture would be
sufficiently ludicrous, were it not for the darker features presented
by a state of society, where no one should venture to be pious
except under pain of being exterminated with ridicule.
There was one matter as to which Madame Geoffrin was timid and
cautious; she never meddled with matters of state or unsafe political
opinions, and was induced to discountenance those who did so.
Surrounded by restless and inquiring spirits, she often dreaded being
compromised by their conduct; and was especially uneasy at any
time when the Bastille sheltered a more than usual number of those
whose wit was wont to flash round her board. But her guests have
recorded, that if there was a little saddened and earnest gravity in
her deportment, when she received them after such naughty affairs,
she abated nothing of her old kindness. Her good heart indeed was
after all her noblest quality. She was one of those who held the
simple notion, that were it not for the judicious distribution of
favours by the rich, the poor, including artisans and producers of all
kinds, must necessarily die of starvation. She was thus in the midst](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-27-320.jpg)
![of an extensive distribution of charities, actively occupied in the
encouragement of those who lived by the sweat of their brow; and if
she believed that she accomplished much more than she actually
did, it was a satisfaction not to be grudged to one who occupied
herself with the fortunes of the poor, in the midst of the stony
indifference of the French aristocracy of that day.
Another lady, a friend and correspondent of Hume, Madame le Page
du Boccage, endeavoured to rival Madame Geoffrin as a centre of
attraction; but though she possessed, along with wealth, both rank
and beauty, she was unsuccessful, on account of the presence of a
third quality—authorship. The wits must praise her bad poetry if they
frequented her house, and where so many other doors were open
without such a condition, they abandoned it. "Elle était d'une figure
aimable," says Grimm, "elle est bonne femme; elle est riche; elle
pouvait fixer chez elle les gens d'esprit et de bonne compagnie, sans
les mettre dans l'embarras de lui parler avec peu de sincérité de sa
Colombiade ou de ses Amazones."[213:1]
Perhaps of all these eminent women, while Madame de Boufflers
had the greatest amount of elegance and accomplishment, Madame
du Deffand had the sharpest and most searching wit. She was the
author of that proverbial bon mot about St. Denis carrying his head
under his arm, il n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte; a saying
sufficient to make a reputation in France. Madame du Deffand does
not appear to have been a correspondent of Hume, nor, though they
occasionally met, does much cordiality seem to have subsisted
between them.[214:1] The aveugle clairvoyante, as Voltaire aptly
called her, in allusion to her blindness and her wit, thought that she
discovered in Hume a worshipper at another shrine. She wrote to
Walpole expressing her disgust of those who paid court to Madame
de Boufflers, at the same time, only just not stating, in express
terms, how much they were mistaken in not transferring their
obsequiousness to herself.[214:2] She, certainly an object of pity from
her blindness, was still more so in her own discontented spirit. The
days which tranquil ease and the attentions of kind friends might](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-28-320.jpg)
![more than rivalled in brilliancy that from which she was dismissed.
D'Alembert was told that if he countenanced the new idol, he must
bid farewell to his former patroness. He at once joined the party of
the young aspirant. He became dangerously ill, and Mademoiselle de
L'Espinasse nursed him with the untiring affection of a wife or a
daughter. The philosopher, whose humble dwelling was found to be
on too sordid a scale to be consistent with health, thenceforth took
up his abode with his young friend. Hume must have witnessed the
rise of this new connexion, for it was during his residence in Paris
that D'Alembert's illness took place, and it is the object of occasional
anxious allusion by his Parisian acquaintance.[216:1]
Though the circumstances in which he passed his earlier days were
not likely to nourish such a taste, no man seems to have been more
dependant on the presence of an educated and intellectual female
than the secretary of the Academy. There is little doubt that the new
attachment was of a Platonic character; but it boded evil to both
parties. The lady, if she had some portion of the purer affections of
the soul to bestow upon the sage, had warmer feelings for likelier
objects; and her frame sunk before the consuming fires of more
than one passion.[218:1] She was carried to an early grave, and the
mortifications, caused by her alienation, followed by grief for her
death, broke the spirit, and imbittered and enfeebled the latter days
of the philosopher. Hume seems to have established a closer
friendship with D'Alembert than with any of his other contemporaries
in France; and he left a memorial of his regard for the
encyclopediast in his will. Unlike, in many respects, they had some
features in common. D'Alembert's personal character, and the habits
of his life, had, like his philosophy, the dignity of simplicity. His
figure, and still more his voice, were the objects of much malicious
sarcasm; but cruel jests could not make his fragile body less the
tenement of a noble spirit; or his shrill puny voice less the
instrument of great and bold thoughts. His mind stands forth in
strong relief from the frippery of that age; while his writings contain
no marks of that reckless infidelity which distinguishes the
productions of his fellow labourers. In some of those follies, so](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-30-320.jpg)
![compagnie chez le Baron D'Holbach. Il était assis à côté du Baron;
on parla de la religion naturelle: 'Pour les Athées,' disait Hume, 'je ne
crois pas qu'il en existe; je n'en ai jamais vu.' 'Vous avez été un peu
malheureux,' répondit l'autre, 'vous voici à table avec dix-sept pour
la première fois.'"[220:1]
The secretary's residence in the metropolis was occasionally varied
by official sojourns to Fontainbleau, or Compiègne, a visit to the
Duchesse de Barbantane at Villers Cotterets, or an excursion with
Madame de Boufflers and the Prince of Conti to L'Ile-Adam. That
rural seat of princely magnificence and hospitality is a familiar name
in the memoirs of the times; and particularly in those of Madame de
Genlis. It is singular, indeed, that this lady never mentions Hume,
though she appears to have been living in the castle at the time
when he visited it. The Prince of Conti was in every way possessed
of the external qualifications which, in the eyes of his countrymen,
were then the proper ornaments of his high station. He was brave, a
distinguished military leader, generous, extravagant, gallant, and a
lover of literature and the arts.[221:1] There was probably little in
such a character to rival a Turgot, or a D'Alembert in Hume's
esteem; but his intercourse with this prince, as with De Rohan, De
Choiseul, and others, would be of a more limited and formal
character.[221:2] His influence with courtiers and statesmen,
however, appears to have been considerable. In the letters
addressed to him there are several instances where French people
solicit his interposition with the great: thus, Madame Helvétius
desires his good offices to procure an abbaye for her friend and
neighbour the Abbé "Macdonalt," of an illustrious Irish family.[222:1]
One lady, seeking ecclesiastical patronage, tells him that the clergy
will have more pleasure in doing him a favour than in performing the
functions of their office!
Hume has thus recorded in his "own life" the impression left on him
by his reception in Paris:—"Those who have not seen the strange
effects of modes, will never imagine the reception I met with at
Paris, from men and women of all ranks and stations. The more I](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-32-320.jpg)
![resiled from their excessive civilities, the more I was loaded with
them. There is, however, a 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." If he thought that he could have
taken up his residence in Paris, and preserved for the remainder of
his days the fresh bloom of his reputation, he was undoubtedly
mistaken; but, dazzled as he in some measure was, we can see in
his correspondence that he estimated the sensation he made pretty
nearly at its just value. In the circle of toys, seized and discarded, by
a giddy fashionable crowd, philosophy will have its turn, as well as
poodles, parrots, tulips, monkeys, cafés, and black pages. It had
been so a century earlier, when the most abstruse works of Des
Cartes had been the ornament of every fashionable lady's toilette;
and now the wheel had revolved and philosophy was again in vogue.
A second time we have Lord Charlemont affording us a passing
sketch of Hume. Having had an opportunity of witnessing the
philosopher's reception in France, he says:—
"From what has been already said of him, it is apparent that his
conversation to strangers, and particularly to Frenchmen, could be
little delightful, and still more particularly, one would suppose, to
French women: and yet no lady's toilette was complete without
Hume's attendance. At the opera his broad unmeaning face was
usually seen entre deux jolis minois. The ladies in France gave the
ton, and the ton was deism: a species of philosophy ill suited to the
softer sex, in whose delicate frame weakness is interesting, and
timidity a charm. . . . . How my friend Hume was able to endure the
encounter of these French female Titans, I know not. In England,
either his philosophic pride or his conviction that infidelity was ill
suited to women, made him perfectly averse from the initiation of
ladies into the mysteries of his doctrine."[223:1]
The same characteristics are recorded by Grimm.[223:2] We have his
position still more vividly painted by Madame d'Epinay, according to
whom he must have undergone not a small portion of the](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-33-320.jpg)
![martyrdom of lionism. One of the "rages" of the day was the holding
of cafés, or giving entertainments in private houses, according to the
arrangements and etiquette of a public café. Among the
amusements of the evening were pantomimes, and acted tableaux.
In these it was necessary that Hume should take a rôle, and as he
was always willing to conform to established regulations, we find
him seated as a sultan between two obdurate beauties, intending to
strike his bosom, but aiming the blows at le ventre, and
accompanying his acting with characteristic exclamations.[224:1]
Hume's popularity in Paris appears to have somewhat disturbed
Horace Walpole's equanimity. He was too good an artist to be very
angry, or to express himself in terms of aggravated bitterness; but it
is clear from occasional notices, that, notwithstanding his professed
admiration of Scotsmen, it displeased him to find Hume the
Scotsman sitting at the king's gate. Writing to Lady Hervey on 14th
Sept. 1765, he says, "Mr. Hume, that is the mode, asked much about
your ladyship."[225:1] Then to Montague, on the 22d of the same
month, and in allusion to the conversation of the dinner-table in
Paris:
For literature, it is very amusing when one has nothing else to do. I
think it rather pedantic in society: tiresome when displayed
professedly; and, besides, in this country, one is sure it is only the
fashion of the day. Their taste in it is the worst of all; could one
believe, that when they read our authors, Richardson and Mr. Hume
should be their favourites? The latter is treated here with perfect
veneration. His History, so falsified in many points, so partial in as
many, so very unequal in its parts, is thought the standard of writing.
[225:2]
Thus, and in the like strain, do the French suffer in his good opinion,
for their offence in making an idol of Hume. So, on the 3d October,
when writing to Mr. Chute,—
Their authors, who by the way are every where, are worse than their
own writings, which I don't mean as a compliment to either. In](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-34-320.jpg)
![general, the style of conversation is solemn, pedantic, and seldom
animated, but by a dispute. I was expressing my aversion to disputes:
Mr. Hume, who very gratefully admires the tone of Paris, having never
known any other tone, said with great surprise, "Why, what do you
like, if you hate both disputes and whisk?"[225:3]
Then, on the 19th of the same month, to Mr. Brand:
I assure you, you may come hither very safely, and be in no danger
from mirth. Laughing is as much out of fashion as pantins and
bilboquets. Good folks, they have no time to laugh. There is God and
the king to be pulled down first; and men and women, one and all,
are devoutly employed in the demolition. They think me quite profane
for having any belief left. But this is not my only crime; I have told
them, and am undone by it, that they have taken from us to admire
the two dullest things we had—Whisk and Richardson. It is very true
that they want nothing but George Grenville to make their
conversations, or rather dissertations, the most tiresome upon earth.
For Lord Lyttelton, if he would come hither, and turn freethinker once
more, he would be reckoned the most agreeable man in France,—
next to Mr. Hume, who is the only thing in the world that they believe
implicitly, which they must do, for I defy them to understand any
language that he speaks.[226:1]
At this time Adam Smith was travelling in France, with his pupil, the
young Duke of Buccleuch. On 5th July, 1764, he writes from
Toulouse, requesting Hume to give him and his pupil introductions to
distinguished Frenchmen, the Duc de Richelieu, the Marquis de
Lorges, &c. He says, that Mr. Townsend had assured him of these
and other introductions, from the Duc de Choiseul, but that none
had made their appearance in that quarter. Smith seems to have
been heartily tired of the glittering bondage of his tutorship, and to
have sighed for the academic conviviality he had left behind him at
Glasgow. He says:—
"The Duke is acquainted with no Frenchman whatever. I cannot
cultivate the acquaintance of the few with whom I am acquainted,
as I cannot bring them to our house, and am not always at liberty to](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-35-320.jpg)
![go to theirs. The life which I led at Glasgow, was a pleasureable
dissipated life in comparison of that which I lead here at present. I
have begun to write a book, in order to pass away the time. You
may believe I have very little to do. If Sir James would come and
spend a month with us in his travels, it would not only be a great
satisfaction to me, but he might, by his influence and example, be of
great service to the Duke."[228:1]
There is little doubt that the book he had begun to write, was the
"Wealth of Nations:" and we have here probably the earliest
announcement of his employing himself in that work. On the 21st of
October, he writes from Toulouse, stating that the letters of
introduction had reached him, and that his noble pupil was well
received. He says, "Our expedition to Bourdeaux, and another we
have made since to Bagneres, has made a great change upon the
Duke. He begins now to familiarize himself to French company; and
I flatter myself I shall spend the rest of the time we are to live
together, not only in peace and contentment, but in great
amusement."
