1748-1751. ÆT. 37-40.
Publication of the "Inquiry concerning Human Understanding"--
Nature of that Work--Doctrine of Necessity--Observations on
Miracles--New Edition of the "Essays, Moral and Political"--
Reception of the new Publications--Return Home--His Mother's
Death--Her Talents and Character--Correspondence with Dr.
Clephane--Earthquakes--Correspondence with Montesquieu--
Practical jokes in connexion with the Westminster Election--
John Home--The Bellman's Petition.
Early in the year 1748, and while he was on his way to Turin, Hume's
"Philosophical Essays concerning Human Understanding,"[272:1] which he
afterwards styled "Inquiry concerning Human Understanding," were
published anonymously in London. The preparation of this work had
probably afforded him a much larger share of genuine pleasure, than
either the excitement of travelling, or the observation of the natural
scenery, the works of art, and the men and manners among which he moved.
In the tone of a true philosophical enthusiast, he says in the first
section of the work, "Were there no advantage to be reaped from these
studies beyond the gratification of an innocent curiosity, yet ought not
even this to be despised, as being an accession to those few safe and
harmless pleasures which are bestowed on the human race. The sweetest
and most inoffensive path of life leads through the avenues of science
and learning; and whoever can either remove any obstructions in this
way, or open up any new prospect, ought so far to be esteemed a
benefactor to mankind. And though these researches may appear painful
and fatiguing, it is with some minds as with some bodies, which being
endowed with vigorous and florid health, require severe exercise, and
reap a pleasure from what, to the generality of mankind, may seem
burdensome and laborious."
On the publication of this work, he says in his "own life,"--"I had
always entertained a notion, that my want of success in publishing the
'Treatise of Human Nature,' had proceeded more from the manner than the
matter, and that I had been guilty of a very usual indiscretion, in
going to the press too early. I, therefore, cast the first part of that
work anew in the 'Inquiry concerning Human Understanding,' which was
published while I was at Turin. But this piece was at first little more
successful than the 'Treatise of Human Nature.' On my return from Italy,
I had the mortification to find all England in a ferment, on account of
Dr. Middleton's 'Free Inquiry,'[273:1] while my performance was entirely
overlooked and neglected."
He now desired that the "Treatise of Human Nature" should be treated as
a work blotted out of literature, and that the "Inquiry" should be
substituted in its place. In the subsequent editions of the latter work,
he complained that this had not been complied with; that the world still
looked at those forbidden volumes of which he had dictated the
suppression. "Henceforth," he says, "the author desires that the
following pieces may alone be regarded as containing his philosophical
principles and sentiments;" and he became eloquent on the uncandidness
of bringing before the world as the sentiments of any author, a work
written almost in boyhood, and printed at the threshold of manhood. But
it was all in vain: he had to learn that the world takes possession of
all that has passed through the gates of the printing press, and that
neither the command of despotic authority, nor the solicitations of
repentant authorship can reclaim it, if it be matter of sterling value.
The bold and original speculations of the "Treatise" have been, and to
all appearance ever will be, part of the intellectual property of man;
great theories have been built upon them, which must be thrown down
before we can raze the foundation. That he repented of having published
the work, and desired to retract its extreme doctrines, is part of the
mental biography of Hume; but it is impossible, at his command, to
detach this book from general literature, or to read it without
remembering who was its author.
But, indeed, there were pretty cogent reasons why the philosophical
world, and Hume's opponents in particular, should not lose sight of his
early work. In the Inquiry, he did not revoke the fundamental doctrines
of his first work. The elements of all thought and knowledge he still
found to be in impressions and ideas. But he did not on this occasion
carry out his principles with the same reckless hardihood that had
distinguished the Treatise; and thus he neither on the one side gave so
distinct and striking a view of his system, nor on the other afforded so
strong a hold to his adversaries. This hold they were resolved not to
lose; and therefore they retained the original bond, and would not
accept of the offered substitute.
Of those views which are more fully developed in the Inquiry than in the
early work, one of the most important is the attempt to establish the
doctrine of necessity, and to refute that of free will in relation to
the springs of human action. To those who adopted the vulgar notion of
Hume's theory of cause and effect, that it left the phenomena of nature
without a ruling principle, the attempt to show that the human mind was
bound by necessary laws appeared to be a startling inconsistency--a sort
of reversal of the poet's idea,
And binding nature fast in fate,
Left free the human will.
It appeared to remove the chains of necessity from inanimate nature, and
rivet them on the will.
But there is a decided principle of connexion between the two doctrines:
whether or not it be a principle that will bear scrutiny, is another
question. The two systems are identified with each other, simply by the
annihilation of the notion of power both in the material and in the
immaterial world. As we cannot find in physical causes any power to
produce their effect, so when a man moves his arm to strike, or his
tongue to reprimand, we have no notion of any _power_ being exercised;
but we have an impression that certain impulses are followed, and we can
no more suppose that it was at the choice of the individual whether,
when these impulses or motives existed, they should or should not be
obeyed, than that when the phenomenon called in the material world the
cause, made its appearance, there could be any doubt of its being
followed by the effect. The inference from this was, that human actions
are as much the objects of inductive philosophy as the operations of
nature; that they are equally regular, effect following cause as much in
the operations of the passions as in those of the elements. Of the
application of the theory to his historical observation of events, the
following passage is a vivid enunciation:--
"It is universally acknowledged, that there is a great uniformity among
the actions of men, in all nations and ages, and that human nature
remains still the same in its principles and operations. The same
motives always produce the same actions; the same events follow from the
same causes. Ambition, avarice, self-love, vanity, friendship,
generosity, public spirit; these passions, mixed in various degrees, and
distributed through society, have been, from the beginning of the world,
and still are, the source of all the actions and enterprises which have
ever been observed among mankind. Would you know the sentiments,
inclinations, and course of life of the Greeks and Romans? study well
the temper and actions of the French and English: you cannot be much
mistaken in transferring to the former _most_ of the observations which
you have made with regard to the latter. Mankind are so much the same,
in all times and places, that history informs us of nothing new or
strange in this particular. Its chief use is only to discover the
constant and universal principles of human nature, by showing men in all
varieties of circumstances and situations, and furnishing us with
materials from which we may form our observations, and become acquainted
with the regular springs of human action and behaviour. These records of
wars, intrigues, factions, and revolutions, are so many collections of
experiments, by which the politician or moral philosopher fixes the
principles of his science, in the same manner as the physician or
natural philosopher becomes acquainted with the nature of plants,
minerals, and other external objects, by the experiments which he forms
concerning them. Nor are the earth, water, and other elements, examined
by Aristotle and Hippocrates, more like to those which at present lie
under our observation, than the men described by Polybius and Tacitus
are to those who now govern the world.
"Should a traveller, returning from a far country, bring us an account
of men wholly different from any with whom we were ever acquainted, men
who were entirely divested of avarice, ambition, or revenge, who knew no
pleasure but friendship, generosity, and public spirit, we should
immediately, from these circumstances, detect the falsehood, and prove
him a liar, with the same certainty as if he had stuffed his narration
with stories of centaurs and dragons, miracles and prodigies. And if we
would explode any forgery in history, we cannot make use of a more
convincing argument than to prove, that the actions ascribed to any
person are directly contrary to the course of nature, and that no human
motives, in such circumstances, could ever induce him to such a conduct.
The veracity of Quintus Curtius is as much to be suspected, when he
describes the supernatural courage of Alexander, by which he was hurried
on singly to attack multitudes, as when he describes his supernatural
force and activity, by which he was able to resist them. So readily and
universally do we acknowledge a uniformity in human motives and actions,
as well as in the operations of body.
"Hence, likewise, the benefit of that experience, acquired by long life
and a variety of business and company, in order to instruct us in the
principles of human nature, and regulate our future conduct, as well as
speculation. By means of this guide we mount up to the knowledge of
men's inclinations and motives, from their actions, expressions, and
even gestures; and again descend to the interpretation of their
actions, from our knowledge of their motives and inclinations. The
general observations, treasured up by a course of experience, give us
the clue of human nature, and teach us to unravel all its intricacies.
Pretexts and appearances no longer deceive us. Public declarations pass
for the specious colouring of a cause. And though virtue and honour be
allowed their proper weight and authority, that perfect
disinterestedness, so often pretended to, is never expected in
multitudes and parties, seldom in their leaders, and scarcely even in
individuals of any rank or station. But were there no uniformity in
human actions, and were every experiment, which we could form of this
kind, irregular and anomalous, it were impossible to collect any general
observations concerning mankind; and no experience, however accurately
digested by reflection, would ever serve to any purpose. Why is the aged
husbandman more skilful in his calling than the young beginner, but
because there is a certain uniformity in the operation of the sun, rain,
and earth, towards the production of vegetables; and experience teaches
the old practitioner the rules by which this operation is governed and
directed?"[278:1]
How very clearly we find these principles practically illustrated in his
History! A disinclination to believe in the narratives of great and
remarkable deeds proceeding from peculiar impulses: a propensity, when
the evidence adduced in their favour cannot be rebutted, to treat these
peculiarities rather as diseases of the mind, than as the operation of
noble aspirations: a levelling disposition to find all men pretty much
upon a par, and none in a marked manner better or worse than their
neighbours: an inclination to doubt all authorities which tended to
prove that the British people had any fundamental liberties not
possessed by the French and other European nations. Such are the
practical fruits of this necessitarian philosophy.
