Editor's note: Gilbert Elliot was one of Hume's close friends. Despite their religious differences, Elliot had supported Hume's candidacy for an academic appointment at the University of Glasgow in 1752, though Hume was again passed over because of his anti-religious views. Despite Elliot's support in this regard, he strongly advised Hume against publishing the Dialogues. His response to Hume's request for assistance in strengthening Cleanthes' argument did not go further than to echo views that Hume already had Cleanthes express in Part 3 of the Dialogues, such as that a survey of order and mutual adaptation among the parts of nature naturally leads to belief in an intelligent designer, a belief that strikes with a force like that of sensation, based more on feeling or sentiment than on subtle reasoning.