Amidst the multiplied attractions of Paris, Hume's thoughts were
often turned to his native city, and the circle of kind friends and
admirers he had there left behind him. Such reminiscences of home
doings as are contained in the following letters, would doubtless
ensure his warm attention. On 1st July, Blair writes:
Robertson has, of late, had worse health than usual, which has
somewhat interrupted his studies. He talked once of a trip to France
this season; but his want of the language is so discouraging, as seems
to have made him lay aside thoughts of it for the present. It will be a
twelvemonth more, I suppose, before his Charles V. shall see the light.
I dined this day with Sir James Macdonald, on whose praises I need
not expatiate to you. Much conversation we had about you; and a
great deal I heard of your flourishing state. You write concerning it
yourself, like a philosopher and a man of sense. The first splendour
and eclat of such situations soon loses its lustre, and often, as you
found it, is burdensome. Ease and agreeable society are the only
things that last and remain; and these, now that you are quite](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-36-320.jpg)
![naturalized, and have formed habits of life, I imagine you enjoy in a
very comfortable degree. The society at Paris, to one who has all your
advantages for enjoying it in its perfection, is, I am fully convinced,
from all that I have heard, the most agreeable in the whole world.
Our education here is at present in high reputation. The Englishes are
crowding down upon us every season, and I wish may not come to
hurt us at the last.[229:1]
Jardine writes, on 1st August:—
I have attempted, four or five times, to write to you but this poor
church has, for some time past, been in such danger, that I could
never find time for it. She has employed all my thoughts and care for
these twelve months past. The enemy had kindled such a flame, that
the old burning bush was like to have been consumed altogether. I
know it will give you pleasure to hear that my endeavours to preserve
her have been crowned with success. She begins to shine forth with
her ancient lustre; and will very soon be, not only fair as the sun, but,
to all her enemies, terrible as an army with banners.[230:1]
It is pleasing to find one whose name has been so much associated
with the later school of our national literature, as Mrs. Cockburn, the
early friend of Scott, enjoying the intimacy of the sages of the
philosophical age of Scottish letters. This accomplished lady, well
known as the authoress of one of the versions of "The Flowers of
the Forest," was a correspondent of Hume. A few of her letters have
been preserved; and the following are her free and animated
remarks on Hume's flattering reception in France,—remarks written
in the full assurance that neither adulation nor prosperity would
diminish the regard of that simple manly heart, for the chosen
friends he had left in his native soil.
From the bleak hills of the north, from the uncultured daughter of
Caledon, will the adored sage of France deign to receive a few lines:
they come from the heart of a friend, and will be delivered by the
hand of an enemy. Which, O man of mode, is most indifferent to
thee? Insensible thou art alike to gratitude or resentment; fit for the](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-37-320.jpg)
![country that worships thee. Thou art equally insensible to love or
hate. A momentary applause, ill begot, and worse brought up,—an
abortion, a fame not founded on truth,—have bewitched thee, and
thou hast forgot those who, overlooking thy errors, saved thy worth.
Idol of Gaul, I worship thee not. The very cloven foot, for which thou
art worshipped, I despise: yet I remember thee with affection. I
remember that, in spite of vain philosophy, of dark doubts, of toilsome
learning, God had stamped his image of benignity so strong upon thy
heart, that not all the labours of thy head could efface it. Idol of a
foolish people, be not puffed up; it is easy to overturn the faith of a
multitude that is ready to do evil: an apostle of less sense might bring
to that giddy nation—libertinism; liberty they are not born to. This will
be sent to you by your good friend, Mr. Burnet; who goes much such
an errand as you have given yourself through life, viz., in search of
truth; and I believe both are equally impartial in the search; though,
indeed, he has more visible interests for darkening it than ever you
had.
Castlehill, Baird's Close, Aug. 20th, 1764.[231:1]
Hume to Andrew Millar.
"Paris, 3d September, 1764.
"It is certain that nothing could be a greater inducement
to me to continue my History, than your desiring so
earnestly I should do so. I have so great reason to be
satisfied with your conduct towards me, that I wish very
much to gratify you in every thing that is practicable; and
there want not other motives to make me embrace that
resolution. For, though I think I have reason to complain
of the blindness of party, which has made the public do
justice to me very slowly, and with great reluctance, yet I
find that I obtain support from many impartial people; and
hope that I shall every day have more reason to be
satisfied in that particular. But, in my present situation, it
is impossible for me to undertake such a work; and I
cannot break off from Lord Hertford, as long as he is
pleased to think me useful to him. I shall not, however,](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-38-320.jpg)
![lose sight of this object; and any materials that cast up, in
this country, shall be carefully collected by me.
"I am glad you are satisfied with the publication of the
new edition of my Essays. I shall be obliged to you if you
will inform yourself exactly how many copies are now
sold, both of that edition and of the octavo edition of my
History. I think both these editions very correct. I did little
more than see your friends, Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Wilson,
at Paris, and present them to Lord Hertford. We returned
not from Compiegne till a few days before they left
Paris. . . . . . I think the Duchess of Douglas has chosen
well in making Mallet one of her commissioners. I have no
good opinion of that cause. Mrs. Mallet has retired into the
forest of Fontainbleau with a Macgregor. I fancy she is
angry with me, and thought herself neglected by me while
in Paris. I heard of her thrusting herself every where into
companies, who endeavoured to avoid her; and I was
afraid she would have laid hold of me to enlarge her
acquaintance among the French. I have not yet executed
your commission with Monsr
. le Roy, but shall not forget it.
I am very glad that Mrs. Millar is so good as to remember
me. I shall regard it as one agreeable circumstance
attending my return to England, that you and she will
have leisure to give more of your company to your
friends; and I shall always be proud to be ranked in the
number.
"The lowness of stocks surely proceeds not from any
apprehension of war: never was a general peace
established in Europe with more likelihood of its
continuance; but I fancy your stocks are become at last
too weighty, to the conviction of all the world. What must
happen, if we go on at the same rate during another war?
I am, with great sincerity, dear sir, your most obedient
humble servant."[233:1]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-39-320.jpg)
![The course of correspondence with Elliot, which commences with
the next following letter, relates, in a great measure, to the disposal
of his two sons at Paris, and to their future training and education.
[233:2] There could be no better evidence of the reliance placed in
Hume's honourable principles and knowledge of the world, by those
friends who were sufficiently intimate with him, fully to appreciate
his character; while his whole conduct in the transaction shows
kindness of heart, with a warm attachment to friends, and an
earnest disposition to serve them.
Gilbert Elliot of Minto to Hume.
My Dear Sir,—My departure from Paris was so very sudden, that I was
obliged to leave many of my little schemes uncompleted; and, what
was still more mortifying, to see the progress of all my growing
attachments cruelly interrupted. I reached this place just in time,
though not a little retarded by the Russian chancellor and his forty
horses. Had I but foreseen this obstruction, I might as well have set
out on Wednesday morning at two o'clock; and in that case, my dear
philosopher, what a delicious evening should I have passed in your
company.
Upon full deliberation I am determined to send you my boys, if a
tolerable place can be found for their reception. I did not much like
that talking professor, who undertakes so largely: if nothing better can
be done, pray take the trouble to renew my negotiation with Madame
Anson. Her house, though not just what I could wish, is, however, not
much amiss. I must not lose this occasion of sending my children to
France. I shall never find any other so favourable. It will be no small
consolation to their mother, from whom they are now to be separated
for the first time, to know that we are not without a friend in Paris,
who will sometimes have an eye to their conduct. If I am not too
partial, I think you will find in their character much native simplicity,
and perhaps some little elevation of mind. Send them back to me, my
dear sir, with the same qualities, tempered, if you will, but not
impaired by the acquisition of some few of those graces which spread
such an inexpressible charm through those societies where even you
are not ashamed to pass so many precious hours.
If you should find no leisure to give them a moment's instruction, tell
them at least to look up to the conduct and character of a young](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-40-320.jpg)
![friend of ours at Paris.[234:1] There they will find a model, which,
without hoping to equal, it will, however, become them to copy. But,
after all, what am I about? At Paris, to have children at all, is de plus
mauvais ton de monde, and I forgot to inform myself, when one
happens to have them, whether it be permitted to take any thought
about them. I am impatient to hear from you at London. I shall not be
long there. I desire you would take this important business into your
hands and settle it for me entirely. I will send them over the moment
you desire me, and consigned to whom you direct,—the sooner the
better: you will settle all other particulars as you find proper. Before I
conclude, allow me in friendship also to tell you, I think I see you at
present upon the very brink of a precipice. One cannot too much clear
their mind of all little prejudices, but partiality to one's country is not a
prejudice. Love the French as much as you will. Many of the
individuals are surely the proper objects of affection; but, above all,
continue still an Englishman. You know, better than any body, that the
active powers of our mind are much too limited to be usefully
employed in any pursuit more general than the service of that portion
of mankind which we call our country. General benevolence and
private friendship will attend a generous mind and a feeling heart, into
every country; but political attachment confines itself to one.
Mon fils, sur les humains que ton ame attendrie,
Habite l'univers, mais aime sa patrie.
I have not now leisure to trouble you with the few observations my
too short stay at Paris had but imperfectly furnished me with.
Irreconcileable to the principles of their government, I am delighted
with the amenity and gentleness of their manners. I was even pleased
to find that the severity and rigour of our English climate had not
rendered me altogether insensible to the kind impressions of a milder
sky. May I trouble you with my most cordial and sincere respects to
Lord and Lady Hertford. Some French names, too, I could mention,
but I am not vain enough to imagine that I can, upon so short an
acquaintance, have a place in their remembrance. Believe me, very
dear sir, yours very sincerely, and most affectionately,
Gilbert Elliot.[235:1]
(I set out this moment.)
Brussels, 15th September, 1764.
Hume to Gilbert Elliot of Minto.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-41-320.jpg)
![He seems to be a genteel, well-bred man; lives in a very
good house in an excellent quarter of the town; is well
spoke of by D'Alembert and others; and has with him two
very agreeable boys, Russian princes, who speak French
very well. I should have given him the preference, had it
not been the price. He asks ten thousand livres a-year for
your two sons and their governor, without supplying them
either with clothes or masters. You know his ten thousand
a-piece included all expenses. If you can resolve to go so
far in point of expense, it is the best place that occurs, or
is likely to occur.
"Since I wrote the above, I went to see Mademoiselle
L'Espinasse, D'Alembert's mistress, who is really one of the
most sensible women in Paris. She told me that there
could not be a worthier, honester, better man, than
Bastide. I told her that I had entertained the same
opinion, but was afraid his head-piece was none of the
best. She owned that he did not excel on that side; and a
proof of it was, that he had wrote several books, all of
which were below middling. On my return home, I found
the enclosed letter from him.[237:1] I have promised him
an answer by the return of the post from England. On the
whole, the chief advantage, as it appears to me, which his
house will have above Anson's, consists in the air and
situation. It lies on the skirts of the town, in an open
street near the rampart; but five thousand livres a-year is
paying too dear for the advantage.
"I cannot imagine what you mean by saying I am on a
precipice. I shall foretell to you the result of my present
situation almost with as great certainty as it is possible to
employ with regard to any future event. As soon as Lord
Hertford's embassy ends, which probably may not
continue long, some zealot, whom I never saw, and never
could offend, finding me without protection, will instanter](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-43-320.jpg)
![fly, with alacrity, to strike off that pension which the king
and the ministry, before I would consent to accept of my
present situation, promised should be for life. I shall be
obliged to leave Paris, which I confess I shall turn my back
to with regret. I shall go to Thoulouse or Montauban, or
some provincial town in the south of France, where I shall
spend, contented, the rest of my life, with more money,
under a finer sky, and in better company than I was born
to enjoy.
"From what human motive or consideration can I prefer
living in England than in foreign countries? I believe,
taking the continent of Europe, from Petersburg to Lisbon,
and from Bergen to Naples, there is not one who ever
heard of my name, who has not heard of it with
advantage, both in point of morals and genius. I do not
believe there is one Englishman in fifty, who, if he heard I
had broke my neck to-night, would be sorry. Some,
because I am not a Whig; some because I am not a
Christian; and all because I am a Scotsman. Can you
seriously talk of my continuing an Englishman? Am I, or
are you, an Englishman? Do they not treat with derision
our pretensions to that name, and with hatred our just
pretensions to surpass and govern them? I am a citizen of
the world; but if I were to adopt any country, it would be
that in which I live at present, and from which I am
determined never to depart, unless a war drives me into
Switzerland or Italy.
"I must now inform you what passed with regard to my
affair at L'ile-Adam.[238:1] My friend showed me a letter,
which she had lately received from Lord Tavistock, by
which it appears he had fallen into great friendship, and
bore a great regard to Lady Sarah Bunbury. I instantly
forbade her to write to England a line about my affair. I
bear too great a respect to her, to expose her to ask a](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-44-320.jpg)
![favour, where there was so little probability of success:
thus have vanished my best hopes of obtaining justice in
this point. Here is surely no new ground of attachment to
England."[239:1]
Hume to Gilbert Elliot of Minto.
