1752-1755. Æt. 41-44.
Appointment as keeper of the Advocates' Library--His Duties--
Commences the History of England--Correspondence with Adam
Smith and others on the History--Generosity to Blacklock the
Poet--Quarrel with the Faculty of Advocates--Publication of
the First Volume of the History--Its reception--Continues
the History--Controversial and Polemical attacks--Attempt
to subject him, along with Kames, to the Discipline of
Ecclesiastical Courts--The Leader of the attack--Home's
"Douglas"--The first Edinburgh Review.
"In 1752," says Hume in his "own life," "the Faculty of Advocates chose
me their librarian, an office from which I received little or no
emolument, but which gave me the command of a large library."[367:1] We
have a very glowing account of the contest for this appointment from
his own pen in the following letter:
HUME TO DR. CLEPHANE.
"_Edinburgh, February 4th, 1752._
"DEAR DOCTOR,--I have been ready to burst with vanity and self-conceit
this week past; and being obliged from decorum to keep a strict watch
over myself, and check all eruptions of that kind, I really begin to
find my health impaired by it, and perceive that there is an absolute
necessity for breathing a vein, and giving a loose to my inclination.
You shall therefore be my physician, "Dum podagricus fit pugil et
medicum urget." You must sustain the overflowings of my pride; and I
expect, too, that by a little flattery you are to help nature in her
discharge, and draw forth a still greater flux of the peccant matter.
'Tis not on my account alone you are to take part in this great event;
philosophy, letters, science, virtue, triumph along with me, and have
now in this one singular instance, brought over even the people from the
side of bigotry and superstition.
"This is a very pompous exordium, you see; but what will you say when I
tell you that all this is occasioned by my obtaining a petty office of
forty or fifty guineas a-year. Since Caligula of lunatic memory, who
triumphed on account of the cockle shells which he gathered on the sea
shore, no one has ever erected a trophy for so small an advantage. But
judge not by appearances! perhaps you will think, when you know all the
circumstances, that this success is both as extraordinary in itself, and
as advantageous to me, as any thing which could possibly have happened.
"You have probably heard that my friends in Glasgow, contrary to my
opinion and advice, undertook to get me elected into that college; and
they had succeeded, in spite of the violent and solemn remonstrances of
the clergy, if the Duke of Argyle had had courage to give me the least
countenance. Immediately upon the back of this failure, which should
have blasted for some time all my pretensions, the office of library
keeper to the Faculty of Advocates fell vacant, a genteel office, though
of small revenue; and as this happened suddenly, my name was immediately
set up by my friends without my knowledge. The President, and the Dean
of Faculty his son, who used to rule absolutely in this body of
advocates, formed an aversion to the project, because it had not come
from them; and they secretly engaged the whole party called squadroney
against me. The bigots joined them, and both together set up a gentleman
of character, and an advocate, and who had great favour on both these
accounts. The violent cry of deism, atheism, and scepticism, was raised
against me; and 'twas represented that my election would be giving the
sanction of the greatest and most learned body of men in this country
to my profane and irreligious principles. But what was more dangerous,
my opponents entered into a regular concert and cabal against me; while
my friends were contented to speak well of their project in general,
without having once formed a regular list of the electors, or considered
of the proper methods of engaging them. Things went on in this negligent
manner till within six days of the election, when they met together and
found themselves in some danger of being outnumbered; immediately upon
which they raised the cry of indignation against the opposite party; and
the public joined them so heartily, that our antagonists durst show
their heads in no companies nor assemblies: expresses were despatched to
the country, assistance flocked to us from all quarters, and I carried
the election by a considerable majority, to the great joy of all
bystanders. When faction and party enter into a cause, the smallest
trifle becomes important. Nothing since the rebellion has ever so much
engaged the attention of this town, except Provost Stewart's trial; and
there scarce is a man whose friendship or acquaintance I would desire,
who has not given me undoubted proofs of his concern and regard.
"What is more extraordinary, the cry of religion could not hinder the
ladies from being violently my partisans, and I owe my success in a
great measure to their solicitations. One has broke off all commerce
with her lover, because he voted against me! and W. Lockhart, in a
speech to the Faculty, said that there was no walking the streets, nor
even enjoying one's own fireside, on account of their importunate zeal.