It was on this occasion that Hume promulgated those opinions upon
miracles, which we have found him afraid to make public even in that
work of which he afterwards regretted the bold and rash character. No
part of his writings gave more offence to serious and devout thinkers;
but the offence was in the manner of the promulgation, not the matter of
the opinions. To understand how this occurred, let us cast a glance for
a moment at two opposite classes of religious thinkers, into which a
large portion of the Christian world is divided, and find with which, if
with either, Hume's opinions coincide.
If we suppose a man, impressed with a feeling of devotion and reverence
for a Superior Being, who, seeing in the order of the world and all its
movements, the omnipotent, all-wise, and all-merciful guidance of a
divine Providence, believes that the Great Being will give to his
creatures no revelation that is not in accordance with the merciful
harmony of all his ways; and thus devoutly and submissively receives the
word of God as promulgated in the Bible; attempts to make it the rule of
his actions and opinions; receives with deference the views of those
whom the same power that authorized it, has permitted to be the human
instruments of its promulgation and explanation; tries to understand
what it is within the power of his limited faculties to comprehend; but,
implicitly believing that in the shadows of those mysteries which he is
unable to penetrate, there lie operations as completely part of one
great regular plan, as merciful, as beneficent, and as wise as the
outward and comprehensible acts of Providence; who thus never for one
moment allows his mind to doubt, where it is unable to comprehend or
explain--such a man finds none of his sentiments in the writings of
Hume, for he is at once told there that reason and revelation are two
disconnected things, that each must act alone, and that the one derives
no aid from the other.
But take one who believes that religion is too sacred to be in any way
allied with so poor and miserable a thing as erring human reason; who
feels that it is not in himself to merit any of the boundless mercies of
the atonement; and that to endeavour by his actions, or the direction of
his thoughts, to be made a participator in them, is but setting blind
reason to lead the blind appetites and desires; who feels that by no act
of his own, the true light of the Christian religion has been lighted
within him as by a miracle; who has been adopted by a sudden change in
his spiritual nature into the family of the faithful--then there is
nothing in all Hume's philosophy to militate against the religion of
such a man, but rather many arguments in its favour, both implied and
expressed.
Since this is the case, it may be asked, why, if one party in religion
attacked the opinions of Hume, another did not defend them? why, if
Beattie and Warburton couched the lance, Whitefield and John Erskine did
not come forward as his champions? In the first place, it was only those
who united reason and revelation as going hand in hand and aiding each
other, that looked at books of philosophy with an eye to their influence
on religion, and such works formed a department of literature in which
the advocates of "eternal decrees" would not expect to find much to suit
their purpose. But, in the second place, this class of religious
thinkers are all, except the few who are hypocrites, devout and serious
people, and Hume's method of treating these subjects was not such as
they could feel a sympathy with. A want of proper deference for
devotional feeling, is a defect that runs through all his works--a
constitutional organic defect it might be termed. There is no ribaldry,
but at the same time there are no expressions of decent reverence; while
this religious party knew from the manner in which their predecessors in
the same doctrines were historically treated by Hume, that if there were
any coincidence in abstract opinions, there was very little in common
between their sympathies and his.
In this same section on miracles, there are repeated protests against
the reader assuming that the writer is arguing against the Christian
faith. Against some Catholic miracles, which were asserted to be proved
by testimony as strong as that which attested the miracles of our
Saviour, he says, "As if the testimony of man could ever be put in the
balance with that of God himself, who conducted the pen of the inspired
writers!" and again, "Our most holy religion is founded on _faith_, not
on reason; and it is a sure method of exposing it to put it to such a
trial as it is by no means fitted to endure." These protests however
were made briefly and coldly, and in such a manner as made people feel,
that if Hume believed in the doctrines they announced, he certainly had
not his heart in them. Hence, although, since the origin of rationalism,
evangelical Christians have frequently had recourse to the arguments of
Hume, there was long in that quarter a not unnatural reluctance to
appeal to them.
It is perhaps one of the most remarkable warnings against hasty
judgments on the effects of efforts of subtle reasoning, that, according
to later scientific discoveries, no two things are in more perfect
unison than Hume's theory of belief in miracles, and the belief that
miracles, according to the common acceptation of the term, have actually
taken place. The leading principle of this theory is, in conformity with
its author's law of cause and effect, that where our experience has
taught us that two things follow each other as cause and effect by an
unvarying sequence, if we hear of an instance in which this has not been
the case, we ought to doubt the truth of the narrative. In other words,
if we are told of some circumstance having taken place out of the usual
order of nature, we ought not to believe it; because the circumstance of
the narrator having been deceived, or of his designedly telling a
falsehood, is more probable than an event contradictory to all previous
authenticated experience. It is a rule for marking the boundary and
proper application of the inductive system, and one that is highly
serviceable to science. But, in applying it to use, we must not be led
away by the narrow application, in common conversation, of the word
experience. There is the experience of the common workman, and there is
the experience of the philosopher. There is that observation of
phenomena which makes a ditcher know that the difficulty of pulling out
a loosened stone with a mattock indicates it to be so many inches thick;
and that observation, fully as sure, which shows the geologist that the
stratum of the Pennsylvanian grauwacke is upwards of a hundred miles
thick. The experience and observation of the husbandman teach him, that
when the opposite hill is distinct to his view, the intervening
atmosphere is not charged with vapour; but observation, not less
satisfactory, shows the astronomer that Jupiter and the Moon have around
them no atmosphere such as that by which our planet is enveloped. Now
there is nothing more fully founded on experimental observation than the
fact, that there was a time when the present order of the world was not
in existence. That there have been convulsions, such as, did we now hear
of their contemporary occurrence, instead of attesting their past
existence through the sure course of observation and induction, we would
at once maintain to be impossible. To this then, and this only, comes
the theory of miracles, that at the present day, and for a great many
years back, the accounts that are given of circumstances having taken
place out of the general order of nature, are to be discredited, because
between the two things to be believed, the falsehood of the narrative is
more likely than the truth of the occurrence. But the very means by
which we arrive at this conclusion bring us to another, that there was a
time to which the rules taken from present observation of the course of
nature did not apply.[283:1]
That in history, in science, in the conduct of every-day life, and
particularly in the formation of the minds of the young, this rule of
belief is of the highest practical utility, few will doubt. The parish
clergyman, who assists in throwing discredit on all the superstitious
stories of spectres, witchcrafts, and demoniacal possessions with which
his neighbourhood may be afflicted, is but an active promulgator of the
doctrine. It was a narrow view that Campbell adopted when he said, that
if we heard of a ferry boat, which had long crossed the stream in
safety, having sunk, we would give credit to the testimony concerning
it.[284:1] Our experience teaches us that ferry boats are made of
perishable materials, liable to be submerged; and thus, in this case,
there is no balance of incredibility against the narrator. To have tried
Campbell's practical faith in Hume's theory, he should have had before
him a person professing to have become aware of the sinking of the boat,
by some unprecedented means of perception, called a magnetic influence,
in the absence of a more distinct name; while it is shown that the same
person had an opportunity of being informed, through the organs of
hearing, of the circumstance which had taken place. It would then be
seen, whether that sagacious philosopher would have given the sanction
of his belief to a phenomenon contrary to all previous experience--the
ascertainment of an external event, without the aid of the senses; or
would have acceded to the too commonly illustrated phenomenon, that
human beings are capable of falsehood and folly.
It is much to be regretted that Hume employed the word miracles in the
title of this inquiry. He thus employed a term which had been applied to
sacred subjects, and raised a natural prejudice against reasonings,
applicable to contemporary events, and to the rules of ordinary
historical belief. He might have found some other title--such as, "The
Principles of Belief in Human Testimony," which would have more
satisfactorily explained the nature of the inquiry.
But it is not improbable that the odium thus occasioned first introduced
Hume's philosophical works to controversial notoriety. Though
disappointed by the silence of the public immediately on his arrival
from abroad, he has soon to tell us in his "own life,"--"Meanwhile, my
bookseller, A. Millar, informed me, that my former publications (all but
the unfortunate Treatise) were beginning to be the subject of
conversation; that the sale of them was gradually increasing, and that
new editions were demanded. Answers by reverends and right reverends
came out two and three in a year;[285:1] and I found, by Warburton's
railing, that the books were beginning to be esteemed in good
company."[285:2]
It was in the "Inquiry concerning the Human Understanding," that Hume
promulgated the theory of association, which called forth so much
admiration of its simplicity, beauty, and truth. "To me," he says,
"there appear to be only three principles of connexion among ideas,
namely, _Resemblance_, _Contiguity_ in time or place, and _Cause_ or
_Effect_.