"Hotel de Brancas, 30th Sept. 1764.
"After acknowledging that I received both your letters,
that from Brussels, and that from Calais, I should be
ashamed to appear before you with so late a letter. This
day fortnight, Lord March and Selwin appointed to go off.
I sent March a very long letter for you, and enjoined him,
as he lived next door to you, to deliver it the moment he
arrived; and having thus done my duty, I went very
contentedly to L'ile-Adam, where I remained for four days.
On my return to Paris, I was much surprised to hear that
March, after his post-chaise was yoked, had changed his
mind, and was still in Paris. When I appeared alarmed at
this intelligence, I was told that he had sent off an express
to London with letters, which composed my mind. Next
day I saw him, and he fairly confessed, that from
forgetfulness, he had not sent off my letter. I begged him
to send it to me; he promised it, delayed it, promised
again, and at last owns that he has lost it; which gives me
great vexation, both on your account, and my own, for I
spoke to you with great freedom, and am infinitely uneasy
lest my letter should fall into bad hands.[241:1] When I rail
at March, I get no other reply than, 'God damn you! if
your letter was of consequence, why the devil did you
trust it to such a foolish fellow as me?' I am therefore
obliged, in a great hurry, to give you some imperfect
account of what I have done. I went to Ansons', who
seem a discreet, sober set of people. I came in upon a
mixed company, whose looks pleased me: the only](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/13033-250314215141-226bee95/85/Developing-Management-Skills-9th-Edition-Whetten-Solutions-Manual-45-320.jpg)
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- 5. 8-1 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. CHAPTER 8 EMPOWERING AND ENGAGING OTHERS Learning Objectives 1. Empower Others 2. Empower Yourself 3. Engaging Others Effectively Resources for Teaching the Chapter It is important to stress that the concepts of delegating and empowering are much more than jargon or empty buzzwords in the field. Rather, they are integral to the effective functioning of every organization. The following sections provide resources to help instructors guide their students through the five- step Model for Developing Management Skills (See Table 2 in the Introduction of the textbook). SKILL ASSESSMENT Before reading the chapter, have students complete the Personal Inventory Assessment instruments in MyManagementLabTM . Scores indicate the extent to which individuals have developed competency in the relevant skills and the extent to which they need to improve. Because this chapter focuses on students becoming more aware of their own styles and inclinations, the assessment instruments constitute the core learning material in the chapter. Most of the text material explains the relevance of these instruments and provides research-based information about their association with management success. Effective Empowerment and Engagement Instrument. This survey consists of several questions from PAMS, Personal Assessment of Management Skills, as well as additional items identifying important aspects of empowerment and delegation. As with all assessment instruments, it is instructive for students to retake the survey at the end of their learning activities for the chapter or for the course. Questions to Trigger Reflection and Discussion: On which aspects of the empowerment and delegation survey did you score very high or very low? Why do these areas seem to stand out? Are there elements on which others might view you very differently than you view yourself? Which elements of empowerment and delegation do you think would be the most difficult to implement as a manager? How do your scores on this instrument compare with those on the Gaining Power and Influence assessment survey? Do you see a pattern that might suggest an underlying management philosophy?
- 6. 8-2 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. Discussion objective: Help students explore how their results on this survey apply to their own experiences. Help them see that we can develop increased skill in empowerment through practice and application. Personal Empowerment Assessment. This survey is designed to identify the extent to which students feel empowered in their own work. Students derive a mean score for five factors: self- efficacy (competence), self-determination (choice), personal control (impact), meaningfulness (value), and trust (security). Scores can be compared to those of approximately 3,000 middle managers in manufacturing and service organizations (as shown in the scoring section at the end of the chapter). Questions to Trigger Reflection and Discussion: Did any of your scores surprise you? Discuss very high or very low scores and their implications for management. What do you think are the most difficult elements to implement as a manager? Discussion objective: Help students explore how their results on this survey apply to their own experiences. Help them see that we can develop increased personal empowerment through practice and application. SKILL LEARNING Following is an outline of key concepts developed in the Skill Learning section of Chapter 8: Empowering and Engaging Others • Empowerment means providing freedom for people to do successfully what they want to do, rather than getting them to do what you want them to do. • Empowerment is a “pull” strategy; it energizes intrinsic encouragement rather than a “push” strategy where managers induce employees through incentives. • Power and empowerment are different; You can give a person power, but it is up to him or her to accept empowerment. Dimensions of Empowerment • There are five dimensions of empowerment: 1. Self-efficacy is the feeling that one has the capability to perform a specific task successfully. 2. Self-determination is a feeling that one has a choice to voluntarily and intentionally pursue a task, rather than being forced to do so. 3. Personal consequence is the conviction that through one’s own actions, one can influence outcomes. 4. Meaning is a perception of intrinsic value in the activity. 5. Trust is confidence that one will be treated fairly and equitably, and that those holding authority or power positions will not harm or injure them. How to Develop Empowerment • Research suggests at least nine specific prescriptions for fostering empowerment, and thus producing a sense of competence, choice, impact, value, and security: 1. Articulating a clear goal o Set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Aligned, Realistic, Time- bound) 2. Fostering personal mastery experiences o Foster small wins by breaking large tasks into smaller ones
- 7. 8-3 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. 3. Modeling o Provide examples of past successful behavior 4. Providing support o Praise the employees’ performance regularly 5. Creating emotional arousal o Replace negative emotions with positive ones, such as excitement, passion, and anticipation 6. Providing necessary information o Ensure that employees have all task-relevant information, as well as information on policy and changes 7. Providing necessary resources o Ensure that employees have needed training, development, time, and equipment 8. Connecting to outcomes o Ensure task identity by giving employees opportunities to accomplish the whole task so they can see results 9. Creating confidence o Five factors help create a sense of confidence: a. Reliability: be consistent, dependable, and stable b. Fairness: clarify standards and expectations and ensure that they are applied in an unbiased way. c. Caring: show a sense of personal concern and validate others’ points of view. d. Openness: be straightforward and honest. e. Competence: develop the necessary ability, experience, and knowledge to perform tasks and solve problems. Inhibitors to Empowerment • There are three board categories of factors that inhibit a manager’s use of empowerment: 1. Attitudes about subordinates, particularly a manager’s belief that employees are incompetent are uninterested. 2. Personal insecurities, such as fears that one will lose recognition and rewards if one empowers others. 3. Need for control, or a desire to be in charge and to direct and govern. Fostering Engagement • Engagement is the process by which a manager gets another person involved in doing work, and helps them to succeed. • Deciding when to engage others involves considering the following questions: 1. Does the other person have the necessary information or expertise? If so, they may be more qualified than the manager to perform the task. 2. Is the other person’s commitment critical to successful implementation? If so, engaging them in the work is preferable. 3. Will engagement expand the other person’s capabilities? If so, engaging is an opportunity for development. 4. Does the other person share your values and perspectives? If not, engaging others may be problematic. 5. Is there sufficient time to engage others? If not, engaging others may be problematic.
- 8. 8-4 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. • Deciding whom to engage others requires the manager to consider whether they should engage individuals or a team in the work o Figure 8.2 provides a diagram to guide decision making about whom to engage. • Deciding how to engage involves following these 10 principles: 1. Begin with the end in mind by articulating desired results 2. Identify boundaries, including rules, procedures, deadlines, etc. 3. Specify the level of initiative so that the employee knows how much initiative he or she can take 4. Allow participation by giving people an opportunity to decide when or how to complete tasks 5. Match authority with responsibility by making sure that people have the power needed to accomplish the task 6. Provide adequate support by ensuring sufficient resources and bestowing credit 7. Focus accountability on results 8. Be consistent 9. Avoid upward delegation by not re-assuming tasks that you have handed off to other people 10. Clarify consequences for failure on the task SKILL ANALYSIS (CASES) Following are resources to help instructors teach the cases that appear in the text: Minding the Store This case addresses both empowerment and empowered delegation. Ken Hoffman named Ruth Cummings as the branch manager of a Saks Fifth Avenue store and told her on the first day “Ruth, I’m putting you in charge of this store. Your job will be to run it so that it becomes one of the best stores in the system. I have a lot of confidence in you, so don’t let me down.” The case details problems that arise between Ken and Ruth regarding his delegation. Possible answers to the discussion questions are: 8.1. What guidelines related to empowerment were violated by Ken Hoffman? By Ruth Cummings? Ken violated many empowerment principles. He did not delegate completely (rather, he acted as if he did, but criticized Ruth for not following rules—which he had not informed her of, another violation). He gave her no deadlines and set an ambiguous goal. He did not specify the level of initiative he expected of Ruth, nor did he encourage her to help set objectives. Ken did not give her enough authority to carry out the responsibility with which he charged her, nor did he provide any support to carry out the task he assigned. He did not foster personal mastery experiences or model properly, and he certainly did not show confidence in her. For her part, Ruth did not seek to clarify the objectives or have Ken specify acceptable levels of performance. She also should have asked about budget, requested more information, and asked more about her accountability. 8.2. What guidelines related to delegation were violated Ken Hoffman? By Ruth Cummings?
- 9. 8-5 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. Ken violated each of the delegation guidelines. 8.3. What should Ruth Cummings and Ken Hoffman discuss in their meeting? Identify specific agenda items that should be raised? They need to discuss Ken’s expectations and the degrees of freedom he will give Ruth. She needs to tactfully discuss Ken’s weaknesses. 8.4. What are the questions that Ruth should ask Ken to help her acquire the necessary elements of empowerment? What questions should Ken ask Ruth to be better able to ensure her success? Ruth needs to learn more about the rules and regulations of the company as well as the resources available to her. Ken needs to explain his expectations, the company policy, and procedures. 8.5. If you were an outside consultant attending the meeting, what advice would you give Ken? What advice would you give Ruth? Students may enjoy role-playing the meeting between Ruth and Ken after they have devised an appropriate agenda. Assign another student to play the role of the outside consultant attending the meeting. Changing the Portfolio This case involves someone without the expertise to make a decision. Encourage students to use Figure 8.2 in the chapter to justify their choice. Students should focus on specific actions to empower the subordinates in their participation, such as setting time limits and making available the kinds of information and human resources that are needed. Frequently, students think of six weeks as a long time. They need to be clear about how much time a detailed analysis and report might take in the real world (with additional day-to-day duties). Following are supplemental cases that do not appear in the textbook, but serve as a resource that instructors can use in class. Campus Life Problem: Empowering and Delegating Situation. Alexa Berke has been involved with her campus’s student service organization for two years helping with various activities. Last week, the advisor for the Students with Disabilities office, Janet Liu, approached her to ask if she would be interested in heading up the university’s Disability Awareness Week (DAW) this year. Overwhelmed, but anxious to try out her newly learned management skills, she accepts. It is now Monday afternoon, and she is flipping through last year’s DAW binder of notes. Janet wants Alexa to increase total student participation in DAW activities this year as well as to encourage all volunteers to continue working with the Students with Disabilities office. It is up to Alexa to plan the volunteer committees and organize the events in such a way that these two goals are accomplished. Resources. Janet gave Alexa a list of volunteers, some who worked in various capacities on last year’s DAW, some who regularly volunteer for other events, and some first-time volunteers. She also gave her a schedule of last year’s events. List of Volunteers Last Year’s Events
- 10. 8-6 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. Doug Chia (Junior; one of the committee chairs for multicultural week last year; his strength is organization) All Week—booths on campus Monday—wheelchair basketball tournament Tuesday—guest speaker Natasha Tartonne (Sophomore; worked on the DAW benefit concert committee last year; very outgoing) Wednesday—lead dog showcase Thursday—play by deaf performance group Friday—benefit concert Eliott Littlefield (Senior; regularly volunteers for campus events but doesn’t like to take charge) Oscar Hillett (Sophomore; participant in last year’s DAW wheelchair race; first-time volunteer; seems reluctant) Saturday—5 k wheelchair race Questions to Trigger Reflection and Discussion: Using the material in the chapter as a guide, what do you believe is the appropriate delegation strategy for Alexa to take when forming her committee? Specifically, given her task, Janet’s goals, and the individuals she’ll be working with, decide when (how much) and to whom Alexa should delegate authority for the DAW activities. How can Alexa use the principles of empowerment to energize and encourage her committee members to do a good job on their assignments and continue to work with Students with Disabilities? Discuss how Alexa could use the 10 principles of delegation to accomplish her goal of empowering committee members. Discussion objective: Challenge the students to use concepts from this chapter (e.g., empowerment and engagement) as they come up with a set of suggestions for Alexa. Encourage them to draw upon their own experiences in their responses. Following are descriptions of clips from feature films that instructors might use as further in- class skill analysis activities: Clockwatchers Four young women hold temporary positions at the same company. Although each of them has a different reason for temping, their common categorization bonds them—until a series of odd thefts begins. Clips (0:00:00–0:2:55; 0:06:30–0:12:10). When Iris (Toni Collette) arrives for her first day, she is told to wait in the reception area until someone comes to give her an assignment. Two hours pass before Barbara (Debra Jo Rupp) arrives to tell her that she should have spoken up. Without even asking Iris’s name or giving her any background about the company, Barbara gives Iris a typing task. On Iris’s second day, she meets another temp, Margaret (Parker Posey). While showing Iris around the floor, Margaret tells her that temps are not treated as well as permanent employees and warns her of the challenge of looking busy. Margaret is stopped by someone who asks her to do some work for him. Not only does he not know her name, but he does not even remember that she has done work for him in the past.