The town says, that even his bed was not safe for him, though his wife
was cousin-german to my antagonist.
"'Twas vulgarly given out, that the contest was betwixt Deists and
Christians; and when the news of my success came to the Play-house, the
whisper ran that the Christians were defeated. Are you not surprised
that we could keep our popularity, notwithstanding this imputation,
which my friends could not deny to be well founded?
"The whole body of cadies bought flambeux, and made illuminations to
mark their pleasure at my success; and next morning I had the drums and
town music at my door, to express their joy, as they said, of my being
made a great man. They could not imagine, that so great a fray could be
raised about so mere a trifle.
"About a fortnight before, I had published a Discourse of the Protestant
Succession, wherein I had very liberally abused both Whigs and Tories;
yet I enjoyed the favour of both parties.
"Such, dear Doctor, is the triumph of your friend; yet, amidst all this
greatness and glory, even though master of 30,000 volumes, and
possessing the smiles of a hundred fair ones, in this very pinnacle of
human grandeur and felicity, I cast a favourable regard on you, and
earnestly desire your friendship and good-will: a little flattery too,
from so eminent a hand, would be very acceptable to me. You know you are
somewhat in my debt, in that particular. The present I made you of my
Inquiry, was calculated both as a mark of my regard, and as a snare to
catch a little incense from you. Why do you put me to the necessity of
giving it to myself?
"Please tell General St. Clair, that W. St. Clair, the Advocate, voted
for me on his account; but his nephew, Sir David, was so excessively
holy, that nothing could bring him over from the opposite party, for
which he is looked down upon a little by the fashionable company in
town. But he is a very pretty fellow, and will soon regain the little
ground he has lost.
"I am, dear Doctor, yours sincerely."
This letter is evidently but half serious. That there was a good deal of
contest and caballing is pretty clear; and it is equally clear that Hume
took a deep interest in the result: but he appears to have been inclined
to laugh a little at his own fervour, and to hide the full extent of his
feelings under a cloud of playful exaggeration.
The Advocates' Library, which is now probably next in extent in Britain
after the Bodleian, cannot then have borne any great proportion to its
present size. It had, however, existed for upwards of seventy years, and
was undoubtedly the largest collection of books in Scotland. It was
rich, perhaps unrivalled, in the works of the civilians and canonists,
and possessed, what was more valuable to Hume, a considerable body of
British historical literature, printed and MS.[373:1] Hume's duties must
have involved some attention, not only to the classification and custody
of the books, but to the arrangements for making them accessible to the
members of the Faculty, as numerous entries in his hand are to be found
in the receipt book for borrowed books.[373:2]
Hume informs us, that the stores thus put at his command enabled him to
put his historical designs in practice, by commencing the "History of
England." We shall now find a great part of his correspondence devoted
to the "History of the House of Stuart," which appears to have been
commenced early in 1752. The following is the earliest extant letter to
Smith:
HUME _to_ ADAM SMITH.
"_24th Sept. 1752._
"DEAR SIR,--I confess I was once of the same opinion with you, and
thought that the best period to begin an English history was about Henry
the Seventh. But you will please to observe, that the change which then
happened in public affairs, was very insensible, and did not display its
influence till many years afterwards. 'Twas under James that the House
of Commons began first to raise their head, and then the quarrel betwixt
privilege and prerogative commenced. The government, no longer oppressed
by the enormous authority of the crown, displayed its genius; and the
factions which then arose, having an influence on our present affairs,
form the most curious, interesting, and instructive part of our history.
The preceding events, or causes, may easily be shown, in a reflection or
review, which may be artfully inserted in the body of the work; and the
whole, by that means, be rendered more compact and uniform. I confess,
that the subject appears to me very fine; and I enter upon it with great
ardour and pleasure. You need not doubt of my perseverance.
"I am just now diverted for a moment, by correcting my 'Essays Moral and
Political,' for a new edition. If any thing occur to you to be inserted
or retrenched, I shall be obliged to you for the hint. In case you
should not have the last edition by you, I shall send you a copy of it.
