Shake Off All Responsibility

Adam Ferguson, letter to Joseph Black (August 25, 1797), in The Correspondence of Adam Ferguson, Vol. 2: 1781-1816, ed. Vincenzo Merole (London: William Pickering, 1995), pp. 417-418 (at 418, with the editor's note):

I felt or fancyed my Cure was advancing every time I bathed, & so I hope will M^r Stuart², or if it should come insensibly that will be alike in the end, & that he will make as good a Retreat into Old Age as I have done, that is shake off all responsibility and bless every day that he lives.

² Andrew Stuart of Torrance.

Ferguson was 74 when he wrote this letter.

Hat tip: Ian Jackson.

Related post: Retirement Plans.