- 11. 8-7 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. Questions to Trigger Reflection and Discussion: How does Margaret’s job make her feel? Why? Why does Margaret perceive that temporary employees at this company are unimportant? What do the behaviors of the managers in this company communicate about their views toward temporary employees? Some might argue that it does not matter if temporary work is alienating and dehumanizing. What would you do to convince them that their thinking is misguided? How can managers and organizations empower their temporary employees? Discussion objective: Help students explore how this film clip depicts the process by which people empower or engage others. Allow them to speculate about how the processes depicted in this clip might apply to their own lives. Chinatown In this film noir set in Los Angeles in the 1930s, a private detective’s investigation of an extramarital affair leads him into a personal and political labyrinth. Clip (0:12:35–0:14:20). Private investigator Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by a woman who tells him her husband, Hollis Mulwray, is having an affair. Jake meets with Walsh (Joe Mantell), one of his assistants, who has been following Mulwray. Walsh shows Jake the photographs he has taken of Mulwray, after trailing him painstakingly for several hours. He tells Jake that he observed Mulwray arguing with a man. When Walsh reports that traffic was too heavy for him to discern the topic of their argument, Jake disparages him. Walsh defends himself by saying that Jake asked him to take pictures, to which Jake retorts, “This business requires a certain amount of finesse.” Questions to Trigger Reflection and Discussion: Apparently, Jake had expected and wanted Walsh to do more than take photographs. What should he have told Walsh before sending him to trail Mulwray? What could Jake have done to clarify the purpose and significance of this particular task and his desired outcomes? How else could Jake have delegated more effectively? Managers may respond with surprise, frustration, and/or disappointment when their subordinates do not execute tasks as they had wished. These managers often fail to recognize their delegation deficiencies. How can managers be encouraged to take responsibility for effective delegation? How enthusiastic was Walsh about his work product at the beginning of his meeting with Jake? What was his mood at the end of their meeting? What are the implications for the impact of inappropriate delegation on a subordinate’s work attitudes and behaviors? Discussion objective: Help students explore how this film clip depicts the process by which people empower or engage others. Allow them to speculate about how the processes depicted in this clip might apply to their own lives. Whale Rider This movie tells the story of Paikea (Pai), a Maori girl who is the granddaughter of Koro, the chief of their tribe. By custom and tradition, the title of tribal chief belongs to the first-born male
- 12. 8-8 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. descendant of the current chief. But Paikea’s mother and twin brother died in childbirth, and her father, Porougangi, an artist, has no interest in becoming chief. Porougangi leaves the village, leaving Paikea to be raised by Koro and her grandmother, Nanny Flowers. Clip (3:10 – 3:30) “Everyone was waiting for the first born boy to lead us, but he died, and I didn’t.” Clip (16:39 – 19:02) A discussion between Koro and Pai about “where we come from.” During the conversation, Koro is trying to start a boat motor. The rope he is using breaks. As he goes to get a new one, Pai weaves the old rope together and starts the motor. Koko is very upset with her on his return. How does Koko’s reaction to Pai’s accomplishment change her perception of what she has done? Clip (34:30 – 38:15) This clip shows the ritual associated with starting a school to teach chiefly skills to the firstborn males of the tribe. Although Koro is teaching the class, it is Nanny Flowers and Pai who perform the chant to call it to order. However, after initiating the class, Pai is sent away. Does empowerment always involve an element of defiance? In what ways does Pai defy Koro? Clip (41:40 – 44:08) In this clip, Pai hears the whales calling to her for the first time. Her grandmother comes and talks to Pai about what is happening with her grandfather. How does Nanny Flower’s offer of training change Pai’s perspective of what is possible? Joe Versus the Volcano This film is a whimsical story of Joe Banks, who feels so alienated in his horrible office job that he sets out on a journey of self-discovery. The early part of the film provides very striking and comical examples of disempowerment and lack of engagement. Clip (6:40 – 10:50ß) Joe (Tom Hanks) is settling into his dreary office and turns on his colorful tropical lamp. DeDe (Meg Ryan), the secretary, enters and reminds Joe of a deadline his boss has given him. Joe explains that he can’t complete the task because he wasn’t given the resources he needed. DeDe leaves, and the boss, Mr. Waturi (Dan Hedaya) enters. He grills Joe about why he failed to complete the task. Through the conversation, it becomes clear that Mr. Waturi has not given Joe the training, authority, or resources he needs, yet still expects Joe to complete the job. As he leaves the office, Mr. Waturi demands that Joe put away his tropical lamp. Questions to Trigger Reflection and Discussion: Mr. Waturi’s lack of empowerment skills is laughable. But comedy is only funny when there is a kernel of truth to it. Do you recognize any of Mr. Waturi’s mistakes in the employers you have had? What is disempowering about Joe’s job? If you were the new boss replacing Mr. Waturi, what would be your first steps?
- 13. 8-9 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. In what ways did Mr. Waturi fail to engage Joe effectively? Point out that he didn’t consider Joe’s resource needs, didn’t help him develop the skills he needs, and didn’t give him the authority to make decisions. Why did Mr. Waturi’s attempts to empower Joe fail? Point out that the title Mr. Waturi gave Joe was a hollow gesture and didn’t really represent trust. What should Joe do to empower himself in the organization? If Mr. Waturi was your boss, what steps might you take to increase your sense of autonomy and efficacy? Discussion objective: Help students explore how this film clip depicts the process by which people empower or engage others. Allow them to speculate about how the processes depicted in this clip might apply to their own lives. SKILL PRACTICE (EXERCISES) Following are resources to help instructors teach the practice activities that appear in the text: Executive Development Associates Exercise This exercise gives students a real taste of management decisions. The instructions in the text ask students to complete their own responses to the memos on the worksheet provided. Once students have individually answered their response to each memo; break them into smaller groups to compare and discuss strategies. Depending on the time available, reporting to the class as a whole can spark an interesting discussion. It appears that Mary Ann’s Tuesday will prompt a major headache unless she can competently delegate many of these tasks to her staff. As students in teams share their action plans, ask each team to come up with a model action plan to present to the class as a whole. For each plan, ask students What are the good points about this plan? What could be improved? Are there some aspects that need to be added? Identify specific principles of empowerment for each plan. Empowering Ourselves In this exercise students must identify ways in which the empowerment of members of the graduating class could be enhanced. This exercise is designed to help students personalize the concept of empowerment. Because no one can truly empower another person—only create conditions where people can accept empowerment for themselves—this exercise focuses on how one might do that. Ask students to use the material in the text to create ideas for their own empowerment. They should apply the exercise to their own circumstances right now. What specifically could they do to enhance their own self-efficacy? How would they increase their own self-determination? And so forth.
- 14. 8-10 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. Ask for specific actions, not just hypothetical or unrealistic suggestions. Then put people into small groups and ask them to share their ideas. Ask each group to identify two or three ideas that are especially noteworthy and worth sharing with the entire class. Deciding to Engage Others Instructions. Use the model in the chapter (Figure 8.2) to analyze the two case studies in the textbook. Form students into a small group, and ask them to specifically address each of the questions in the model. Disagreements will naturally arise, but discussing and resolving them will create the best learning environment. The model becomes clear only as students have a chance to explain their rationale for making certain choices. Here is the analysis for the two cases. An Emergency Request Question: Analysis: Is it a group or individual problem? Group, because the task affects subordinates. Is there a quality requirement? Yes, because one way is better than another. Does the manager have needed information? Yes, the manager has experience. Is the problem structured or unstructured? Structured, because routine changes are required. Do subordinates have to accept the decision? No, because they have no discretion in implementation. Are subordinates likely to accept the decision? Yes, because close supervision is accepted. Does everyone share a common goal? Yes, all want the firm to be profitable. Is conflict among subordinates likely? No, as there is no investment in a prior alternative. Do subordinates have needed information? No, subordinates are inexperienced. Choice: Make an individual decision if time is the important factor. If training of subordinates is the important factor, form a team and participate in the team’s discussions. Biological Warfare Question: Analysis: Is it a group or individual problem? Group, because the task must involve subordinates. Is there a quality requirement? Yes, because one solution is better than another. Does the manager have needed information? No, additional information is needed. Is the problem structured or unstructured? Structured, because the required information is known. Do subordinates have to accept the decision? No, because they have no discretion in implementation. Are subordinates likely to accept the decision? Yes, because the manager has clear authority. Does everyone share a common goal? No, the plant manager is probably opposed. Is conflict among subordinates likely? Yes, as value conflicts may arise. Do subordinates have needed information? Yes, the required information is known by someone. Choice: Make an individual decision after consulting with others and obtaining needed data. Following are supplemental activities that do not appear in the textbook, but serve as a resource that instructors can use in class. Engagement in the World of Sports
- 15. 8-11 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. Purpose: To gain real-world knowledge about engagement and empowerment by finding out how head coaches of sports teams work with the assistant coaches who report to them. This exercise also allows students to learn from the experiences and perceptions of the specialized coaches. Procedure: Students should pair up to interview the head coach of a school or local sports team (such as a baseball or football team) and at least one specialized coach who reports to that head coach. Ideally, each student pair should approach a different team (or at least a different specialized coach). In addition, students should watch these coaches in action during a sporting event, if possible. The student pairs are seeking to understand: What decisions the head coach delegates to the specialized coaches Under what circumstances the head coach involves the specialized coaches in decision-making How much self-efficacy, authority, and responsibility the specialized coaches have When and why the specialized coaches use upward delegation How the managers develop their specialized coaches through successful empowerment Have each student pair make a brief (five minute) oral presentation summarizing its findings, then discuss the results of this assignment. Discussion questions include: Did all the head coaches exhibit effective empowerment and engagement (according to the principles in this chapter)? What variations in empowerment and engagement can students identify among the head coaches? How did these variations appear to affect relations with the specialized coaches? For example, did the head coaches express or exhibit trust of their subordinates—and did the specialized coaches mention or demonstrate how this influenced their ability to work with the players? How did the head and specialized coaches use praise to motivate? Who made the major decisions? How often did head coaches consult specialized coaches, and vice versa? How do students think that relations between the specialized coaches and the head coaches affected overall team performance? Student Empowerment Purpose: To model empowerment so that students can experience being a recipient of it. Procedure: Offer an opportunity for group empowerment in the classroom by asking the class how they would like this chapter taught. Elicit their ideas—use the opportunity to discuss creative problem solving, questions of power (how much would you as students really have in this scenario? How could you determine the true level of this power?). Make sure you discuss the feelings that this approach prompts. Have students write in their journals their immediate reactions to your announcement. Did the feelings change over time? Were they affected by the manner in which this “turnabout” was announced? If appropriate for your class, another way to provide student empowerment, but at an individual level, is to offer students the opportunity to design or redesign one of their assignments, or to determine what relative weighting their assignments will have in the grading scheme (within
- 16. 8-12 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. reasonable constraints). Ask students how this policy affects their feelings about the class or their enthusiasm about their assignments. Encourage them to think about how they might implement similar empowerment techniques as managers and discuss what the likely outcomes will be. Make sure, if you use this exercise, that you actually do use some or most of the students’ ideas. (Or, to show the flip side, go through the exercise and then arbitrarily announce that none of their ideas will really be used. Discuss their feelings and reaction to being “disempowered.”) Questions to Trigger Reflection and Discussion: What feelings and attitudes did this spark among your classmates? Did it affect the way you felt about the instructor? What implications does that have for managers who use this approach? What responsibilities does this empowerment give to you? What are the implications for the workforce? (Get at the notion of whether people need to be prepared for empowerment, or whether some workers might not want to be given the responsibility.) What about the word empowerment itself? Does it have positive or negative connotations for you? Can you foresee that others would have different responses to the word? How would that affect a group task such as this? What are the effects of empowerment on problem solving, creativity, power issues, conflict resolution, stress, decision making? Discussion objective: Challenge the students to translate the experience they had with this exercise into an organizational setting. Encourage them to reflect on opportunities (even missed ones) for empowerment that they have observed in the past. Learning to Engage Others Purpose: To practice the skills of engaging others. If students have limited managerial experience, they may assume that engagement means just telling someone else what to do. Procedure: Divide students into teams of three, where one student acts as the delegator, one as the recipient of the delegated assignment, and the other as the observer. Then assign one of the following delegation tasks to the team. Rotate team member roles so that each student has a chance to be the delegator. Make sure that the observer has time to provide feedback to the delegator. The observer should look for: 1. The extent to which the delegation occurred clearly and completely. 2. The extent to which participation was allowed. 3. The extent to which there was parity of authority and responsibility. 4. The extent to which the delegation included adequate support. 5. The extent to which accountability for results was specified, both in terms of time and outcome. 6. The extent to which teamwork, trust, and support were engendered. Suggested delegation tasks: 1. You must finish a scholarly paper by next week and the bibliography is not yet developed.