In that edition I was engaged to act contrary to my judgment, in
retaining the sixth and seventh Essays,[375:1] which I had resolved to
throw out, as too frivolous for the rest, and not very agreeable
neither, even in that trifling manner: but Millar, my bookseller, made
such protestations against it, and told me how much he had heard them
praised by the best judges, that the bowels of a parent melted, and I
preserved them alive.
"All the rest of Bolingbroke's works went to the press last week, as
Millar informs me. I confess my curiosity is not much raised.
"I had almost lost your letter by its being wrong directed. I received
it late, which was the reason why you got not sooner a copy of Joannes
Magnus. Direct to me in Riddal's Land, Lawnmarket. I am, dear Sir, yours
sincerely."[376:1]
HUME _to_ DR. CLEPHANE.
_1753._
"DEAR DOCTOR,--I need not inform you, that in certain polite countries,
a custom prevails, of writing _lettres de la nouvelle année_, and that
many advantages result from this practice, which may seem merely
ceremonious and formal. Acquaintance is thereby kept up, friendship
revived, quarrels extinguished, negligence atoned for, and
correspondences renewed. A man who has been so long conscious of his
sins, that he knows not how to return into the way of salvation, taking
advantage of this great jubilee, wipes off all past offences, and
obtains plenary indulgence; instances are not wanting of such reclaimed
sinners, who have afterwards proved the greatest saints, and have even
heaped up many works of supererogation. Will you allow me, therefore,
dear Doctor, in consideration of my present penitence, and hopes of my
future amendment, to address myself to you, and to wish you many and
happy new years, _multos et felices_. May pleasures spiritual
(_spirituels_) multiply upon you without a decay of the carnal. May
riches increase without an augmentation of desires. May your chariot
still roll along without a failure of your limbs. May your tongue in due
time acquire the _social sweet garrulity_ of age, without your teeth
losing the sharpness and keenness of youth. May ---- but you yourself
will best supply the last prayer, whether it should be for the recovery
or continuance of the blessing which I hint at. In either case, may your
prayer be granted, even though it should extend to the resurrection of
the dead.
"I must now set you an example, and speak of myself. By this I mean that
you are to speak to me of yourself. I shall exult and triumph to you a
little, that I have now at last--being turned of forty, to my own
honour, to that of learning, and to that of the present age--arrived at
the dignity of being a householder. About seven months ago, I got a
house of my own, and completed a regular family; consisting of a head,
viz. myself, and two inferior members, a maid and a cat. My sister has
since joined me, and keeps me company. With frugality I can reach, I
find, cleanliness, warmth, light, plenty, and contentment. What would
you have more? Independence? I have it in a supreme degree. Honour? that
is not altogether wanting. Grace? that will come in time. A wife? that
is none of the indispensable requisites of life. Books? that _is_ one of
them; and I have more than I can use. In short, I cannot find any
blessing of consequence which I am not possessed of, in a greater or
less degree; and without any great effort of philosophy, I may be easy
and satisfied.
"As there is no happiness without occupation, I have begun a work which
will employ me several years, and which yields me much satisfaction.
'Tis a History of Britain, from the Union of the Crowns to the present
time. I have already finished the reign of King James. My friends
flatter me (by this I mean that they don't flatter me) that I have
succeeded. You know that there is no post of honour in the English
Parnassus more vacant than that of history. Style, judgment,
impartiality, care--every thing is wanting to our historians; and even
Rapin, during this latter period, is extremely deficient. I make my work
very concise, after the manner of the ancients. It divides into three
very moderate volumes: one to end with the death of Charles the First;
the second at the Revolution; the third at the Accession,[378:1] for I
dare come no nearer the present times. The work will neither please the
Duke of Bedford nor James Fraser; but I hope it will please you and
posterity. Κτῆμα εις ἀεὶ.
"So, dear Doctor, after having mended my pen, and bit my nails, I return
to the narration of parliamentary factions, or court intrigues, or civil
wars, and bid you heartily adieu.
"_Edinburgh, Riddal's Land, 5th January, 1753._
"P.S.--When I say that I dare come no nearer the present time than the
Accession, you are not to imagine that I am afraid either of danger or
offence; I hope, in many instances, that I have shown myself to be above
all laws of prudence and discretion. I only mean, that I should be
afraid of committing mistakes, in writing of so recent a period, by
reason of the want of materials."[379:1]
HUME _to_ DR. CLEPHANE.