"That these principles serve to connect ideas, will not, I believe, be
much doubted. A picture naturally leads our thoughts to the original
[Resemblance.] The mention of one apartment in a building, naturally
introduces an inquiry or discourse concerning the others [Contiguity:]
and if we think on a wound, we can scarcely forbear reflecting on the
pain which follows it [Cause and Effect.]"[286:1]
In connexion with this theory a curious charge has been brought forward
by Coleridge, who says, "In consulting the excellent commentary of St.
Thomas Aquinas, on the Parva Naturalia of Aristotle, I was struck at
once with its close resemblance to Hume's essay on association. The main
thoughts were the same in both. The _order_ of the thoughts was the
same, and even the illustrations differed only by Hume's occasional
substitution of more modern examples. I mentioned the circumstance to
several of my literary acquaintances, who admitted the closeness of the
resemblance, and that it seemed too great to be explained by mere
coincidence; but they thought it improbable that Hume should have held
the pages of the angelic doctor worth turning over. But some time after,
Mr. Payne of the King's Mews, showed Sir James Mackintosh some odd
volumes of St. Thomas Aquinas, partly perhaps from having heard that Sir
James, (then Mr. Mackintosh,) had in his lectures passed a high encomium
on this canonized philosopher, but chiefly from the fact that the
volumes had belonged to Mr. Hume, and had here and there marginal marks
and notes of reference in his own handwriting. Among these volumes was
that which contains the Parva Naturalia, in the old Latin version,
swathed and swaddled in the commentary aforementioned."
On this, Sir James Macintosh says, that "the manuscript of a part of
Aquinas, which I bought many years ago, (on the faith of a bookseller's
catalogue,) as being written by Mr. Hume, was not a copy of the
commentary on the _Parva Naturalia_, but of Aquinas's own _Secunda
Secundæ_; and that, on examination, it proves not to be the handwriting
of Mr. Hume, and to contain nothing written by him."[287:1] So much for
the external evidence of plagiarism.
With regard to the internal evidence, the passage of Aquinas
particularly referred to, which will be found below,[287:2] refers to
memory not imagination; to the recall of images in the relation to each
other in which they have once had a place in the mind, not to the
formation of new associations, or aggregates of ideas there; nor will it
bring the theories to an identity, that, according to Hume's doctrine,
nothing can be recalled in the mind unless its elements have already
been deposited there in the form of ideas, because the observations of
Aquinas apply altogether to the _reminiscence_ of aggregate objects. But
the classification is different: for Hume's embodies cause and effect,
but not contrariety; while that of Aquinas has contrariety, but not
cause and effect. In a division into three elements, this discrepancy is
material; and, without entering on any lengthened reasoning, it may
simply be observed, that the merit of Hume's classification is, that it
is exhaustive, and neither contains any superfluous element, nor omits
any principle under which an act of association can be classed.
But it is remarkable that Coleridge should have failed to keep in view,
in his zeal to discover some curious thing to reward him for his
researches among the fathers, that the classification is not that of
Aquinas, but of Aristotle, and is contained in the very work on which
the passage in Aquinas is one of the many commentaries.[288:1]
* * * * *
The "Essays Moral and Political," had, though it is not mentioned by
Hume in his "own life," been so well received, that a second edition
appeared in 1742, the same year in which the second volume of the
original edition was published. A third edition was published in London
in 1748,[289:1] of which Hume, comparing them with his neglected
contemporaneous publication of the Inquiry, says that they "met not with
a much better reception."
Two essays, which had appeared in the previous editions, were omitted in
the third. One of these, "Of Essay Writing," was evidently written at
the time when the author had the design of publishing his work
periodically,[289:2] and was meant as a prospectus or announcement to
the readers, of the method in which he proposed to address them in his
periodical papers. The other was a "Character of Sir Robert Walpole;" a
curious attempt to take an impartial estimate of a man who, at the time
of the first publication, had been longer in office, and was surrounded
by a more numerous and powerful band of enemies, than any previous
British statesman. But between the two publications the enemies had
triumphed; and the statesman of forty years had been driven into
retirement, where death speedily relieved him from a scene of inaction,
which might have been repose to others, but was to him an insupportable
solitude. Party rage had consequently changed its direction, and that
air of solemn deliberation which, while the statesman was moving between
the admiration of his friends and the hatred of his enemies, had an
appearance of resolute stoical impartiality, might have appeared
strained and affected, if the essay had been republished in 1748.
To this third edition three essays were added, "Of National Characters,"
"Of the Original Contract," and "Of Passive Obedience." The first of
these contains some very curious incidental notices of ancient morals
and habits, so adapted to modern colloquial language and habits, as to
make the descriptions as clear to the unlearned as to the learned; as,
for example, the following notices of the drinking practices of the
ancients:--
"The ancient Greeks, though born in a warm climate, seem to have been
much addicted to the bottle; nor were their parties of pleasure any
thing but matches of drinking among men, who passed their time
altogether apart from the fair. Yet when Alexander led the Greeks into
Persia, a still more southern climate, they multiplied their debauches
of this kind, in imitation of the Persian manners.[290:1] So honourable
was the character of a drunkard among the Persians, that Cyrus the
younger, soliciting the sober Lacedemonians for succour against his
brother Artaxerxes, claims it chiefly on account of his superior
endowments, as more valorous, more bountiful, and a better
drinker.[290:2] Darius Hystaspes made it be inscribed on his tomb-stone,
among his other virtues and princely qualities, that no one could bear a
greater quantity of liquor."
The other two essays, though bearing on subjects which have now almost
dropped out of political discussion, "The Original Contract," and
"Passive Obedience," trod close on the heels of the long conflict in
which Milton, Salmasius, Hobbes, Sidney, Locke, and Filmer, had been
partakers; and while the din of arms was far from being exhausted, they
professed to hold the balance equally between the combatants, or, more
properly speaking, to examine philosophically the merits of the theory
of each party, without taking up the angry arguments of either. They
are, in truth, but a farther adaptation to politics of those utilitarian
theories which Hume had previously applied both to private morals and to
government. And the principle they promulgate is, that the citizen's
allegiance to the laws and constitution of his country, has its proper
foundation neither in an acknowledgment of the divine right of any
governor, nor in a contract with him by which both parties are bound,
but in the moral duty of respecting internal peace and order, and of
avoiding outbreaks which may plunge the people into anarchy and misery,
to gratify the pride or baser passions of turbulent individuals.
It must have been on his return on this occasion, that Hume rejoined the
family circle at Ninewells, bereaved of the parent whose devotion to his
training and education he has so affectionately commemorated. "I went
down," he says, "in 1749, and lived two years with my brother at his
country house, for my mother was now dead."[291:1] In a letter, which
will have to be afterwards referred to, by Dr. Black, to Adam Smith,
written when Hume was on his death-bed, and in relation to his final
illness, there is the remark, "His mother," he says, "had precisely the
same constitution with himself, and died of this very disorder."
On this subject, the American traveller, Silliman, gave currency to a
foolish and improbable story, which he puts in the following shape:--
"It seems that Hume received a religious education from his mother, and
early in life was the subject of strong and hopeful religious
impressions; but, as he approached manhood, they were effaced, and
confirmed infidelity succeeded. Maternal partiality, however alarmed at
first, came at length to look with less and less pain upon this
declension, and filial love and reverence seem to have been absorbed in
the pride of philosophical scepticism; for Hume now applied himself with
unwearied, and unhappily with successful efforts, to sap the foundation
of his mother's faith. Having succeeded in this dreadful work, he went
abroad into foreign countries; and as he was returning, an express met
him in London, with a letter from his mother, informing him that she was
in a deep decline, and could not long survive: she said, she found
herself without any support in her distress; that he had taken away that
source of comfort, upon which, in all cases of affliction, she used to
rely, and that now she found her mind sinking into despair. She did not
doubt but her son would afford her some substitute for her religion; and
she conjured him to hasten to her, or at least to send her a letter,
containing such consolations as philosophy can afford to a dying mortal.
Hume was overwhelmed with anguish on receiving this letter, and hastened
to Scotland, travelling day and night; but before he arrived his mother
expired. No permanent impression seems, however, to have been made on
his mind by this most trying event; and whatever remorse he might have
felt at the moment, he soon relapsed into his wonted obduracy of heart."
This story, probably told after dinner, and invented on the spot,--the
American narrator's unfortunate name perhaps rendering him peculiarly
liable to the machinations of the mischievous,--is totally at variance
with Hume's character. He was no propagandist; and, indeed, seems ever
to have felt, that a firm faith in Christianity, unshaken by any doubts,
was an invaluable privilege, of which it would be as much more cruel to
deprive a fellow-creature than to rob him of his purse, as the one
possession is more valuable than the other. Hence we shall find, that
his conversation was acceptable to women and to clergymen, who never
feared in his presence to encounter any sentiment that might shock their
feelings; and what is more to the point, parents were never afraid of
trusting their children to his care and social attentions, and indeed
thought it a high privilege to obtain them.
The appearance of the above passage in a notice of "Silliman's Travels"
in _The Quarterly Review_, called forth a remonstrance from Baron Hume,
which elicited the following statement from the editor:--[293:1]
"That anecdote he has shown to be false by unquestionable dates, and by
a circumstance related in the manuscript memoirs of the late Dr.