- 17. 8-13 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. 2. Someone in your organization will need to spend three weeks opening up a new market for your company in Mexico. 3. Bookkeeping tasks, including paying monthly bills, have become too much to handle, and someone else needs to be assigned to do it for you. 4. A customer accused some of your employees of getting drunk at a community picnic. Someone needs to investigate to determine if this accusation is true. Questions to Trigger Reflection and Discussion: Was engaging others easy or difficult to do? Did the delegator effectively employ all of the traits of engaging others? For recipients, was it possible to improve engagement by the questions you asked? If you were to give someone advice about how to engage others, what guidelines would you recommend? Discussion objective: Create a safe atmosphere where students can provide genuine feedback to their peers about their implementation of the course concepts. Allow the students to explore how the exercise provides insights into their real-life experiences. Empowerment: As Advertised Purpose: To challenge students to consider what a manager can do to go beyond empowerment as a buzzword and foster empowerment within a specific work environment. Completing this exercise reinforces the connections between the five dimensions of empowerment and the nine prescriptions for fostering empowerment, as shown in Figure 8.1 and Table 8.3 of the text. Procedure: Tell students that they are playing the role of manager of a local fast-food restaurant (or another type of business with which the entire class is likely to be familiar). As manager, they want to encourage the empowerment of counter, kitchen, cleanup, and all other employees by fleshing out a specific plan for one of the nine prescriptions discussed in the chapter. Allow students to work independently or in small teams as they outline the details for at least four ways they can translate their assigned prescription into concrete actions in the restaurant environment. Ask students to present their plans to the class for discussion and evaluation. Invite cross conversation concerning how students would feel about the plans if they were employees. Some sample ideas for each prescription are: 1. Vision and values: Create a poster articulating and illustrating the restaurant’s vision statement; involve the employees in each functional area to participate in setting goals that contribute to the restaurant’s overall business objectives. 2. Personal mastery experiences: Announce an annual Olympic-style competition to encourage superior mastery of the tasks for each functional area; raise the minimum level of competency each month leading up to the competition. 3. Modeling: Rotate through each function and each shift so all employees can see model behavior in action; reward and publicize an employee’s exceptional performance to establish higher standards for coworkers. 4. Provide support: Praise good performance by writing personal notes and holding impromptu award ceremonies during employee meetings. 5. Emotional arousal: Use positive customer feedback (from informal surveys, for example) to prove to employees how their performance gives customers satisfaction and value for their money; arrange behind-the-scenes tours for Scouts and other
- 18. 8-14 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. groups to allow employees to show off their skills and make a personal connection with local customers. 6. Provide information: Hold weekly staff meetings to talk about companywide issues and goals, discuss progress toward the restaurant’s individual goals, and share information across functions and shifts. 7. Provide resources: Ensure ample stock of basic supplies for serving customers (carryout bags, food ingredients) and meeting employees’ on-the-job needs (staff bathroom supplies, paper for printouts). 8. Connect to outcomes: Have employees work at a different function for least one shift until all have rotated throughout the restaurant and seen how their usual function relates to all other functions—and to the end result of serving food to customers. 9. Create confidence: Establish specific standards for the employees performing each function so all will feel fairly treated when evaluated; be consistent in carrying out all the other prescriptions—including holding staff meetings when scheduled and distributing rewards when earned—to show reliability and build trust. To Engage or Not to Engage? Purpose: To gain a better appreciation for the complexity of a manager’s decision about engaging others in specific tasks. Students will practice applying the chapter model for engaging others under specific circumstances. Procedure: Have students work independently to read each of the following scenarios and determine, by answering the questions in Figure 8.2 of the chapter, whether or not the manager should engage others to complete the task—and if so, whether they should engage an individual or team. After students have made their choices, conduct a class discussion to analyze the circumstances in all three scenarios and allow students to compare choices. Because the scenarios are sketchy, students may be able to defend choices other than those suggested in the sample responses. Scenario 1: You are the office manager in a busy car-repair shop. You handle the shop’s credit functions and share a computerized accounting system with the bookkeeper and a newly hired accounts payable clerk, both of whom report to you. The owner has asked you for a recommendation, by next month, on which new accounting software package to buy. Scenario 2: You are the manager of a gift store in the mall, supervising 10 longtime salespeople. Now that Thanksgiving is just two weeks away, your store needs more creative ways of preventing shoplifting during the hectic year-end holiday buying blitz. Scenario 3: You are the operations manager in the local plant of a global manufacturing corporation. Your department has four shift supervisors (two per shift) and 80 assembly- line employees. A critical piece of machinery broke this morning, and the shift supervisor says it cannot be repaired. Your plant’s monthly production will fall considerably below forecast unless action is taken. Potential answers to the three scenarios related to the supplemental exercise titled “To Delegate or Not to Delegate?”
- 19. 8-15 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. Sample response to Scenario 1: The office manager should involve both of the employees because they possess relevant knowledge and skills, their acceptance is important, timing is not a critical factor, and conflicts may arise otherwise. The manager should form a group because disagreements may lead to a better solution—as the system is used by all—and time is not a crucial factor. The manager should not delegate total authority to the group, because the knowledge and talent of all three are needed to make a good decision. Finally, the manager should participate to provide leadership and contribute information about credit functions. Sample response to Scenario 2: The manager should involve others in the decision. All must accept the resulting plan and look out for shoplifters; time is short but not impossibly so; and this assignment may help develop some for managerial positions. The manager should direct subordinates to form a group, because interaction will boost motivation and structure the problem as well as leading to better solutions. The manager can delegate the decision to the group, because employees have enough experience and knowledge to complete the assignment. Finally, the manager need not participate; the employees have enough seasoning and initiative to lead themselves in making a suitable decision. Sample response to Scenario 3: The manager can make the decision alone, because time is very short, the acceptance and understanding of subordinates is not necessary, and no conflicts are likely to arise from making this decision. Students may also make a convincing case for the manager consulting with some subordinates to clarify the problem—and then making the decision alone, bearing in mind that time is quite short. Straw Towers Purpose: To give students an opportunity to practice and observe how a manager engages others in a specific task. Procedure: This exercise requires about 40 minutes of classroom time, but tends to provide a memorable and instructive experience that highlights the challenges of engaging others, as well as the benefits. To conduct this exercise, you will need to purchase a box of drinking straws (100 count recommended) for each group that will perform the task. If you choose to use actual rewards, you will also need to purchase an array of snacks for the winning team (see the Manager’s Instruction Sheet for details). Generally teams of 5-6 students work best. Begin by asking each group to select a “supervisor.” Then give each supervisor a box of straws and the Instruction Sheet (provided on the following page). Tell them they have 10 minutes to read the instruction sheet and plan their strategy. Remind them that they are only allowed to touch 8 straws during the preparation period. While the supervisors are preparing, return to the class and continue your lecture/discussion. When the 10 minutes is up, invite the supervisors back into the classroom. At this point, the supervisors take over and begin instructing their groups according to the instruction sheet. From this point on, you should refuse to answer any questions that come from a student who is not a supervisor. Simply remind them that they have to go through their supervisor to get information from you.
- 20. 8-16 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. When it is time, announce the beginning of the construction phase, and then give warnings as the completion deadline draws near (5 minutes, 2 minutes, etc.). When time is up, instruct all students to step away from their structure. Announce the winner when you have identified which tower is highest without falling over. Award the prizes to the winning supervisor and instruct him or her to allocate them as they see fit. At the end of the activity, use the following sorts of questions to lead a discussion about engaging others. To the supervisors: How did you come up with your strategy in the hallway? Did you feel limited by only being able to use 8 straws? How difficult was it for you not to be able to touch the straws once construction began? Did you start to feel useless? (Most students express a sense of frustration and a desire to do get involved in construction.) How quickly did expertise shift from you to your team? Did strategizing with 8 straws really prepare you for the bigger task? (point out that when we engage others, we create expertise and knowledge in others that we might not possess personally. Some managers find this idea threatening. Explore the benefits of creating greater expertise. You also may wish to point out that managers are sometimes ill-equipped to fully understand the challenges of the delegated task – i.e., 8 straws behave very differently than 100 straws do) When you realized that you couldn’t be of much assistance to the team’s construction effort, what did you do instead? (Most students realize that engaging others in the construction frees them up to do things like offer encouragement, look at the big picture, coordinate efforts, and evaluate what the competition is doing.) To the non-supervisors: How clear were your supervisor’s instructions to you? Did he or she effectively engage you? Why or why not? What did you learn about engagement from this exercise? Did you find it frustrating to be unable to communicate with me (the instructor) unless you went through your supervisor? Were these communication barriers disempowering to you? How did you feel about the supervisor’s allocation of rewards? Were you involved in deciding who would get which prize?
- 21. 8-17 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. STRAW TOWERS: Manager’s Instruction Sheet You have been hired to manage a team who will construct a tower made of plastic straws. You have complete authority over the work of the team and can make assignments and establish rewards as you like. The schedule for this project will proceed as follows: 1. Manager’s Personal Preparation. You have approximately 10 minutes to prepare on your own for this experience, during which time you may do the following: • Using 8 (and ONLY 8) plastic straws, practice constructing a tower and investigate various construction techniques. You may do this individually or collaborate with other managers. But remember that other managers are your competitors. • Decide upon a construction strategy that your team should use. • Decide what roles should be assigned to the team (you can divide up the labor any way you choose) • Decide how you will reward your team if they should win (the winning team will receive a compensation package including a candy bar, a protein bar, a pack of gum, a bottle of soda, and an apple). You have authority to judge who gets what. (You will also probably want to reward yourself too!) 2. Team Instruction. You have approximately 7 minutes of instruction time with your team, during which time you may do the following: • Explain the construction strategy you have selected for the team. However, NO ONE ON THE TEAM, YOURSELF INCLUDED, MAY TOUCH THE STRAWS DURING THIS TIME! You may draw diagrams, if you wish. • Explain the rules of the activity (listed below) • Give role assignments • Explain how you will distribute rewards. 3. Construction. Your team will have approximately 12 minutes to build the tower, abiding by the following list of rules. RULES • No one may touch the straws during the 7-minute preparation period. If a team member touches a straw, 6 inches will be deducted from the complete tower height. • The team may use all 100 straws, but may not use any resources other than their own hands (e.g., you may not use scissors, pencils, or tape, nor may the structure lean against or hang from anything else – you may use your teeth to work on the straws, but don’t hurt yourself!). You also may not borrow straws from another team. • The manager must never touch the straws during construction. If she or he does, 12 inches will be deducted from the completed tower height. • The manager may provide instruction, coaching and guidance during construction. • No team member may ask a question of the instructor. All questions must go to the manager (who may then seek the instructor’s assistance). • When the instructor calls time at the end of construction, all team members must immediately let go of the straw structure. The structure must stand on its own for at least 15 seconds to qualify for the reward. • After a structure has stood for 15 seconds, the team may support it with their hands while the instructor measures the height.
- 22. 8-18 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. • The team with the tallest standing structure will receive the compensation package, to be distributed among the team by the manager. SKILL APPLICATION Suggested Assignments These exercises provide opportunities for students to extend the learning experience outside the classroom. Your selection of assignments should take into consideration your students’ ages, access to organizations, employment status, etc. You should also consider which aspects of the chapter you spent the most time discussing in class. The Skill Application assignment can balance the emphasis placed on various topics. Assignment 8.10 asks the student to teach the skill of empowering. Assignment 8.11 involves asking a manager about his/her empowerment practices, whereas Assignment 8.12 asks students to look at the issue from the standpoint of using empowerment to obtain extra help. Frequently managers do not consider the practical benefits of letting employees have more responsibility and power. Assignment 8.13 can be tricky, as few managers will be secure enough to take a lesson in how to manage from a student. Prepare students for possible reactions. Application Plan and Evaluation One of the best ways to help students transfer their skill learning to a real-life setting is to have them create their own assignments. This application exercise is designed to help students identify the specific skills associated with the chapter that they want to improve. Urge students not to shortcut this exercise, but to complete each item on the form. That way they are forced to identify specific behaviors, a specific time frame, and specific reporting mechanisms that can help them actually implement a change in their skill behaviors outside the classroom environment. Step 8.14: Students identify the specific skill(s) they want to improve. Being required to write it down often helps clarify it in ways that would not occur otherwise. It is not good enough to just state something general. The skill(s) should be written behaviorally, using the behavioral guidelines as a model—as well as a source of ideas. Step 8.15: Students identify the circumstances in which the improvement efforts will occur. This focuses their attention on a particular problem or issue, a particular work situation, or a specific set of individuals. They should indicate when they will begin; otherwise it is easy to procrastinate. Step 8.16: Students identify specific behaviors in which they will engage in order to improve their skill performance. Completing this step will require some analysis and time; it should not be done hurriedly or perfunctorily. This step essentially operationalizes the improvement activity into observable actions. Step 8.17: Students identify specific outcomes that will indicate success. This is not easy for skills without a quantifiable outcome, but that is why this step is so important. Having students identify the ways they know they have improved in becoming more skillful will help them identify more clearly what they must do to improve. It is an important clarifying step.