"_Edinburgh, 6th March, 1753._
"DEAR DOCTOR,--This is delivered to you by my friend Mr.
Wedderburn,[379:2] who makes a jaunt to London, partly with a view to
study, partly to entertainment. I thought I could not do him a better
office, nor more suitable to both these purposes, than to recommend him
to the friendship and acquaintance of a man of learning and
conversation. He is young:
'Mais dans les ames bien nées
La vertue n'attend point le nombre des années.'
It will be a great obligation, both to him and me, if you give him
encouragement to see you frequently; and, after that, I doubt not you
will think that you owe me an obligation--
'La in giovenile corpo senile senno.'
"But I will say no more of him, lest my letter fall into the same fault
which may be remarked in his behaviour and conduct in life; the only
fault which has been remarked in them, that of promising so much that it
will be difficult for him to support it. You will allow that he must
have been guilty of some error of this kind, when I tell you that the
man, with whose friendship and company I have thought myself very much
favoured, and whom I recommend to you as a friend and companion, is just
twenty. I am, dear Doctor, your affectionate friend and servant."[379:3]
HUME _to_ JAMES OSWALD.
"_Jack's Land, 28th June, 1753._
"DEAR SIR,--I am to give you great and very hearty thanks for your care
in providing for my cousin, at my desire. The quickness in doing it, and
the many obliging circumstances attending that good office, I shall not
readily forget. What is usual, they say, makes little impression; but
that this rule admits of exceptions, I feel upon every instance of your
friendship.
"Mr. Mure told me that you had undertaken to get satisfaction with
regard to the old English _subsidies_. I cannot satisfy myself on that
head; but I find that all historians and antiquarians are as much at a
loss. The nobility, I observe, paid according to their rank and quality,
not their estates. The counties were subjected to no valuation; but it
was in the power of the commissioners to sink the sums demanded upon
every individual, without raising it upon others; and they practised
this art when discontented with the court, as Charles complains of with
regard to the subsidies voted by his third parliament: yet it seems
certain that there must have been some rule of estimation. What was it?
Why was it so variable? Lord Strafford raised an Irish subsidy from
£12,000 to £40,000, by changing the rule of valuation; but the Irish
Parliament, after his impeachment, brought it down again: if Mr. Harding
undertakes the solution of this matter, it will be requisite to have
these difficulties in his eye. I am glad to hear that we are to have
your company here this summer, and that I shall have an opportunity of
talking over this, and many other subjects, where I want your advice and
opinion. The more I advance in my work, the more I am convinced that the
history of England has never yet been written; not only for style,
which is notorious to all the world, but also for matter; such is the
ignorance and partiality of all our historians. Rapin, whom I had an
esteem for, is totally despicable. I may be liable to the reproach of
ignorance, but I am certain of escaping that of partiality: the truth
is, there is so much reason to blame, and praise, alternately, king and
parliament, that I am afraid the mixture of both, in my composition,
being so equal, may pass sometimes for an affectation, and not the
result of judgment and evidence. Of this you shall be judge; for I am
resolved to encroach on your leisure and patience;
Quem vero arripuit, tenet occiditque legendo.
Let me hear of you as you pass through the town, that we may concert
measures for my catching you idle, and without company, at Kirkcaldy. I
am," &c.[381:1]
The rapidity with which the first volume of the "History of England" was
composed and printed, has been the object both of surprise and censure.
Hume's labours at this time must have been intense; and during the whole
of the period in which he was engaged in the different departments of
this great work--from 1752 to 1763--his correspondence is more scanty
than at other periods of his history. Four months elapse between the
letter last printed, and the next in order which has been preserved; and
in the latter, we find him very wittily alluding to those great labours
which he finds absorbing the petty duties of social intercourse.
HUME _to_ DR. CLEPHANE.