Carlyle, an eminent clergyman of the Scottish Church, and friend of the
historian. The circumstance, interesting in itself, and decisive on the
subject, we transcribe, in the words of the manuscript, from the letter
before us:--
"David and he (the Hon. Mr. Boyle, brother of the Earl of Glasgow) were
both in London at the period when David's mother died. Mr. Boyle,
hearing of it, soon after went into his apartment, for they lodged in
the same house, where he found him in the deepest affliction, and in a
flood of tears. After the usual topics of condolence, Mr. Boyle said to
him, 'My friend, you owe this uncommon grief to having thrown off the
principles of religion; for if you had not, you would have been consoled
with the firm belief that the good lady, who was not only the best of
mothers but the most pious of Christians, was completely happy in the
realms of the just.' To which David replied, 'Though I throw out my
speculations to entertain the learned and metaphysical world, yet, in
other things, I do not think so differently from the rest of the world
as you imagine.'"[294:1]
One of Hume's most intimate friends was Dr. Clephane, a physician in
considerable practice in London. They appear to have become acquainted
with each other during the expedition to Port L'Orient, in which
Clephane was probably a medical officer, as Hume, in his letters about
his own half-pay, speaks of him as in the same position with himself.
The correspondence is characterized by the thorough ease and polite
familiarity of the camp, and none of Hume's letters are fuller of his
playful spirit than those addressed to his brother officer.
HUME _to_ DR. CLEPHANE.
"Ιητρὸς γὰρ ἀνηρ πολλῶν ἀντάξιος ἄλλων.[296:1]
"DEAR DOCTOR,--I have here received a great many thanks from an honest
man, who tells me that he and all his family have been extremely obliged
to me. This is my brother's gardener, who showed me a letter from his
son, wherein he acknowledges that he owes his life to your care; that
you placed him in an hospital, and attended him with as much assiduity
as if he had been the best nobleman in the land; that all he shall ever
be worth will never be able to repay you: and that therefore he must
content himself with being grateful: at the same time desiring his
father to give me thanks, by whose means he was recommended to you.
"These thanks I received with great gravity, and replied, that one must
always endeavour to do good when it is in one's power. In short, I took
upon me your part, and gave myself as many airs as if I had really shown
the same beneficent dispositions. I considered that you have good deeds
to spare, and are possessed of greater store of merits and works of
supererogation, than any church, Pagan, Mahometan, or Catholic, ever was
entitled to, and that, therefore, to rob you a little was no great
crime:--
----cui plura supersunt,
Et fallunt dominum, et prosunt furibus.[297:1]
"I hope, dear Doctor, you find virtue its own reward--that, methinks, is
but just--considering it is the only reward it is ever likely to meet
with--in this world I mean; at least you may take your own reward
yourself for me. I shall never trouble my head about the matter, and you
need not expect that I shall even like or esteem you the better for this
instance of your charity and humanity. You fancy, I suppose, that I
already liked and esteemed you so much, that this makes no sensible
addition. You may fancy what you please: I shall not so much as speak
another word upon this subject, but proceed to a better. You shall see.
"You would perhaps ask, how I employ my time in this leisure and
solitude, and what are my occupations? Pray, do you expect I should
convey to you an encyclopedia, in the compass of a letter? The last
thing I took my hand from was a very learned, elaborate discourse,
concerning the populousness of antiquity; not altogether in opposition
to _Vossius_ and _Montesquieu_, who exaggerate that affair infinitely;
but, starting some doubts, and scruples, and difficulties, sufficient
to make us suspend our judgment on that head. Amongst other topics, it
fell in my way to consider the greatness of ancient _Rome_; and in
looking over the discourse, I find the following period. 'If we may
judge by the younger Pliny's account of his house, and by the plans of
ancient buildings in Dr. Mead's collection, the men of quality had very
spacious palaces, and their buildings were like the Chinese houses,
where each apartment is separate from the rest, and rises no higher than
a single story.'[298:1] Pray, on what authority are those plans founded?
If I remember right, I was told they were discovered on the walls of the
baths, and other subterraneous buildings. Is this the proper method of
citing them? If you have occasion to communicate this to Dr. Mead, I beg
that my sincere respects may be joined.
"I think the parsons have lately used the physicians very ill, for, in
all the common terrors of mankind, you used commonly both to come in for
a share of the profit: but in this new fear of earthquakes, they have
left you out entirely, and have pretended alone to give prescriptions to
the multitude.[298:2] I remember, indeed, Mr. Addison talks of a quack
that advertised pills for an earthquake, at a time when people lay under
such terrors as they do at present. But I know not if any of the faculty
have imitated him at this time. I see only a Pastoral Letter of the
Bishop of London, where, indeed, he recommends certain pills, such as
fasting, prayer, repentance, mortification, and other drugs, which are
entirely to come from his own shop. And I think this is very unfair in
him, and you have great reason to be offended; for why might he not have
added, that medicinal powders and potions would also have done service?
The worst is, that you dare not revenge yourself in kind, by advising
your patients to have nothing to do with the parson; for you are sure he
has a faster hold of them than you, and you may yourself be discharged
on such an advice.[299:1]
"You'll scarcely believe what I am going to tell you; but it is
literally true. Millar had printed off, some months ago, a new edition
of certain philosophical essays, but he tells me very gravely that he
has delayed publishing because of the earthquakes.[300:1] I wish you may
not also be a loser by the same common calamity; for I am told the
ladies were so frightened, they took the rattling of every coach for an
earthquake; and therefore would employ no physicians but from amongst
the infantry: insomuch that some of you charioteers had not gained
enough to pay the expenses of your vehicle. But this may only be waggery
and banter, which I abhor. Please remember to give my respects to the
General, and Sir Harry, and Captain Grant, who I hope are all in good
health: indeed, as to the Captain, I do not know what to hope, or wish;
for if he recover his health, he loses his shape, and must always remain
in that perplexing dilemma.--Remember me also to Suncey
Glassaugh,[300:2] and remember me yourself.
"_Ninewells, near Berwick, April 18, 1750._
"P.S.--Pray, did Guidelianus[300:3] get his money, allowed him by the
Pay-office? I suppose he is in Ireland, poor devil! so I give you no
commission with regard to him.
"Pray, tell Glassaugh that I hope he has not suppressed the paper I
sent him about the new year.[301:1] If he has, pray ask for a sight of
it, for it is very witty. I contrived it one night that I could not
sleep for the tortures of rheumatism; and you have heard of a great
lady, who always put on blisters, when she wanted to be witty. 'Tis a
receipt I recommend to you."[301:2]
The following letter to Oswald shows us that Hume was, at the time it
was written, earnestly engaged in the preparation of the "Essays on
Political Economy," which he published in 1752.
HUME _to_ JAMES OSWALD _of Dunnikier_.
"DEAR SIR,--I confess I was a little displeased with you for neglecting
me so long; but you have made ample compensation. This commerce, I find,
is of advantage to both of us; to me, by the new lights you communicate,
and to you, by giving you occasion to examine these subjects more
accurately. I shall here deliver my opinion of your reasonings with the
freedom which you desire.
"I never meant to say that money, in all countries which communicate,
must necessarily be on a level, but on a level proportioned to their
people, industry, and commodities. That is, where there is double
people, &c. there will be double money, and so on; and that the only way
of keeping or increasing money is, by keeping and increasing the people
and industry; not by prohibitions of exporting money, or by taxes on
commodities, the methods commonly thought of. I believe we differ
little on this head. You allow, that if all the money in England were
increased fourfold in one night, there would be a sudden rise of prices;
but then, say you, the importation of foreign commodities would soon
lower the prices. Here, then, is the flowing out of the money already
begun. But, say you, a small part of this stock of money would suffice
to buy foreign commodities, and lower the prices. I grant it would for
one year, till the imported commodities be consumed. But must not the
same thing be renewed next year? No, say you; the additional stock of
money may, in this interval, so increase the people and industry, as to
enable them to retain their money. Here I am extremely pleased with your
reasoning. I agree with you, that the increase of money, if not too
sudden, naturally increases people and industry, and by that means may
retain itself; but if it do not produce such an increase, nothing will
retain it except hoarding. Suppose twenty millions brought into
Scotland; suppose that, by some fatality, we take no advantage of this
to augment our industry or people, how much would remain in the quarter
of a century? not a shilling more than we have at present. My expression
in the Essay needs correction, which has occasioned you to mistake it.
"Your enumeration of the advantages of rich countries above poor, in
point of trade, is very just and curious; but I cannot agree with you
that, barring ill policy or accidents, the former might proceed gaining
upon the latter for ever. The growth of every thing, both in art and
nature, at last checks itself. The rich country would acquire and retain
all the manufactures that require great stock or great skill; but the
poor country would gain from it all the simpler and more laborious. The
manufactures of London, you know, are steel, lace, silk, books, coaches,
watches, furniture, fashions; but the outlying provinces have the linen
and woollen trade.