- 23. 8-19 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. Appropriate outcomes might include increased satisfaction with a relationship or improved understanding. Students should be cautioned about using changes in another person’s behavior as the criteria for success. Instead, they should focus on outcomes they can control. Steps 8.18 through 8.20: Students analyze, evaluate, and record their improvement efforts. We suggest a journal as the best mechanism for doing the recording. These steps not only foster learning and self-understanding, they also can lead to a cycle of continuous improvement as ways are identified to enhance past performance. We usually have students hand in at least some of these skill application analyses as part of their grade for the course. This reinforces the merit of immediate application, and lets you give them written feedback and encouragement. These experiences can also be incorporated into subsequent class discussions. FOR FURTHER READING Forrester, Russ. (2000). Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea. Academy of Management Executive, 14(3), 67–80. The authors discuss six problems typically associated with the implementation of employee empowerment programs: (1) suddenly heaping extra tasks and responsibilities on insufficiently prepared employees, (2) myopically emphasizing psychological empowerment while overlooking other key factors, (3) ignoring employees’ varying readiness to embrace decision making, (4) failing to consider the effects on managers who are asked to share their power, (5) neglecting to institute systemic changes that support empowerment, and (6) increasing employees’ power over decisions and goals without correspondingly raising their performance accountability. They then recommend six ways organizations can enhance the effectiveness of empowerment efforts: (1) increasing employees’ power by granting them training, autonomy, and access to resources and relationships with stakeholders; (2) truly committing to enabling employees to establish and achieve their goals for the organization; (3) giving power to employees in proportion to their differing levels of readiness; (4) rewarding managers for sharing power, and letting them decide who should receive power and how much; (5) simultaneously altering other organizational systems to reinforce the new allocation of power; and (6) concentrating on the desired outcomes of empowerment. Labianca, Giuseppe, Gray, Barbara, & Brass, Daniel J. (2000, March–April). A grounded model of organizational schema change during empowerment. Organization Science, 11(2), 235–257. The authors’ analysis of an OD empowerment effort revealed the impact of cognitive barriers to change. In particular, the pervasiveness and robustness of employees’ old schema, especially in their interpretations of managers’ behavior, inhibits acceptance of new schemas, thereby reinforcing skepticism and creating resistance. The authors underscore managers’ need to (a) overturn old schemas with a critical mass of disconfirmatory evidence that will allow employees’ acceptance of new, more empowering schemas; and (b) reinforce new schemas through all of their behaviors. Spreitzer, Gretchen. (2008). Taking stock: A review of more than twenty years of research on empowerment at work. The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Behavior, Sage.
- 24. 8-20 Copyright © 2016Pearson Education, Inc. “In this chapter, I will conduct an in-depth review of the literature on empowerment at work. I start by framing the two classic approaches to empowerment – social- structural and psychological – before outlining the current state of the literature. I then close the chapter by discussing key debates in the field and emergent directions for future research.” Zhiang, Xiaomeng & Kathryn M. Bartol. (2010). Linking empowering leadership and employee creativity: The influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement. “Synthesizing theories of leadership, empowerment, and creativity, this research built and tested a theoretical model linking empowering leadership with creativity via several intervening variables. Using survey data from professional employees and their supervisors in a large information technology company in China, we found that, as anticipated, empowering leadership positively affected psychological empowerment, which in turn influenced both intrinsic motivation and creative process engagement. These latter two variables then had a positive influence on creativity. Empowerment role identity moderated the link between empowering leadership and psychological empowerment, whereas leader encouragement of creativity moderated the connection between psychological empowerment and creative process engagement.”
- 25. Another Random ScribdDocument with Unrelated Content
- 26. There is perhapsno more striking type of the character and condition of the Parisian coteries than one of Hume's most intimate friends, Madame Geoffrin. In this country, were an uneducated woman to frame and lead a social party, including the first in rank and in talent of the day, to which no one under royalty was too great not to deem admission a privilege; were she to be absolute in her admissions and exclusions, bold in her sarcasms, free and blunt often to rudeness in her observations and opinions, and severe or kind to all by turns as her own choice or caprice suggested, it would be at once pronounced that the reddest blood and the highest rank could alone produce such an anomaly. A very small number of eminent duchesses have perhaps occupied such a position in this country. Yet Madame Geoffrin, who acted this part to the full among the fastidious aristocracy of France before the revolution, was the daughter of a valet-de-chambre and the widow of a glass manufacturer. The foundation of her influence was her success in making herself the centre of a circle of artists and men of letters. She was much in the confidence of Madame De Tencin, and on that lady's death succeeded in transferring to herself what remained of her distinguished society, dimmed as it was by the departure of Montesquieu and Fontenelle. Madame Geoffrin by activity and energy widened the circle. She never made visits herself, and those who had the privilege of entering her dining-room on her public days, found there assembled D'Alembert, Helvétius, Raynal, Marmontel, Caraccioli, Holbach, Galliani, and the artist Vanloo. During the British embassy, David Hume, the great philosopher from the far North, might there be met; and when all other attempts had perhaps failed, some chance of encountering such an erratic meteor as Rousseau still remained in attending Madame Geoffrin's Wednesday dinner. Having once, by her signal wit and wisdom, gained her position, no obtrusive rivals from her own deserted class could push near enough to drive her from it. It is not the least admirable feature of this remarkable woman, that far from assuming the subdued and cautious tone of one of her own rank, who must be more wary than a denizen of committing breaches of the social rules of her new cast, a simplicity and freedom seems to have
- 27. accompanied all heractions and ideas; a courageous adoption of what seemed good to her in place of what might be fit. Her letters, in their severe diction, give some notion of the writer's character, but cannot convey so full an impression as when they are presented in the bold, irregular, and most "unlady-like" hand in which they are scribbled.[211:1] The pleasant retailers of the literary chit-chat of that time, Marmontel, Grimm, Bauchemont, and others, are full of details of Madame Geoffrin, who, if she was not quite as formally approached as Boufflers, or Deffand, was as much respected, loved, and feared. The author of the Contes Moraux," tells us some of the weaknesses of this gifted lady; and, according to his account, she had been actually convicted, living as she was outwardly in the freest society in the world, of a turn for secret devotion! "Elle avait un apartement dans un couvent de religieuses et une tribune à l'Eglise des Capucins,—mais avec autant de mystère que les femmes galantes de ce temps-là avaient des petites maisons." The picture would be sufficiently ludicrous, were it not for the darker features presented by a state of society, where no one should venture to be pious except under pain of being exterminated with ridicule. There was one matter as to which Madame Geoffrin was timid and cautious; she never meddled with matters of state or unsafe political opinions, and was induced to discountenance those who did so. Surrounded by restless and inquiring spirits, she often dreaded being compromised by their conduct; and was especially uneasy at any time when the Bastille sheltered a more than usual number of those whose wit was wont to flash round her board. But her guests have recorded, that if there was a little saddened and earnest gravity in her deportment, when she received them after such naughty affairs, she abated nothing of her old kindness. Her good heart indeed was after all her noblest quality. She was one of those who held the simple notion, that were it not for the judicious distribution of favours by the rich, the poor, including artisans and producers of all kinds, must necessarily die of starvation. She was thus in the midst
- 28. of an extensivedistribution of charities, actively occupied in the encouragement of those who lived by the sweat of their brow; and if she believed that she accomplished much more than she actually did, it was a satisfaction not to be grudged to one who occupied herself with the fortunes of the poor, in the midst of the stony indifference of the French aristocracy of that day. Another lady, a friend and correspondent of Hume, Madame le Page du Boccage, endeavoured to rival Madame Geoffrin as a centre of attraction; but though she possessed, along with wealth, both rank and beauty, she was unsuccessful, on account of the presence of a third quality—authorship. The wits must praise her bad poetry if they frequented her house, and where so many other doors were open without such a condition, they abandoned it. "Elle était d'une figure aimable," says Grimm, "elle est bonne femme; elle est riche; elle pouvait fixer chez elle les gens d'esprit et de bonne compagnie, sans les mettre dans l'embarras de lui parler avec peu de sincérité de sa Colombiade ou de ses Amazones."[213:1] Perhaps of all these eminent women, while Madame de Boufflers had the greatest amount of elegance and accomplishment, Madame du Deffand had the sharpest and most searching wit. She was the author of that proverbial bon mot about St. Denis carrying his head under his arm, il n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte; a saying sufficient to make a reputation in France. Madame du Deffand does not appear to have been a correspondent of Hume, nor, though they occasionally met, does much cordiality seem to have subsisted between them.[214:1] The aveugle clairvoyante, as Voltaire aptly called her, in allusion to her blindness and her wit, thought that she discovered in Hume a worshipper at another shrine. She wrote to Walpole expressing her disgust of those who paid court to Madame de Boufflers, at the same time, only just not stating, in express terms, how much they were mistaken in not transferring their obsequiousness to herself.[214:2] She, certainly an object of pity from her blindness, was still more so in her own discontented spirit. The days which tranquil ease and the attentions of kind friends might
- 29. have soothed, weredisturbed by restless vanity, an intense desire to interfere with the doings of that world which she could not see, dissipation, and literary wrangles. One remarkable person, an offshoot of Madame du Deffand's circle, and driven forth from it to raise an empire of her own, was Mademoiselle de L'Espinasse. Hume and she met frequently in Paris, and they subsequently corresponded together. She was an illegitimate child, who, having been well educated, had been adopted by Madame du Deffand as her companion, and the minister for supplying, as far as possible, her lost sense of sight. Mademoiselle had to be present at those displays of intellect which illuminated the table of her mistress. It soon began to transpire that the humble drudge possessed a soul of fire; and taking part in the conversation, her remarks rose as she acquired confidence and ease, into an originality of thought, fulness of judgment, and rich eloquence of language, which fascinated the senses of those veteran champions in the arena of intellect. Thus many of those who went to offer their incense to a woman old and blind, were constrained to bestow some of it on one "young in years, but in sage counsel old," who had little more outward claim on their admiration; for Mademoiselle de L'Espinasse was naturally plain, and was deeply marked with smallpox. The patroness did not present herself till six o'clock in the evening; to her who knew no difference between light and darkness it was morning. She often found that her protégée had been entertaining the guests for an hour, and that they had come early to enjoy her conversation. This was treason—an overt tampering with the allegiance of the followers; and the subordinate was driven forth with contumely. It is not easy to decide which party, if either, was in the right; though the memoir writers in general take the part of Mademoiselle de L'Espinasse. Far from being made a homeless wanderer by the dismissal, she was immediately supplied with a house and furniture by her friends, who obtained for her a pension from the crown. On these means she founded a rival establishment of her own; and surrounded herself with an intellectual circle, which seems to have
- 30. more than rivalledin brilliancy that from which she was dismissed. D'Alembert was told that if he countenanced the new idol, he must bid farewell to his former patroness. He at once joined the party of the young aspirant. He became dangerously ill, and Mademoiselle de L'Espinasse nursed him with the untiring affection of a wife or a daughter. The philosopher, whose humble dwelling was found to be on too sordid a scale to be consistent with health, thenceforth took up his abode with his young friend. Hume must have witnessed the rise of this new connexion, for it was during his residence in Paris that D'Alembert's illness took place, and it is the object of occasional anxious allusion by his Parisian acquaintance.[216:1] Though the circumstances in which he passed his earlier days were not likely to nourish such a taste, no man seems to have been more dependant on the presence of an educated and intellectual female than the secretary of the Academy. There is little doubt that the new attachment was of a Platonic character; but it boded evil to both parties. The lady, if she had some portion of the purer affections of the soul to bestow upon the sage, had warmer feelings for likelier objects; and her frame sunk before the consuming fires of more than one passion.[218:1] She was carried to an early grave, and the mortifications, caused by her alienation, followed by grief for her death, broke the spirit, and imbittered and enfeebled the latter days of the philosopher. Hume seems to have established a closer friendship with D'Alembert than with any of his other contemporaries in France; and he left a memorial of his regard for the encyclopediast in his will. Unlike, in many respects, they had some features in common. D'Alembert's personal character, and the habits of his life, had, like his philosophy, the dignity of simplicity. His figure, and still more his voice, were the objects of much malicious sarcasm; but cruel jests could not make his fragile body less the tenement of a noble spirit; or his shrill puny voice less the instrument of great and bold thoughts. His mind stands forth in strong relief from the frippery of that age; while his writings contain no marks of that reckless infidelity which distinguishes the productions of his fellow labourers. In some of those follies, so