"_28th October, 1753._
"DEAR DOCTOR,--I know not if you remember the giant in Rabelais, who
swallowed every morning a windmill to breakfast, and at last was choked
upon a pound of melted butter, hot from an oven. I am going to compare
myself to that giant. I think nothing of despatching a quarto in fifteen
or eighteen months, but am not able to compose a letter once in two
years; and am very industrious to keep up a correspondence with
posterity, whom I know nothing about, and who, probably, will concern
themselves very little about me, while I allow myself to be forgot by my
friends, whom I value and regard. However, it is some satisfaction that
I can give you an account of my silence, with which I own I reproach
myself. I have now brought down my History to the death of Charles the
First: and here I intend to pause for some time; to read, and think, and
correct; to look forward and backward; and to adopt the most moderate
and most reasonable sentiments on all subjects. I am sensible that the
history of the two first Stuarts will be most agreeable to the Tories;
that of the two last to the Whigs; but we must endeavour to be above any
regard either to Whigs or Tories.
"Having thus satisfied your curiosity--for I will take it for granted
that your curiosity extends towards me--I must now gratify my own. I was
very anxious to hear that you had been molested with some disorders this
summer. I was told that you expected they would settle into a fit of the
gout. It is lucky where that distemper overtakes a man in his chariot:
we foot-walkers make but an awkward figure with it. I hope nobody has
the impertinence to say to you, Physician, cure thyself. All the world
allows that privilege to the gout, that it is not to be cured: it is
itself a physician; and, of course, sometimes cures and sometimes kills.
I fancy one fit of the gout would much increase your stock of
interjections, and render that part of speech, which in common grammars
is usually the most barren, with you more copious than either nouns or
verbs.
"I must tell you good news of our friend Sir Harry. I am informed that
his talent for eloquence will not rust for want of employment: he bids
fair for another seat of the house; and what is the charming part of the
story, it is General Anstruther's seat which he is to obtain. He has
made an attack on the General's boroughs, and, by the assistance of his
uncle's interest and purse, is likely to prevail. Is not this delicious
revenge? It brings to my mind the story of the Italian, who reading that
passage of Scripture, 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord,' burst forth,
'Ay, to be sure; it is too sweet for any mortal.' I own I envy Sir
Harry: I never can hope to hate any body so perfectly as he does that
renowned commander; and no victory, triumph, vengeance, success, can be
more complete. Are not you pleased too? Pray, anatomize your own mind,
and tell me how many grains of your satisfaction is owing to malice, and
how many ounces to friendship. I leave the rest of this paper to be
filled up by Edmonstone. I am, &c.
"P.S.--After keeping this by me eight days, I have never been able to
meet with Edmonstone. I must, therefore, send off my own part of a
letter which we projected in common. I shall only tell you, that I have
since seen Mr. Oswald, who assures me that Anstruther's defeat is
infallible."[383:1]
The following letter to the same friend is a curious instance of Hume's
diligent efforts to attain a correct English style:--
HUME _to_ DR. CLEPHANE.
"_Edinburgh, 8th Dec. 1753._
"DEAR DOCTOR,--I am at present reduced to the utmost straits and
difficulties. I know people are commonly ashamed to own such distresses.
But to whom can one have recourse in his misfortunes, but to his
friends? and who can I account my friend, if not Dr. Clephane? not a
friend only in the sunshine of fortune, but also in the shade of
adversity: not a security only in a calm; but in a storm a sheet-anchor.
But, to cut short all prefaces,--though, commonly, beggars and authors
abound with them, and I unite both these qualities,--the occasion of my
distress is as follows:
"You know that the word _enough_, or _enuff_, as it is pronounced by the
English, we commonly, in Scotland, when it is applied to number,
pronounce enow. Thus we would say: such a one has books enow for study,
but not leisure enuff. Now I want to know, whether the English make the
same distinction. I observed the distinction already in Lord
Shaftesbury; 'Though there be doors enow,' says he, 'to get out of
life;' and thinking that this distinction of spelling words, that had
both different letters, and different pronunciation, was an improvement,
I followed it in my learned productions, though I knew it was not usual.
But there has lately arisen in me a doubt, that this is a mere
Scotticism; and that the English always pronounce the word, as if it
were wrote enuff, whether it be applied to numbers or to quantity. To
you, therefore, I apply in this doubt and perplexity. Though I make no
question that your ear is well purged from all native impurities, yet
trust not entirely to it, but ask any of your English friends, that
frequent good company, and let me know their opinion.