"The distance of China is a physical impediment to the communication, by
reducing our commerce to a few commodities; and by heightening the price
of these commodities, on account of the long voyage, the monopolies, and
the taxes. A Chinese works for three-halfpence a-day, and is very
industrious; were he as near us as France or Spain, every thing we used
would be Chinese, till money and prices came to a level; that is, to
such a level as is proportioned to the numbers of people, industry, and
commodities of both countries.
"A part of our public funds serve in place of money; for our merchants,
but still more our bankers, keep less cash by them when they have stock,
because they can dispose of that upon any sudden demand. This is not the
case with the French funds. The _rentes_ of the Hotel de Ville are not
transferable, but are most of them entailed in the families. At least, I
know there is a great difference in this respect betwixt them and the
_actions_ of the Indian Company.
"That the industry and people of Spain, after the discovery of the West
Indies, at first increased more than is commonly imagined, is a very
curious fact; and I doubt not but you say so upon good authority, though
I have not met with that observation in any author.
"Beside the bad effects of the paper credit in our colonies, as it was a
cheat, it must also be allowed that it banished gold and silver, by
supplying their place. On the whole, my intention in the Essay was to
remove people's terrors, who are apt, from chimerical calculations, to
imagine they are losing their specie, though they can show in no
instance that either their people or industry diminish; and also to
expose the absurdity of guarding money otherwise than by watching over
the people and their industry, and preserving or increasing them. To
prohibit the exportation of money, or the importation of commodities, is
mistaken policy; and I have the pleasure of seeing you agree with me.
"I have no more to say, but compliments; and therefore shall conclude. I
am," &c.[304:1]
"_Ninewells, 1st November, 1750._"
In 1750 there was published in Edinburgh, an edition of Montesquieu's
"Esprit des Loix; avec les dernieres corrections et illustrations de
l'Auteur."[304:2] That Hume was instrumental to this publication, is
shown by the letters addressed to him by Montesquieu between the years
1749 and 1753, printed in the appendix. It appears, that, as he there
intimates, the author sent over a copy of his corrections and
illustrations; but the work must have been partly printed before their
arrival, for, in the advertisement to the reader, it is stated that a
few of the earliest sheets, where the more important amendments
occurred, had to be reprinted, while some minor alterations are
supplied by a list of corrections.
Montesquieu's appreciation of some of Hume's ethical works will be read
with interest. Hume appears to have made the first advances towards an
intimacy; and the great Frenchman, then in his sixtieth year, seems to
have hailed with satisfaction the appearance of a kindred spirit, and to
have received his proffers with warm cordiality. This is the
commencement of that intercourse with his eminent contemporaries in
France, which we shall hereafter find to occupy a prominent feature in
Hume's literary and social history.
At this period we find Hume taking much interest in the conduct of a
certain James Fraser, in connexion with the Westminster election of
1749--one of the marked epochs in the parliamentary history of that
renowned constituency. The candidates were Lord Trentham the eldest son
of Earl Gower, and Sir George Vandeput, of whom the former was returned
by the high bailiff. Sir George Vandeput was the "independent"
candidate, representing the "English interest." Lord Trentham was a
placeman, and was accused of a partiality for French interests. Though
the Jacobites were ranged on the Vandeput side, Lord Trentham was by
implication accused of having favoured the exiled family; as by one of
the election placards issued on the occasion, the voters are desired to
"ask Lord Trentham, who had his foot in the stirrup in the year 1715?"
He was charged with having sacrificed his country or Jacobite principles
for a place, and with being that most abhorred of all political
characters, an ex-patriot, who has ratted to obtain office. Shortly
before the election, a riotous attack had been made on a small French
theatre, which had become peculiarly unpopular by obtaining a licence,
when some English establishments had been suppressed under Walpole's
act. It appears that Lord Trentham had, with some others, endeavoured to
preserve the friendless foreigners from the fury of the mob. So
un-English an act, as this harbouring and protecting of foreign
vagabonds, against the just indignation of true born Britons, was very
successfully displayed as an overt act in favour of Popery, Jacobitism,
and French ascendency; and the skilful manner in which it was improved,
in the hand-bills, and pasquinades of the Vandeput party, shows that
this department of the electioneering art was not then far from its
present state of maturity.[306:1]
A pretty minute investigation has not enabled me to discover what
precise conduct in connexion with this affair was important enough to
elicit from Hume the elaborate joke against Fraser embodied in the
following papers. He was evidently a medical man, but he does not appear
in the list of those who attested Mr. Murray's health, or were appointed
to visit him. He certainly acted on the Vandeput side, yet his name is
nowhere mentioned, in connexion with it, in a pretty large collection of
documents relating to this election, which I have had an opportunity of
consulting.[307:1]
Fraser was evidently, like Clephane, one of the medical officers in
General St. Clair's expedition, for, in a previous letter to Colonel
Abercromby, Hume mentions him as an officer in the royal
regiment.[307:2] He appears to have been a thorough Jacobite, for, in
another letter, Hume speaks of him as one of the extreme persons whom
his history will displease by its too great partiality to the Whigs. A
very pleasing and natural description of his character is given by Hume,
in a letter to Clephane, a little farther on.[308:1]
The following document was sent to Colonel Abercromby, along with the
explanatory letters which immediately follow it.
To the Right Honourable the Lord Chief Justice Reason, and the
Honourable the Judges Discretion, Prudence, Reserve, and
Deliberation, the Petition of the Patients of Westminster,
against James Fraser, Apothecary.
Most humbly showeth,
That your petitioners had put themselves and families under the
direction and care of the said James Fraser, and had so continued for
several years, to their great mutual benefit and emolument.
That many of your petitioners had, under his management, recovered from
the most desperate and deplorable maladies, such as megrims, toothaches,
cramps, stitches, vapours, crosses in love, &c. which wonderful success,
after the blessing of God, they can ascribe to nothing but his
consummate skill and capacity, since many of their neighbours, labouring
under the same distresses, died every day, by the mistakes of less
learned apothecaries.
That there are many disconsolate widows among your petitioners, who
believed themselves, and were believed by all their neighbours, to be
dying of grief; but as soon as the said James Fraser applied lenitives,
and proper topical medicines, they were observed to recover wonderfully.
That in all hypochondriacal cases he was sovereign, in so much that his
very presence dispelled the malady, cheering the sight, exciting a
gentle agitation of the muscles of the lungs and thorax, and thereby
promoting expectoration, exhilaration, circulation, and digestion.
That your petitioners verily believe, that not many more have died from
amongst them, under the administration of the said James Fraser, than
actually die by the course of nature in places where physic is not at
all known or practised; which will scarcely be credited in this
sceptical and unbelieving age.
That all this harmony and good agreement betwixt your petitioners and
the said James Fraser had lately been disturbed, to the great detriment
of your petitioners and their once numerous families.
That the said James Fraser, associating himself with ---- Carey,
surgeon, and William Guthrey, Esq. and other evil intentioned persons,
not having the fear of God before their eyes, had given himself entirely
up to the care of Dame PUBLIC, and had utterly neglected your
petitioners.
That the lady above mentioned was of a most admirable CONSTITUTION,
envied by all who had ever seen her or heard of her; and was only
afflicted sometimes with vapours, and sometimes with a looseness or
flux, which not being of the bloody kind, those about her were rather
pleased with it.
That notwithstanding this, the said James Fraser uses all diligence and
art to persuade the said lady that she is in the most desperate case
imaginable, and that nothing will recover her but a medicine he has
prepared, being a composition of _pulvis pyrius_,[310:1] along with a
decoction of northern steel, and an infusion of southern _aqua sacra_ or
holy water.
That the medicine, or rather poison, was at first wrapt up under a wafer
marked Patriotism, but had since been attempted to be administrated
without any cover or disguise.
That a dose of it had secretly been poured down the throat of the said
Dame Public, while she was asleep, and had been attended with the most
dismal symptoms, visibly heightening her vapours, and increasing her
flux, and even producing some symptoms of the bloody kind; and had she
not thrown it up with great violence, it had certainly proved fatal to
her.
That the said James Fraser and his associates, now finding that the
_Catholicon_ does not agree with the constitution of the said Dame,
prescribed to her large doses of _Phillipiacum_, _Cottontium_,[310:2]
and _Vandeputiana_,[310:3] in order to alter her constitution, and
prepare her body for the reception of the said Catholicon.
That he had even been pleased to see Lovitium[310:4] applied to her,
though known to be a virulent caustic, and really no better than a
_lapis infernalis_.
That while the medicines Goveriacum and Trentuntium[311:1] were very
violent, resembling sublimate of _high flown_ mercury, he also much
approved of them, but since they were mollified by late operations, and
made as innocent as mercurius dulcis, they were become his utter
aversion.
That the said James Fraser, through his whole practice on the said Dame
Public, entirely rejected all lenitives, soporifics, palliatives, &c.
though approved of by the regular and graduate physicians, as Dr.
Pelham, Dr. Fox, Dr. Pitt; and that he prescribed nothing but chemical
salts and stimulating medicines, in which regimen none but quacks and
empirics who had never taken their degrees will agree with him.