- 31. prevalent that aman utterly free of them, must have courted the charge of eccentricity, if not of insanity, he partook; but moderately and reluctantly, as one suited for a better time and a nobler sphere of exertion. In the quarrel with Rousseau, he adopted the cause of Hume with honest zeal. He wrote many letters to Hume, which are still preserved. They perhaps, in some measure, exhibit the least amiable feature of his character—his bitterness, it might be almost termed hatred, towards Madame du Deffand, on account of her conduct to his own friend. It is unnecessary to discourse, at any length, on the distinguished men—including the names of Buffon, Malesherbes, Diderot, Crébillon, Morellet, Helvétius, Holbach, Hénault, Raynal, Suard, La Condamine, and De Brosses, who courted Hume's company in France. Next to D'Alembert, his closest friendship seems to have been with the honest and thoughtful statesman, Turgot; who, in the midst of that reckless whirl of vanity, was already looking far into the future, and predicting, from the disorganized and menacing condition of the elements of French society, the storm that was to come. He wrote many letters to Hume, containing remarks on matters of statesmanship and political economy, which are of great interest in a historical and economical view, especially in one instance, where he notices the want of any common principle of sympathies and interests connecting the aristocracy with the people, and reflects on the dangerous consequences of such a state of matters to the peace of Europe. There are many circumstances showing that much as he loved the social ease, combined with learning and wit, for which his Parisian circle was conspicuous, he disliked one prominent feature of that social system—the scornful infidelity, the almost intolerance of any thing like earnest belief, so often exhibited, both in speech and conduct. Sir Samuel Romilly has preserved the following curious statement by Diderot:—"He spoke of his acquaintance with Hume. 'Je vous dirai un trait de lui, mais il vous sera un peu scandaleux peut-être, car vous Anglais vous croyez un peu en Dieu; pour nous autres nous n'y croyons guères. Hume dîna avec une grande
- 32. compagnie chez leBaron D'Holbach. Il était assis à côté du Baron; on parla de la religion naturelle: 'Pour les Athées,' disait Hume, 'je ne crois pas qu'il en existe; je n'en ai jamais vu.' 'Vous avez été un peu malheureux,' répondit l'autre, 'vous voici à table avec dix-sept pour la première fois.'"[220:1] The secretary's residence in the metropolis was occasionally varied by official sojourns to Fontainbleau, or Compiègne, a visit to the Duchesse de Barbantane at Villers Cotterets, or an excursion with Madame de Boufflers and the Prince of Conti to L'Ile-Adam. That rural seat of princely magnificence and hospitality is a familiar name in the memoirs of the times; and particularly in those of Madame de Genlis. It is singular, indeed, that this lady never mentions Hume, though she appears to have been living in the castle at the time when he visited it. The Prince of Conti was in every way possessed of the external qualifications which, in the eyes of his countrymen, were then the proper ornaments of his high station. He was brave, a distinguished military leader, generous, extravagant, gallant, and a lover of literature and the arts.[221:1] There was probably little in such a character to rival a Turgot, or a D'Alembert in Hume's esteem; but his intercourse with this prince, as with De Rohan, De Choiseul, and others, would be of a more limited and formal character.[221:2] His influence with courtiers and statesmen, however, appears to have been considerable. In the letters addressed to him there are several instances where French people solicit his interposition with the great: thus, Madame Helvétius desires his good offices to procure an abbaye for her friend and neighbour the Abbé "Macdonalt," of an illustrious Irish family.[222:1] One lady, seeking ecclesiastical patronage, tells him that the clergy will have more pleasure in doing him a favour than in performing the functions of their office! Hume has thus recorded in his "own life" the impression left on him by his reception in Paris:—"Those who have not seen the strange effects of modes, will never imagine the reception I met with at Paris, from men and women of all ranks and stations. The more I
- 33. resiled from theirexcessive civilities, the more I was loaded with them. There is, however, a 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." If he thought that he could have taken up his residence in Paris, and preserved for the remainder of his days the fresh bloom of his reputation, he was undoubtedly mistaken; but, dazzled as he in some measure was, we can see in his correspondence that he estimated the sensation he made pretty nearly at its just value. In the circle of toys, seized and discarded, by a giddy fashionable crowd, philosophy will have its turn, as well as poodles, parrots, tulips, monkeys, cafés, and black pages. It had been so a century earlier, when the most abstruse works of Des Cartes had been the ornament of every fashionable lady's toilette; and now the wheel had revolved and philosophy was again in vogue. A second time we have Lord Charlemont affording us a passing sketch of Hume. Having had an opportunity of witnessing the philosopher's reception in France, he says:— "From what has been already said of him, it is apparent that his conversation to strangers, and particularly to Frenchmen, could be little delightful, and still more particularly, one would suppose, to French women: and yet no lady's toilette was complete without Hume's attendance. At the opera his broad unmeaning face was usually seen entre deux jolis minois. The ladies in France gave the ton, and the ton was deism: a species of philosophy ill suited to the softer sex, in whose delicate frame weakness is interesting, and timidity a charm. . . . . How my friend Hume was able to endure the encounter of these French female Titans, I know not. In England, either his philosophic pride or his conviction that infidelity was ill suited to women, made him perfectly averse from the initiation of ladies into the mysteries of his doctrine."[223:1] The same characteristics are recorded by Grimm.[223:2] We have his position still more vividly painted by Madame d'Epinay, according to whom he must have undergone not a small portion of the
- 34. martyrdom of lionism.One of the "rages" of the day was the holding of cafés, or giving entertainments in private houses, according to the arrangements and etiquette of a public café. Among the amusements of the evening were pantomimes, and acted tableaux. In these it was necessary that Hume should take a rôle, and as he was always willing to conform to established regulations, we find him seated as a sultan between two obdurate beauties, intending to strike his bosom, but aiming the blows at le ventre, and accompanying his acting with characteristic exclamations.[224:1] Hume's popularity in Paris appears to have somewhat disturbed Horace Walpole's equanimity. He was too good an artist to be very angry, or to express himself in terms of aggravated bitterness; but it is clear from occasional notices, that, notwithstanding his professed admiration of Scotsmen, it displeased him to find Hume the Scotsman sitting at the king's gate. Writing to Lady Hervey on 14th Sept. 1765, he says, "Mr. Hume, that is the mode, asked much about your ladyship."[225:1] Then to Montague, on the 22d of the same month, and in allusion to the conversation of the dinner-table in Paris: For literature, it is very amusing when one has nothing else to do. I think it rather pedantic in society: tiresome when displayed professedly; and, besides, in this country, one is sure it is only the fashion of the day. Their taste in it is the worst of all; could one believe, that when they read our authors, Richardson and Mr. Hume should be their favourites? The latter is treated here with perfect veneration. His History, so falsified in many points, so partial in as many, so very unequal in its parts, is thought the standard of writing. [225:2] Thus, and in the like strain, do the French suffer in his good opinion, for their offence in making an idol of Hume. So, on the 3d October, when writing to Mr. Chute,— Their authors, who by the way are every where, are worse than their own writings, which I don't mean as a compliment to either. In
- 35. general, the styleof conversation is solemn, pedantic, and seldom animated, but by a dispute. I was expressing my aversion to disputes: Mr. Hume, who very gratefully admires the tone of Paris, having never known any other tone, said with great surprise, "Why, what do you like, if you hate both disputes and whisk?"[225:3] Then, on the 19th of the same month, to Mr. Brand: I assure you, you may come hither very safely, and be in no danger from mirth. Laughing is as much out of fashion as pantins and bilboquets. Good folks, they have no time to laugh. There is God and the king to be pulled down first; and men and women, one and all, are devoutly employed in the demolition. They think me quite profane for having any belief left. But this is not my only crime; I have told them, and am undone by it, that they have taken from us to admire the two dullest things we had—Whisk and Richardson. It is very true that they want nothing but George Grenville to make their conversations, or rather dissertations, the most tiresome upon earth. For Lord Lyttelton, if he would come hither, and turn freethinker once more, he would be reckoned the most agreeable man in France,— next to Mr. Hume, who is the only thing in the world that they believe implicitly, which they must do, for I defy them to understand any language that he speaks.[226:1] At this time Adam Smith was travelling in France, with his pupil, the young Duke of Buccleuch. On 5th July, 1764, he writes from Toulouse, requesting Hume to give him and his pupil introductions to distinguished Frenchmen, the Duc de Richelieu, the Marquis de Lorges, &c. He says, that Mr. Townsend had assured him of these and other introductions, from the Duc de Choiseul, but that none had made their appearance in that quarter. Smith seems to have been heartily tired of the glittering bondage of his tutorship, and to have sighed for the academic conviviality he had left behind him at Glasgow. He says:— "The Duke is acquainted with no Frenchman whatever. I cannot cultivate the acquaintance of the few with whom I am acquainted, as I cannot bring them to our house, and am not always at liberty to
- 36. go to theirs.The life which I led at Glasgow, was a pleasureable dissipated life in comparison of that which I lead here at present. I have begun to write a book, in order to pass away the time. You may believe I have very little to do. If Sir James would come and spend a month with us in his travels, it would not only be a great satisfaction to me, but he might, by his influence and example, be of great service to the Duke."[228:1] There is little doubt that the book he had begun to write, was the "Wealth of Nations:" and we have here probably the earliest announcement of his employing himself in that work. On the 21st of October, he writes from Toulouse, stating that the letters of introduction had reached him, and that his noble pupil was well received. He says, "Our expedition to Bourdeaux, and another we have made since to Bagneres, has made a great change upon the Duke. He begins now to familiarize himself to French company; and I flatter myself I shall spend the rest of the time we are to live together, not only in peace and contentment, but in great amusement." Amidst the multiplied attractions of Paris, Hume's thoughts were often turned to his native city, and the circle of kind friends and admirers he had there left behind him. Such reminiscences of home doings as are contained in the following letters, would doubtless ensure his warm attention. On 1st July, Blair writes: Robertson has, of late, had worse health than usual, which has somewhat interrupted his studies. He talked once of a trip to France this season; but his want of the language is so discouraging, as seems to have made him lay aside thoughts of it for the present. It will be a twelvemonth more, I suppose, before his Charles V. shall see the light. I dined this day with Sir James Macdonald, on whose praises I need not expatiate to you. Much conversation we had about you; and a great deal I heard of your flourishing state. You write concerning it yourself, like a philosopher and a man of sense. The first splendour and eclat of such situations soon loses its lustre, and often, as you found it, is burdensome. Ease and agreeable society are the only things that last and remain; and these, now that you are quite
- 37. naturalized, and haveformed habits of life, I imagine you enjoy in a very comfortable degree. The society at Paris, to one who has all your advantages for enjoying it in its perfection, is, I am fully convinced, from all that I have heard, the most agreeable in the whole world. Our education here is at present in high reputation. The Englishes are crowding down upon us every season, and I wish may not come to hurt us at the last.[229:1] Jardine writes, on 1st August:— I have attempted, four or five times, to write to you but this poor church has, for some time past, been in such danger, that I could never find time for it. She has employed all my thoughts and care for these twelve months past. The enemy had kindled such a flame, that the old burning bush was like to have been consumed altogether. I know it will give you pleasure to hear that my endeavours to preserve her have been crowned with success. She begins to shine forth with her ancient lustre; and will very soon be, not only fair as the sun, but, to all her enemies, terrible as an army with banners.[230:1] It is pleasing to find one whose name has been so much associated with the later school of our national literature, as Mrs. Cockburn, the early friend of Scott, enjoying the intimacy of the sages of the philosophical age of Scottish letters. This accomplished lady, well known as the authoress of one of the versions of "The Flowers of the Forest," was a correspondent of Hume. A few of her letters have been preserved; and the following are her free and animated remarks on Hume's flattering reception in France,—remarks written in the full assurance that neither adulation nor prosperity would diminish the regard of that simple manly heart, for the chosen friends he had left in his native soil. From the bleak hills of the north, from the uncultured daughter of Caledon, will the adored sage of France deign to receive a few lines: they come from the heart of a friend, and will be delivered by the hand of an enemy. Which, O man of mode, is most indifferent to thee? Insensible thou art alike to gratitude or resentment; fit for the
- 38. country that worshipsthee. Thou art equally insensible to love or hate. A momentary applause, ill begot, and worse brought up,—an abortion, a fame not founded on truth,—have bewitched thee, and thou hast forgot those who, overlooking thy errors, saved thy worth. Idol of Gaul, I worship thee not. The very cloven foot, for which thou art worshipped, I despise: yet I remember thee with affection. I remember that, in spite of vain philosophy, of dark doubts, of toilsome learning, God had stamped his image of benignity so strong upon thy heart, that not all the labours of thy head could efface it. Idol of a foolish people, be not puffed up; it is easy to overturn the faith of a multitude that is ready to do evil: an apostle of less sense might bring to that giddy nation—libertinism; liberty they are not born to. This will be sent to you by your good friend, Mr. Burnet; who goes much such an errand as you have given yourself through life, viz., in search of truth; and I believe both are equally impartial in the search; though, indeed, he has more visible interests for darkening it than ever you had. Castlehill, Baird's Close, Aug. 20th, 1764.[231:1] Hume to Andrew Millar. "Paris, 3d September, 1764. "It is certain that nothing could be a greater inducement to me to continue my History, than your desiring so earnestly I should do so. I have so great reason to be satisfied with your conduct towards me, that I wish very much to gratify you in every thing that is practicable; and there want not other motives to make me embrace that resolution. For, though I think I have reason to complain of the blindness of party, which has made the public do justice to me very slowly, and with great reluctance, yet I find that I obtain support from many impartial people; and hope that I shall every day have more reason to be satisfied in that particular. But, in my present situation, it is impossible for me to undertake such a work; and I cannot break off from Lord Hertford, as long as he is pleased to think me useful to him. I shall not, however,