"It is a rule of Vaugelas always to consult the ladies, rather than men,
in all doubts of language; and he asserts, that they have a more
delicate sense of the propriety of expressions. The same author advises
us, if we desire any one's opinion in any grammatical difficulty, not to
ask him directly; for that confounds his memory, and makes him forget
the use, which is the true standard of language. The best way, says he,
is to engage him as it were by accident, to employ the expression about
which we are in doubt. Now, if you are provided of any expedient, for
making the ladies pronounce the word enough, applied both to quantity
and number, I beg you to employ it, and to observe carefully and
attentively, whether they make any difference in the pronunciation. I
am, &c.
"P.S.--I am quite in earnest in desiring a solution of my grammatical
doubt."[385:1]
The gentle sensitive character, and hard fate of poor blind Thomas
Blacklock, the poet, operated strongly on Hume's kindly feelings. He
busied himself with many schemes for enabling his unfortunate friend to
gain a subsistence which might make him enjoy "the glorious privilege of
being independent:" but with small success. This appears to be the only
pursuit which he permitted to divert his attention, at this time, from
his great work. We find him writing the following letter to a person
whose position in society might enable him to do some substantial
service to Blacklock.
HUME _to_ MATTHEW SHARP _of Hoddam_.
"_Edinburgh, 25th February, 1754._
"DEAR SIR,--I have enclosed this letter under one to my friend Mr.
Blacklock, who has retired to Dumfries, and proposes to reside there for
some time. His character and situation are no doubt known to you, and
challenge the greatest regard from every one who has either good taste
or sentiments of humanity. He has printed a collection of poems, which
his friends are endeavouring to turn to the best account for him. Had he
published them in the common way, their merit would have recommended
them sufficiently to common sale; but, in that case, the greatest part
of the profit, it is well known, would have redounded to the
booksellers. His friends, therefore, take copies from him, and
distribute them among their acquaintances. The poems, if I have the
smallest judgment, are, many of them, extremely beautiful, and all of
them remarkable for correctness and propriety. Every man of taste, from
the merit of the performance, would be inclined to purchase them: every
benevolent man, from the situation of the author, would wish to
encourage him; and, as for those who have neither taste nor benevolence,
they should be forced, by importunity, to do good against their will. I
must, therefore, recommend it to you to send for a cargo of these poems,
which the author's great modesty will prevent him from offering to you,
and to engage your acquaintance to purchase them. But, dear sir, I would
fain go farther: I would fain presume upon our friendship, (which now
begins to be ancient between us,) and recommend to your civilities a man
who does honour to his country by his talents, and disgraces it by the
little encouragement he has hitherto met with. He is a man of very
extensive knowledge and of singular good dispositions; and his
poetical, though very much to be admired, is the least part of his
merit. He is very well qualified to instruct youth, by his acquaintance
both with the languages and sciences; and possesses so many arts of
supplying the want of sight, that that imperfection would be no
hinderance. Perhaps he may entertain some such project in Dumfries; and
be assured you could not do your friends a more real service than by
recommending them to him. Whatever scheme he may choose to embrace, I
was desirous you should be prepossessed in his favour, and be willing to
lend him your countenance and protection, which I am sensible would be
of great advantage to him.
"Since I saw you, I have not been idle. I have endeavoured to make some
use of the library which was intrusted to me, and have employed myself
in a composition of British History, beginning with the union of the two
crowns. I have finished the reigns of James and Charles, and will soon
send them to the press. I have the impudence to pretend that I am of no
party, and have no bias. Lord Elibank says, that I am a moderate Whig,
and Mr. Wallace that I am a candid Tory. I was extremely sorry that I
could not recommend your friend to Director Hume,[387:1] as Mr. Cummin
desired me. I have never exchanged a word with that gentleman since I
carried Jemmy Kirkpatrick to him; and our acquaintance has entirely
dropt. I am," &c.[387:2]
Another letter by Hume, longer and fuller of detail, though it has
already appeared in a work well known and much read,[387:3] seems to
demand insertion here. It is addressed to the author of Polymetis and
friend of Pope.
HUME _to_ JOSEPH SPENCE.