That your petitioners remember the story of an Irish servant to a
physician, which seems fitted to the present purpose. The doctor bid
Teague carry a potion to a patient, and tell him it was the most
innocent in the world, and if it did him no good, could do him no harm.
The footman obeys, but unluckily transposing a word, said, that if it
did him no harm it could do him no good. And your petitioners are much
afraid that the catholicon above mentioned is much of the same nature.
May it therefore please your worships to discharge the said
James Fraser from any farther attendance on the said Dame
Public, and to order him to return to the care and inspection
of your petitioners and their families.
The following is entitled, "True letter to Colonel Abercromby, to be
first read."
"DEAR COLONEL,--Endeavour to make Fraser believe I am in earnest. If
the thing takes, you may easily find somebody to personate Mr. Cockburn;
and you may swear to the truth of the whole. To make it more probable,
you may say that you suspect too much study has made me crazy; otherwise
I had never thought of so foolish a thing.
"If there be any probability of succeeding, an advertisement, like that
which is on the following page, may be put into any of the public
papers--that is, if you think _que le jeu vaut la chandelle_.
"My compliments to Mrs. Abercromby. I hope some day to regain her good
opinion. It shall be the great object of my ambition.
"Tell the Doctor I shall answer him sooner than he did me. He will
assist you very well in any cheat or roguery: but do not attempt it,
unless you think you can all be masters of your countenance. This is a
note, not a letter. Yours sincerely.
"P.S. Read Fraser the letter, but do not put it into his hands; he will
tear it. Show him first my other letter to you."
* * * * *
"ADVERTISEMENT.--Speedily will be published, price 1s. A letter to a
certain turbulent Patriot in Westminster, from a friend in the country.
----_Et_ spargere voces
In vulgum ambiguas, et quærere conscius arma.--_Virgil._"
The following is the letter which, in pursuance of the arrangements for
completing this complicated joke, Colonel Abercromby was to read to
Fraser. Its tone of mock heroic will at once be detected, and indeed,
when the spilling of the last drop of blood, "or of ink," is with so
much simplicity made an alternative, it may be presumed that James
Fraser was a very obtuse being, if he believed these protestations to
be serious.
"DEAR SIR,--This will be delivered you by Mr. William Cockburn, a friend
of mine, who travels to London for the first time. I have taken the
opportunity to send up by him a manuscript, which I intend to have
printed. I have ordered him first to read it to you; but not to trust it
out of his hands. You can scarce be surprised that I treat Mr. Fraser so
roughly in it. No man, who loves his country, can be a friend to that
gentleman, considering his late as well as former behaviour. For if I be
rightly informed, his conduct shows no more the spirit of submission and
tranquillity than that of prudence and discretion; and if he goes on at
this rate, you yourself will be obliged to renounce all connexion and
friendship with him.
"I have been ill of late; and am very low at present from the loss of
blood which they have drawn from me. My friends would hinder me from
reading; but my books and my pen are my only comfort and occupation; and
while I am master of a drop of blood or of ink, I will joyfully spill it
in the cause of my country. I am, Dear Sir,
"Your most obedient humble servant."
"_Ninewells, Feb. 16th, 1751._"
In the following letter to Dr. Clephane, we find that the practical joke
on James Fraser, which seems to have given a good deal of employment to
the wits of a great philosopher, a learned physician, and a gallant
colonel, is still a matter which Hume has very much at heart; while at
the same time he seems to have been amusing himself with some other
jocular effusions. The letter presents us with his first commemoration
of the poetical genius of his friend, John Home, though it gives no
forecast of the zeal with which he subsequently advocated his
countryman's claims to originality and high genius. The dramatic critic
will probably feel an interest in the light thrown on Hume's
appreciation of Shakspere by the manner in which his name is connected
with that of Racine.
HUME _to_ DR. CLEPHANE.
"_Ninewells, near Berwick, 18th February, 1751._
"DEAR DOCTOR,--I will not pay you so bad a compliment as to say I was
not angry with you for neglecting me so long; that would be to suppose I
was indifferent whether I had any share in your memory or friendship.
However, since there is nothing in it but the old vice of indolence,
Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco.
Ed io anche sóno Pittore, as Correggio said; I am therefore resolved to
forgive you, and to keep myself in a proper disposition for saying the
Lord's prayer, whenever I shall find space enough for it.
"I must own I could not but think you excusable, even before you
disarmed me by your submission and penitence; 'tis so common an artifice
for provincials to hook on a correspondence with a Londoner, under
pretext of friendship and regard, that a jealousy on that head is very
pardonable in the latter. But I ought not to lie under that general
suspicion; for the fashionable songs I cannot sing; the present or the
expectant ministers I have no interest in; the old good books I have not
yet all read or pondered sufficiently; and the current stories and _bon
mots_, I would not repeat if I knew them. You see, therefore, that if I
were not concerned about Dr. Clephane, I never should desire to hear
from him, and consequently that a line of his would be equally
acceptable whether it comes from London or Crookhaven.
"I have executed your desire and the Colonel's as well as I could, but
have not, I believe, succeeded so well as last year: the subject,
indeed, was exhausted, and the patient may justly, I fear, be esteemed
incurable. I leave you to manage the matter as you best can: but I beg
of you to conduct it, so as not to make a quarrel betwixt Fraser and me;
he is an honest, good-humoured, friendly, pleasant fellow, (though, it
must be confessed, a little turbulent and impetuous,) and I should be
sorry to disoblige him. The Colonel would be heartily bit, if by this or
any other means Fraser should be cured of his politics and patriotism;
all his friends would lose a great deal of diversion, and certainly
would not like him near so well, if he were more cool and reasonable,
and moderate, and prudent. But these are vices he is in no manner of
danger of. Is it likely that reason will prevail against nature, habit,
company, education, and prejudice? I leave you to judge.
"But since I am in the humour of displaying my wit, I must tell you that
lately, at an idle hour, I wrote a sheet called the Bellman's Petition:
wherein (if I be not partial, which I certainly am,) there was some good
pleasantry and satire. The Printers in Edinburgh refused to print it, (a
good sign, you'll say, of _my_ prudence and discretion.) Mr. Mure, the
member, has a copy of it; ask it of him if you meet with him, or bid the
Colonel, who sees him every day at the house, ask it, and if you like it
read it to the General, and then return it. I will not boast, for I have
no manner of vanity; but when I think of the present dulness of London,
I cannot forbear exclaiming,
Rome n'est pas dans Rome,
C'est par tout où je suis.
A namesake of mine has wrote a Tragedy, which he expects to come on this
winter.[316:1] I have not seen it, but some people commend it much. 'Tis
very likely to meet with success, and not to deserve it, for the author
tells me, he is a great admirer of Shakspere, and never read Racine.
"When I take a second perusal of your letter, I find you resemble the
Papists, who deal much in penitence, but neglect extremely _les bonnes
oeuvres_. I asked you a question with regard to the plans of ancient
buildings in Dr. Mead's collection.[316:2] Pray, are they authentic
enough to be cited in a discourse of erudition and reasoning? have they
never been published in any collection? and what are the proper terms in
which I ought to cite them? I know you are a great proficient in the
_virtu_, and consequently can resolve my doubts. This word I suppose you
pretend to speak with an (e), which I own is an improvement: but
admitting your orthography, you must naturally have a desire of doing a
good-natured action, and instructing the ignorant.
"It appears to me that apothecaries bear the same relation to
physicians, that priests do to philosophers; the ignorance of the former
makes them positive, and dogmatical, and assuming, and enterprising, and
pretending, and consequently much more taking with the people. Follow my
example--let us not trouble ourselves about the matter; let the one
stuff the beasts' guts with antimony, and the other their heads with
divinity, what is that to us? according to the Greek proverb, they are
no more, but as ες την αμιδα ενουρουντες.
"You may tell me, indeed, that I mistake the matter quite; that it is
not your kindness for the people, which makes you concerned, but
something else. In short, that if self-interest were not in the case,
they might take clysters, and physic, and ipecacuanha, till they were
tired of them. Now, dear Doctor, this mercenary way of thinking I never
could have suspected you of, and am heartily ashamed to find you of such
a temper.
"If you answer this any time within the twelve months 'tis sufficient,
and I promise not to answer you next at less than six months' interval;
and so, as the Germans say, je me recomante a fos ponnes craces. Yours,
&c."
The "Bellman's Petition," more than once alluded to in Hume's letters,
is a little jeu d'esprit, to which he seems to have attributed far more
than its due importance. The clergy and schoolmasters of Scotland were
then appealing to the legislature for an increase of their incomes; and
in this production, Hume, in a sort of parody on the representation of
these reverend and learned bodies, shows that bell-ringers have the
same, or even greater claims on the liberality of the public. It is
perhaps a little too like the original, of which it professes to be a
parody; and though it has some wit, is deficient in the bitter ridicule,
which Swift would have thrown into such an effort. The following are
some passages:--
"That as your petitioners serve in the quality of grave-diggers, the
great use and necessity of their order, in every well regulated
commonwealth, has never yet been called in question by any reasoner; an
advantage they possess above their brethren the reverend clergy.