- 39. lose sight ofthis object; and any materials that cast up, in this country, shall be carefully collected by me. "I am glad you are satisfied with the publication of the new edition of my Essays. I shall be obliged to you if you will inform yourself exactly how many copies are now sold, both of that edition and of the octavo edition of my History. I think both these editions very correct. I did little more than see your friends, Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Wilson, at Paris, and present them to Lord Hertford. We returned not from Compiegne till a few days before they left Paris. . . . . . I think the Duchess of Douglas has chosen well in making Mallet one of her commissioners. I have no good opinion of that cause. Mrs. Mallet has retired into the forest of Fontainbleau with a Macgregor. I fancy she is angry with me, and thought herself neglected by me while in Paris. I heard of her thrusting herself every where into companies, who endeavoured to avoid her; and I was afraid she would have laid hold of me to enlarge her acquaintance among the French. I have not yet executed your commission with Monsr . le Roy, but shall not forget it. I am very glad that Mrs. Millar is so good as to remember me. I shall regard it as one agreeable circumstance attending my return to England, that you and she will have leisure to give more of your company to your friends; and I shall always be proud to be ranked in the number. "The lowness of stocks surely proceeds not from any apprehension of war: never was a general peace established in Europe with more likelihood of its continuance; but I fancy your stocks are become at last too weighty, to the conviction of all the world. What must happen, if we go on at the same rate during another war? I am, with great sincerity, dear sir, your most obedient humble servant."[233:1]
- 40. The course ofcorrespondence with Elliot, which commences with the next following letter, relates, in a great measure, to the disposal of his two sons at Paris, and to their future training and education. [233:2] There could be no better evidence of the reliance placed in Hume's honourable principles and knowledge of the world, by those friends who were sufficiently intimate with him, fully to appreciate his character; while his whole conduct in the transaction shows kindness of heart, with a warm attachment to friends, and an earnest disposition to serve them. Gilbert Elliot of Minto to Hume. My Dear Sir,—My departure from Paris was so very sudden, that I was obliged to leave many of my little schemes uncompleted; and, what was still more mortifying, to see the progress of all my growing attachments cruelly interrupted. I reached this place just in time, though not a little retarded by the Russian chancellor and his forty horses. Had I but foreseen this obstruction, I might as well have set out on Wednesday morning at two o'clock; and in that case, my dear philosopher, what a delicious evening should I have passed in your company. Upon full deliberation I am determined to send you my boys, if a tolerable place can be found for their reception. I did not much like that talking professor, who undertakes so largely: if nothing better can be done, pray take the trouble to renew my negotiation with Madame Anson. Her house, though not just what I could wish, is, however, not much amiss. I must not lose this occasion of sending my children to France. I shall never find any other so favourable. It will be no small consolation to their mother, from whom they are now to be separated for the first time, to know that we are not without a friend in Paris, who will sometimes have an eye to their conduct. If I am not too partial, I think you will find in their character much native simplicity, and perhaps some little elevation of mind. Send them back to me, my dear sir, with the same qualities, tempered, if you will, but not impaired by the acquisition of some few of those graces which spread such an inexpressible charm through those societies where even you are not ashamed to pass so many precious hours. If you should find no leisure to give them a moment's instruction, tell them at least to look up to the conduct and character of a young
- 41. friend of oursat Paris.[234:1] There they will find a model, which, without hoping to equal, it will, however, become them to copy. But, after all, what am I about? At Paris, to have children at all, is de plus mauvais ton de monde, and I forgot to inform myself, when one happens to have them, whether it be permitted to take any thought about them. I am impatient to hear from you at London. I shall not be long there. I desire you would take this important business into your hands and settle it for me entirely. I will send them over the moment you desire me, and consigned to whom you direct,—the sooner the better: you will settle all other particulars as you find proper. Before I conclude, allow me in friendship also to tell you, I think I see you at present upon the very brink of a precipice. One cannot too much clear their mind of all little prejudices, but partiality to one's country is not a prejudice. Love the French as much as you will. Many of the individuals are surely the proper objects of affection; but, above all, continue still an Englishman. You know, better than any body, that the active powers of our mind are much too limited to be usefully employed in any pursuit more general than the service of that portion of mankind which we call our country. General benevolence and private friendship will attend a generous mind and a feeling heart, into every country; but political attachment confines itself to one. Mon fils, sur les humains que ton ame attendrie, Habite l'univers, mais aime sa patrie. I have not now leisure to trouble you with the few observations my too short stay at Paris had but imperfectly furnished me with. Irreconcileable to the principles of their government, I am delighted with the amenity and gentleness of their manners. I was even pleased to find that the severity and rigour of our English climate had not rendered me altogether insensible to the kind impressions of a milder sky. May I trouble you with my most cordial and sincere respects to Lord and Lady Hertford. Some French names, too, I could mention, but I am not vain enough to imagine that I can, upon so short an acquaintance, have a place in their remembrance. Believe me, very dear sir, yours very sincerely, and most affectionately, Gilbert Elliot.[235:1] (I set out this moment.) Brussels, 15th September, 1764. Hume to Gilbert Elliot of Minto.
- 42. "Paris, 22d Sept.1764. "As soon as I received yours from Brussels, I set on foot my inquiries. I spoke to Abbé Hooke, to Père Gordon, to Clairaut, to Madame de Pri, and to others, with a view of finding some proper settlement for your young gentlemen. Every body told me, as they did, of the difficulty of succeeding in my scheme; and nothing yet has been offered me, that I would advise you to accept of. I went to Madame Anson's, and found that family a very decent, sensible kind of people. I came in upon them about seven o'clock, and found a company of eight or nine persons assembled, whose aspects pleased me very much. The only objection that occurred to me with regard to this family, is the quarter of the town, which is not only so unfashionable, that my coachman was astonished when I ordered him to drive thither, but, what is worse, it is far from all walks and places of exercise. However, it is near the university; and, consequently, it is in that quarter where all the youth of France are educated. If nothing better present itself, I shall conclude a bargain with this family for a thousand crowns a-year, without firing or washing, according to the terms proposed to you, which they said they could not depart from. The misfortune is, that I must go to Fontainbleau in about a fortnight, and, consequently, am straitened in my time of inquiry; but, in all cases, I shall certainly conclude with somebody before my departure. We stay six weeks at Fontainbleau, during which time, if you send your sons to Paris, I shall take a journey thither to receive them. In all cases, they must come immediately to the Hotel de Brancas, where they will not want friends. "I do not like the talking man more than you do; and a flattering letter I have since received from him, does not augment my good opinion. I went to Monsieur Bastide, he who proposed the scheme for ten thousand livres a-year.
- 43. He seems tobe a genteel, well-bred man; lives in a very good house in an excellent quarter of the town; is well spoke of by D'Alembert and others; and has with him two very agreeable boys, Russian princes, who speak French very well. I should have given him the preference, had it not been the price. He asks ten thousand livres a-year for your two sons and their governor, without supplying them either with clothes or masters. You know his ten thousand a-piece included all expenses. If you can resolve to go so far in point of expense, it is the best place that occurs, or is likely to occur. "Since I wrote the above, I went to see Mademoiselle L'Espinasse, D'Alembert's mistress, who is really one of the most sensible women in Paris. She told me that there could not be a worthier, honester, better man, than Bastide. I told her that I had entertained the same opinion, but was afraid his head-piece was none of the best. She owned that he did not excel on that side; and a proof of it was, that he had wrote several books, all of which were below middling. On my return home, I found the enclosed letter from him.[237:1] I have promised him an answer by the return of the post from England. On the whole, the chief advantage, as it appears to me, which his house will have above Anson's, consists in the air and situation. It lies on the skirts of the town, in an open street near the rampart; but five thousand livres a-year is paying too dear for the advantage. "I cannot imagine what you mean by saying I am on a precipice. I shall foretell to you the result of my present situation almost with as great certainty as it is possible to employ with regard to any future event. As soon as Lord Hertford's embassy ends, which probably may not continue long, some zealot, whom I never saw, and never could offend, finding me without protection, will instanter
- 44. fly, with alacrity,to strike off that pension which the king and the ministry, before I would consent to accept of my present situation, promised should be for life. I shall be obliged to leave Paris, which I confess I shall turn my back to with regret. I shall go to Thoulouse or Montauban, or some provincial town in the south of France, where I shall spend, contented, the rest of my life, with more money, under a finer sky, and in better company than I was born to enjoy. "From what human motive or consideration can I prefer living in England than in foreign countries? I believe, taking the continent of Europe, from Petersburg to Lisbon, and from Bergen to Naples, there is not one who ever heard of my name, who has not heard of it with advantage, both in point of morals and genius. I do not believe there is one Englishman in fifty, who, if he heard I had broke my neck to-night, would be sorry. Some, because I am not a Whig; some because I am not a Christian; and all because I am a Scotsman. Can you seriously talk of my continuing an Englishman? Am I, or are you, an Englishman? Do they not treat with derision our pretensions to that name, and with hatred our just pretensions to surpass and govern them? I am a citizen of the world; but if I were to adopt any country, it would be that in which I live at present, and from which I am determined never to depart, unless a war drives me into Switzerland or Italy. "I must now inform you what passed with regard to my affair at L'ile-Adam.[238:1] My friend showed me a letter, which she had lately received from Lord Tavistock, by which it appears he had fallen into great friendship, and bore a great regard to Lady Sarah Bunbury. I instantly forbade her to write to England a line about my affair. I bear too great a respect to her, to expose her to ask a
- 45. favour, where therewas so little probability of success: thus have vanished my best hopes of obtaining justice in this point. Here is surely no new ground of attachment to England."[239:1] Hume to Gilbert Elliot of Minto. "Hotel de Brancas, 30th Sept. 1764. "After acknowledging that I received both your letters, that from Brussels, and that from Calais, I should be ashamed to appear before you with so late a letter. This day fortnight, Lord March and Selwin appointed to go off. I sent March a very long letter for you, and enjoined him, as he lived next door to you, to deliver it the moment he arrived; and having thus done my duty, I went very contentedly to L'ile-Adam, where I remained for four days. On my return to Paris, I was much surprised to hear that March, after his post-chaise was yoked, had changed his mind, and was still in Paris. When I appeared alarmed at this intelligence, I was told that he had sent off an express to London with letters, which composed my mind. Next day I saw him, and he fairly confessed, that from forgetfulness, he had not sent off my letter. I begged him to send it to me; he promised it, delayed it, promised again, and at last owns that he has lost it; which gives me great vexation, both on your account, and my own, for I spoke to you with great freedom, and am infinitely uneasy lest my letter should fall into bad hands.[241:1] When I rail at March, I get no other reply than, 'God damn you! if your letter was of consequence, why the devil did you trust it to such a foolish fellow as me?' I am therefore obliged, in a great hurry, to give you some imperfect account of what I have done. I went to Ansons', who seem a discreet, sober set of people. I came in upon a mixed company, whose looks pleased me: the only
- 46. objection is thequarter of the town, which is straitened; but it is near the University, and consequently where all the youth of France are educated. I do not like the talking man more than you; and a very flattering letter he wrote me, helped further to disgust me. La Bastide, the 10,000 livres man, I went to see: he seems an agreeable man, and is well spoke of; he lives in an agreeable house, and in a good air, and has two young Russian princes with him, who speak very good French; he offers to take your two boys and preceptor for 8000 livres on the whole, but without paying either clothes or master. I suppose you would not choose to pay 5000 livres a-year, merely for the advantage of better air. I have heard a very good character of one Eriot, professor of rhetoric in the Collège de Beauvais, who offers to take them: they would live in the house with him alone; but he proposes that they should go to all the classes of the university, where they would make acquaintance with French boys, and nobody would ever ask questions about their religion: But as I heard you declare against their going to the university, (which yet I should highly approve of,) I cannot make any bargain with Eriot. The misfortune is, I go to Fontainbleau to-morrow se'ennight, and must conclude a bargain without hearing from you, by this fine trick Lord March has played me. It is probable, therefore, it will be with Anson, because you yourself did not disapprove of that plan; and I should be afraid to depart from it considerably, without your authority. If you give me information in time, I shall come from Fontainbleau to settle your boys. In any case make them come immediately to the Hotel de Brancas, where they will not want friends if any of the family be in town. "Since I wrote the above, one of my numerous scouts came to me, and told me, that within gunshot of the Hotel de Brancas, there was to be found all I could wish, and
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