_Edinburgh, Oct. 15, 1754._
SIR,--The agreeable productions, with which you have
entertained the public, have long given me a desire of being
known to you: but this desire has been much increased by my
finding you engage so warmly in protecting a man of merit, so
helpless as Mr. Blacklock. I hope you will indulge me in the
liberty I have taken of writing to you. I shall very willingly
communicate all the particulars I know of him; though others,
by their longer acquaintance with him, are better qualified
for this undertaking.
The first time I had ever seen or heard of Mr. Blacklock was
about twelve years ago, when I met him in a visit to two young
ladies. They informed me of his case, as far as they could in
a conversation carried on in his presence. I soon found him to
possess a very delicate taste, along with a passionate love of
learning. Dr. Stevenson had, at that time, taken him under his
protection; and he was perfecting himself in the Latin tongue.
I repeated to him Mr. Pope's elegy to the memory of an
unfortunate lady, which I happened to have by heart: and
though I be a very bad reciter, I saw it affected him
extremely. His eyes, indeed, the great index of the mind,
could express no passion: but his whole body was thrown into
agitation. That poem was equally qualified to touch the
delicacy of his taste, and the tenderness of his feelings. I
left the town a few days after; and being long absent from
Scotland, I neither saw nor heard of him for several years. At
last an acquaintance of mine told me of him, and said that he
would have waited on me, if his excessive modesty had not
prevented him. He soon appeared what I have ever since found
him, a very elegant genius, of a most affectionate grateful
disposition, a modest backward temper, accompanied with that
delicate pride, which so naturally attends virtue in distress.
His great moderation and frugality, along with the generosity
of a few persons, particularly Dr. Stevenson and Provost
Alexander, had hitherto enabled him to subsist. All his good
qualities are diminished, or rather perhaps embellished, by a
great want of knowledge of the world. Men of very benevolent
or very malignant dispositions are apt to fall into this
error; because they think all mankind like themselves: but I
am sorry to say that the former are apt to be most egregiously
mistaken.
I have asked him whether he retained any idea of light or
colours. He assured me that there remained not the least
traces of them. I found, however, that all the poets, even the
most descriptive ones, such as Milton and Thomson, were read
by him with pleasure. Thomson is one of his favourites. I
remembered a story in Locke of a blind man, who said that he
knew very well what scarlet was: it was like the sound of a
trumpet. I therefore asked him, whether he had not formed
associations of that kind, and whether he did not connect
colour and sound together. He answered, that as he met so
often, both in books and conversation, with the terms
expressing colours, he had formed some false associations,
which supported him when he read, wrote, or talked of colours:
but that the associations were of the intellectual kind. The
illumination of the sun, for instance, he supposed to resemble
the presence of a friend; the cheerful colour of green, to be
like an amiable sympathy, &c. It was not altogether easy for
me to understand him: though I believe, in much of our own
thinking, there will be found some species of association.
'Tis certain we always think in some language, viz. in that
which is most familiar to us; and 'tis but too frequent to
substitute words instead of ideas.
If you was acquainted with any mystic, I fancy you would think
Mr. Blacklock's case less paradoxical. The mystics certainly
have associations by which their discourse, which seems jargon
to us, becomes intelligible to themselves. I believe they
commonly substitute the feelings of a common amour, in the
place of their heavenly sympathies: and if they be not belied,
the type is very apt to engross their hearts, and exclude the
thing typified.
Apropos to this passion, I once said to my friend, Mr.
Blacklock, that I was sure he did not treat love as he did
colours; he did not speak of it without feeling it. There
appeared too much reality in all his expressions to allow that
to be suspected. "Alas!" said he, with a sigh, "I could never
bring my heart to a proper tranquillity on that head." Your
passion, replied I, will always be better founded than ours,
who have sight: we are so foolish as to allow ourselves to be
captivated by exterior beauty: nothing but the beauty of the
mind can affect you. "Not altogether neither," said he: "the
sweetness of the voice has a mighty effect upon me: the
symptoms of youth too, which the touch discovers, have great
influence. And though such familiar approaches would be
ill-bred in others, the girls of my acquaintance indulge me,
on account of my blindness, with the liberty of running over
them with my hand. And I can by that means judge entirely of
their shape. However, no doubt, humour, and temper, and sense,
and other beauties of the mind, have an influence upon me as
upon others."
