… Labour, ’ Hume wrote, the subjects that exercised the ‘ conversible World ’ could only be worked out in dialogue, mutual exchange, and – in short – society: Such subjects of thought require not sufficient Employment in Solitude, but require … legends such as Hume and his friend Adam Smith were forged via the stimulus of conversation and intellectual exchange in a range of private and public spheres in Scotland, as well as across Britain and in the cities and salons of …