"That their usefulness is as extensive as it is great, for even those
who neglect religion or despise learning, must yet, some time or other,
stand in need of the good offices of this grave and venerable order.
"That it seems impossible the landed gentry can oppose the interest of
your petitioners; since, by securing so perfectly as they have hitherto
done, the persons of the fathers and elder brothers of the foresaid
gentry, your petitioners, next after the physicians, are the persons in
the world, to whom the present proprietors of land are the most
beholden.
"That, as your petitioners are but half ecclesiastics, it may be
expected they will not be altogether unreasonable nor exorbitant in
their demands.
"That the present poverty of your petitioners in this kingdom is a
scandal to all religion; it being easy to prove, that a modern bellman
is not more richly endowed than a primitive apostle, and consequently
possesseth not the twentieth part of the revenues belonging to a
presbyterian clergyman.
"That whatever freedom the profane scoffers, and free thinkers of the
age, may use with our reverend brethren the clergy, the boldest of them
tremble when they think of us; and that a simple reflection on us has
reformed more lives than all the sermons in the world.
"That the instrumental music allotted to your petitioners, being the
only music of that kind left in our truly reformed churches, is a
necessary prelude to the vocal music of the schoolmaster and minister,
and is by many esteemed equally significant and melodious.
"That your petitioners trust the honourable house will not despise them
on account of the present meanness of their condition; for, having heard
a learned man say that the cardinals, who are now princes, were once
nothing but the parish curates of Rome, your petitioners, observing the
same laudable measures to be now prosecuted, despair not of being, one
day, on a level with the nobility and gentry of these realms."
The petition of which this is a specimen, is accompanied by a letter,
signed "Zerubabel Macgilchrist, Bellman of Buckhaven;" who kindly says
to the members of parliament he addresses, that the brother to whom is
allotted "the comfortable task of doing you the last service in our
power, shall do it so carefully, that you never shall find reason to
complain of him."[319:1]
FOOTNOTES:
[272:1] "By the author of The Essays Moral and Political," 8vo. Printed
for Andrew Millar. Hume's complaints about the obscurity of all his
books anterior to the "Political Discourses" and the History, seem to be
confirmed by the absence of this Edition in places where such books are
expected to be found. It is not in The Advocates' or The Signet
libraries in Edinburgh, nor is it to be found in the catalogues of the
British Museum or Bodleyan. Did I not possess the book, I might have
found it difficult to obtain an authenticated copy of the title-page. It
is not mentioned in Watt's Bibliotheca; but it will be found correctly
set forth in a German bibliographical work, infinitely superior to any
we possess in this country, but unfortunately not completed. Adelung's
Supplement to Jöchers Allgemeines Gelehrten Lexicon. It appears in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_, list of books for April.
[273:1] "A Free Inquiry into the miraculous powers, which are supposed
to have subsisted in the Christian Church, from the earliest ages
through several successive centuries," by Conyers Middleton, D.D.
London, 1748-1749, 4to.
It was encountered by a perfect hurricane of controversial tracts, which
fill all the book lists of the time.
[278:1] Inquiry concerning Human Understanding, sect. viii.
[283:1] This matter seems on another occasion to have passed under his
own view. In the "Dialogues concerning Natural Religion" he makes Philo
say, "Strong and almost incontestable proofs may be traced over the
whole earth, that every part of this globe has continued for many ages
entirely covered with water. And though order were supposed inseparable
from matter, and inherent in it, yet may matter be susceptible of many
and great revolutions through the endless periods of eternal duration."
That even Hume's argument makes allowance for miracles having some time
or other existed, and that it can only be urged against this or that
individual statement of an unnatural occurrence, is the weapon which
Campbell wields with chief effect in his admirable dissertation.
[284:1] "Let us try how his manner of argument on this point can be
applied to a particular instance. For this purpose I make the following
supposition. I have lived for some years near a ferry. It consists with
my knowledge that the passage boat has a thousand times crossed the
river, and as many times returned safe. An unknown man, whom I have just
now met, tells me in a serious manner that it is lost; and affirms, that
he himself, standing on the bank, was a spectator of the scene; that he
saw the passengers carried down the stream and the boat overwhelmed. No
person, who is influenced in his judgment of things, not by
philosophical subtleties, but by common sense, a much surer guide, will
hesitate to declare, that in such a testimony I have probable evidence
of the fact asserted."--Dissertation on Miracles, 46-47.
[285:1] Perhaps the earliest in date of these is, "An Essay on Mr.
Hume's Essay on Miracles," by William Adams, M.A. chaplain to the Bishop
of Llandaff, 1751.
[285:2] Warburton says to Hurd, on 28th September, 1749,--"I am strongly
tempted to have a stroke at Hume in passing. He is the author of a
little book called 'Philosophical Essays;' in one part of which he
argues against the being of a God, and in another (very needlessly you
will say,) against the possibility of miracles. He has crowned the
liberty of the press: and yet he has a considerable post under the
government. I have a great mind to do justice on his arguments against
miracles, which I think might be done in a few words. But does he
deserve notice? Is he known among you? Pray answer these questions. For
if his own weight keeps him down, I should be sorry to contribute to his
advancement to any place but the pillory." Letters from a late Rev.
prelate to one of his friends, 1808, p. 11.
[286:1] Sect. iii.
[287:1] Preliminary Dissertation, Note T.
[287:2] "Quandoque remeniscitur aliquis incipiens ab aliqua re, cujus
memoratur, a quâ procedit ad alium triplici ratione. Quandoque quidem
ratione similitudinis, sicut quando aliquis memoratur de Socrate, et per
hoc, occurrit ei Plato, qui est similis ei in sapientia; quandoque vero
ratione contrarietatis, sicut si aliquis memoretur Hectoris, et per hoc
occurrit ei Achilles. Quandoque vero ratione propinquitatis cujuscunque,
sicut cum aliquis memor est patris, et per hoc occurrit ei filius. Et
eadem ratio est de quacunque alia propinquitate, vel societatis, vel
loci, vel temporis, et propter hoc fit reminiscentia quia motus horum se
invicem consequuntur."--_Aquinatis Comment. in Aristot. de Memoria et
Remeniscentia_; _edit. Paris_, 1660, p. 64. The scope of Aquinas'
remarks have more reference to mnemonics or artificial memory than to
association. They explain how a man, remembering what he did yesterday,
may pass to the remembrance of what he did the day before, &c.
[288:1] See Dr. Brown's commentary on the history of theories of
association, in his thirty-fourth Lecture. Sir William Hamilton, the
highest living authority on these subjects, while he thinks that
Aristotle has not got justice for the extent to which he has anticipated
Hume and others in relation to this matter, does not think there is the
slightest ground for the charge of plagiarism, and observes to me that
Coleridge's own remarks on association are merely an adaptation from the
German of Maas.
[289:1] 8vo, printed for A. Millar. It is in the _Gentleman's Magazine_
list for November.
[289:2] See p. 136.
[290:1] _Babylonii maxime in vinum, et quæ ebrietatem sequuntur, effusi
sunt._ Quint. Cur. lib. v. cap. 1.
[290:2] Plut. Symp. lib. i. quæst. 4.
[291:1] From the circumstances to be immediately stated regarding this
event, it seems to have taken place while Hume was on his way back from
Turin. In a search in _The Scots Magazine_, and other quarters where one
might expect to find mention of the decease of a person in the rank of
the lady of Ninewells, I have not been able to ascertain the precise
date.
[293:1] Quarterly Review, xvi. 279.
[294:1] There is a traditional anecdote, to the effect that Mrs. Hume,
expressing her opinion of her son David and his accomplishments, said,
"Our Davie's a fine good-natured crater, but uncommon wake-minded." I
have heard this adduced as a proof of the philosopher's gentle, passive
nature, and the effect it had in stamping an impression of his character
on one not capable of appreciating his genius. But the anecdote is not
characteristic of either party, and arises out of the common mistake
that Hume was all his life tame, phlegmatic, and unimpassioned. However
much he had tutored himself to stoicism, and had succeeded in conquering
the outward demonstrations of strong feelings, it will be seen in
various documents quoted in these volumes, and in the incidents
narrated, that he was a man of strong impulses, full of blood and nerve,
and that, as in a high-mettled horse, his energies were regulated, not
extinguished. No one who had the training of his youth could have
escaped observing in him the workings of strong aspirations, and of a
hardy resolute temper.
But Mrs. Hume was evidently an accomplished woman, worthy of the
sympathy and respect of her distinguished son, and could not have failed
to see and to appreciate from its earliest dawnings the originality and
power of his intellect. Her portrait, which I have seen, represents a
thin but pleasing countenance, expressive of great intellectual
acuteness. Some verses, which a lady, who is her direct descendant,
authenticates as being in her handwriting, are in the curious collection
of autographs and illustrated portraits, in the possession of Mr. W. F.
Watson, Prince's Street, Edinburgh. It has been supposed that they are
the composition of David Hume himself; but the use of the Scottish
language almost amounts to evidence against that supposition: he would
as readily have walked the streets of Edinburgh in a kilt. The lines are
called "Song.--Air, Mary's Dream," and begin--
What now avails the flowery dream,
That animates my youthful mind,
My Mary's vows are all a whim,
Her plighted troth as light as wind.
O Mary, dearer than the day
That cheers the nighted wanderer's ee,
Through ance-loved scenes I lonely stray,
But lovely Mary's far frae me.
What now avails the beachen grove,
Or willow in its cloak o' gray,
Those scenes 'twas sacred ance to love,
Now fills my heart in grief and wae.
O Mary, &c.
Perhaps this may be as good an opportunity as any other for the
insertion of some lines, carefully preserved in the MSS. R.S.E., which
are at least so far to the present purpose, that they give a pleasing
idea of the social circle at Ninewells. They are addressed to a lady who
had lived to see her grandchildren; which does not appear to have been
the case with the mother of the historian, as her eldest son was not
married till 1751. A dowager of an elder generation may have lived for
some time at Ninewells during David Hume's youth, though he does not
mention her: or there may have been some collateral member of the
family, to whom the lines may have been addressed; for, in a series of
extracts which I have obtained from the Kirk Session Records of
Chirnside, I find that a David Home _in_ Ninewells, who cannot have been
a lineal ancestor of the philosopher, had a numerous family baptized
between 1691 and 1701. The lines are entitled "Miss A. B. to Mrs. H. by
her Black Boy;" and however the genealogical questions, we have just
been considering, may stand, their intrinsic merit, as embodying a
beautiful and humane sentiment, entitle them to notice.--Query, is it to
this alone, or to some extrinsic interest attached to Miss A. B. that we
are to attribute the careful preservation of the lines by Hume?
Condemn'd in infancy a slave to roam,
Far far from India's shore, my native home,
To serve a Caledonian maid I come--
In me no father does his darling mourn--
No mother weeps me from her bosom torn--
Both grew to dust, they say to earth below;
But who those were, alas, I ne'er shall know.
Lady, to thee her love my mistress sends,
And bids thy grandsons be Ferdnando's friends.
Bids thee suppose, on Afric's distant coast,
One of those lily-coloured favourites lost;
Doom'd in the train of some proud dame to wait,
A slave, as she should will, for use or state.
If to the boy you'd wish her to be kind,
Such grace from you let Ferdinando find.
[296:1] Hom. Il. λ. 515. A medical man is equal in value to many other
men. Or, as Pope has it,
A wise physician, skill'd our wounds to heal,
Is more than armies to the public weal.
[297:1]
----ubi non et multa supersunt,
Et dominum fallunt, et prosunt furibus.
Hor. epist. i. 6, 45.
[298:1] See this passage nearly verbatim in the "Essay on the
Populousness of Ancient Nations," (Works, edit. 1826, p. 483.) Much
light has of course been subsequently thrown on this matter by the
investigations in Pompeii, and other places.
[298:2] London was kept in much excitement, during the year 1750, by
repeated shocks of earthquake. Horace Walpole says, on 11th March, "In
the night between Wednesday and Thursday last, (exactly a month since
the first shock,) the earth had a shivering fit between one and two; but
so slight that, if no more had followed, I don't believe it would have
been noticed. I had been awake, and had scarce dosed again. On a sudden
I felt my bolster lift up my head: I thought somebody was getting from
under my bed, but soon found it was a strong earthquake, that lasted
near half a minute, with a violent vibration and great roaring. I rang
my bell; my servant came in, frightened out of his senses. In an instant
we heard all the windows in the neighbourhood flung up. I got up, and
found people running into the streets; but saw no mischief done. There
has been some: two old houses flung down, several chimneys, and much
china ware."--Letters to Sir H. Man, ii. 349.
"Dick Leveson and Mr. Rigby, who had supped and staid late at Bedford
House, the other night, knocked at several doors, and in a watchman's
voice cried, 'Past four o'clock, and a dreadful earthquake.'"--Ib. 354.
[299:1] "There has been a shower of sermons and exhortations. Secker,
the jesuitical Bishop of Oxford, begun the mode. He heard the women were
all going out of town to avoid the next shock: and so, for fear of
losing his Easter offerings, he set himself to advise them to wait God's
good pleasure, in fear and trembling. But, what is more astonishing,
Sherlock, [Bishop of London,] who has much better sense, and much less
of the popish confessor, has been running a race with him for the old
ladies, and has written a Pastoral Letter, of which ten thousand were
sold in two days, and fifty thousand have been subscribed for since the
two first editions."--Ib. 353.
[300:1] A second edition of the "Essays concerning Human Understanding,"
was published by Millar in 1751, with the author's name. One of these
essays, which, in the first edition, had the title, "Of the Practical
Consequences of Natural Religion," but, in the second, received a much
less appropriate title, and one likely to make its tenor, as applicable
to the reasonings of philosophers anterior to Christianity, be
misunderstood. It was called, "Of a Particular Providence, and Future
State."
[300:2] Colonel Abercromby. See above, p. 222.
[300:3] Colonel Edmonstoune.
[301:1] Probably "The Bellman's Petition," mentioned p. 317.
[301:2] From the original at Kilravock.
[304:1] Memorials of Oswald, p. 65.
[304:2] Two vols. 8vo, Hamilton and Balfour. The productions of the
Scottish press, in the middle period of last century, deserve to be
looked back upon with respect; and the excellence of its matter at that
time, will go far to balance its present fertility. It was not only as a
vehicle of native genius, that it was respectable. Besides the eminent
editions of the classics by the Ruddimans and the Foulises, it supplied
handsome editions of celebrated foreign works; a sure indication that it
was surrounded by a large class of well educated readers.
[306:1] The following placard is, in the circumstances, a master-stroke
in its simplicity and ingenuity.
"AUX ELECTEURS TRÈS DIGNES DE WESTMINSTER.
"MESSIEURS,--Vos suffrages et interêts sont desirés pour Le
Très Hon. mi Lord TRENTHAM, un VÉRITABLE Anglois.
"N. B.--L'on prie ses Amis de ses rendre a l'hôtel François
dans le Marché au Foin."
The following acrostic is a specimen of the poetic lucubrations of the
Vandeput party:--
"T ruant to thy promis'd trust;
R ebel daring where thou durst,
E ager to promote French strollers,
N one but poltroons are thy pollers.
T ribes of nose-led clerks and placemen,
H ackney voters, (bribes disgrace men,)
A ll forswear, through thick and thin,
M eanness theirs, but thine the sin."
This election gave birth to some incidents apparently trifling, which
yet make a material figure in British history, from their connexion
with the vindication of the privileges of the House of Commons. The
Honourable Alexander Murray, brother of Lord Elibank, a gentleman who
will probably be again called up in a future part of these pages, was
charged along with Mr. Crowle, an attorney, and another person, with the
use of "threatening and affronting expressions," by the high bailiff.
They were brought before the bar of the House, and after some discussion
and inquiry, Crowle confessed, was submissive, received the usual
reprimand on his knees, and wiped them when he rose, saying, it was "the
dirtiest house he had ever been in." Murray denied the charge, and
resisted the House, "smiled," as Walpole says, "when he was taxed with
having called Lord Trentham and the high bailiff, rascals," and,
finally, refused to kneel, saying, "Sir, I beg to be excused, I never
kneel but to God." Then followed imprisonment, and embarrassing
questions about the prisoner's health, which, sinking under his
self-inflicted imprisonment, reproached those who could not turn back on
the course they had taken; the whole being rendered more complex by the
difficulty of finding a guiding rule in the precedents of the House,
until parliament was adjourned; and he left Newgate in a triumphant
procession, proclaiming the device of "Murray and Liberty."
[307:1] Viz. in a volume of broadsides and other documents, in the
possession of James Maidment, Esq. of which the pieces in the preceding
note are specimens. To show how such inquiries are beset by tantalizing
coincidences, there are two James Frasers mentioned on the Trentham
side, one of them having after his name on a printed list of voters, the
significant MS. notandum, "Don't pay."
[307:2] P. 223.
[308:1] A gentleman of the same name connected with the Lovat family,
was for some time an apothecary in London, where he lived "the life of a
genuine London bachelor;" he was a keen Jacobite, and died about 1760.
_Note communicated by Captain Fraser, Knockie_, who also mentions
another James Fraser, who was commissioner of the navy during the
revolutionary war, and settled in London in 1781; but this appears to
have been a person of a later generation than Hume's friend.
[310:1] Gunpowder.
[310:2] In allusion, probably, to Sir John Hynd Cotton.
[310:3] In allusion to Sir George Vandeput.
[310:4] In allusion, probably, to Fraser's own family.
[311:1] Earl Gower, and his son Lord Trentham.
[316:1] Probably "Agis," which appears to have been written before
"Douglas."
[316:2] See above, p. 298.
[319:1] Printed sheet in the possession of James Maidment, Esq. "The
Bellman's Petition," has been reprinted in a curious collection of
scraps, called "A Scots Haggis," the editor of which does not however
appear to have known that Hume was the author of this piece.