You may see from this conversation how difficult it is even
for a blind man to be a perfect Platonic. But though Mr.
Blacklock never wants his Evanthe, who is the real object of
his poetical addresses, I am well assured that all his
passions have been perfectly consistent with the purest virtue
and innocence. His life indeed has been in all respects
perfectly irreproachable.
He had got some rudiments of Latin in his youth, but could not
easily read a Latin author till he was near twenty, when Dr.
Stevenson put him to a grammar school in Edinburgh. He got a
boy to lead him, whom he found very docible; and he taught him
Latin. This boy accompanied him to the Greek class in the
College, and they both learned Greek. Mr. Blacklock
understands that language perfectly, and has read with a very
lively pleasure all the Greek authors of taste. Mr. William
Alexander, second son to our late provost, and present member,
was so good as to teach him French; and he is quite master of
that language. He has a very tenacious memory and a quick
apprehension. The young students of the College were very
desirous of his company, and he reaped the advantage of their
eyes, and they of his instructions. He is a very good
philosopher, and in general possesses all branches of
erudition, except the mathematical. The lad who first attended
him having left him, he has got another boy, whom he is
beginning to instruct; and he writes me that he is extremely
pleased with his docility. The boy's parents, who are people
of substance, have put him into Mr. Blacklock's service,
chiefly on account of the virtuous and learned education which
they know he gives his pupils.
As you are so generous to interest yourself in this poor man's
case, who is so much an object both of admiration and
compassion, I must inform you entirely of his situation. He
has gained about one hundred guineas by this last edition of
his poems, and this is the whole stock he has in the world. He
has also a bursary, about six pounds a-year. I begun a
subscription for supporting him during five years; and I made
out twelve guineas a-year among my acquaintance. That is a
most terrible undertaking; and some unexpected refusals I met
with, damped me, though they have not quite discouraged me
from proceeding. We have the prospect of another bursary of
ten pounds a-year in the gift of the exchequer; but to the
shame of human nature, we met with difficulties. Noblemen
interpose with their valet-de-chambres or nurses' sons, who
they think would be burdens on themselves. Could we ensure but
thirty pounds a-year to this fine genius and man of virtue, he
would be easy and happy: for his wants are none but those
which Nature has given him, though she has unhappily loaded
him with more than other men.
His want of knowledge of the world, and the great delicacy of
his temper, render him unfit for managing boys or teaching a
school: he would retain no authority. Had it not been for this
defect, he could have been made professor of Greek in the
University of Aberdeen.
Your scheme of publishing his poems by subscription, I hope
will turn to account. I think it impossible he could want,
were his case more generally known. I hope it will be so by
your means. Sir George Lyttleton, who has so fine a taste, and
so much benevolence of temper, would certainly, were the case
laid before him in a just light, lend his assistance, or
rather indeed quite overcome all difficulties. I know not,
whether you have the happiness of that gentleman's
acquaintance.
As you are a lover of letters, I shall inform you of a piece
of news, which will be agreeable to you: we may hope to see
good tragedies in the English language. A young man called
Hume, a clergyman of this country, discovers a very fine
genius for that species of composition. Some years ago, he
wrote a tragedy called Agis, which some of the best judges,
such as the Duke of Argyle, Sir George Lyttleton, Mr. Pitt,
very much approved of. I own, though I could perceive fine
strokes in that tragedy, I never could in general bring myself
to like it: the author, I thought, had corrupted his taste by
the imitation of Shakspere, whom he ought only to have
admired. But the same author has composed a new tragedy on a
subject of invention; and here he appears a true disciple of
Sophocles and Racine. I hope in time he will vindicate the
English stage from the reproach of barbarism.
I shall be very glad if the employing my name in your account
of Mr. Blacklock can be of any service. I am, Sir, with great
regard, &c.
P.S.--Mr. Blacklock is very docible, and glad to receive
corrections. I am only afraid he is too apt to have a
deference for other people's judgment. I did not see the last
edition till it was printed; but I have sent him some
objections to passages, for which he was very thankful. I also
desired him to retrench some poems entirely; such as the Ode
on Fortitude, and some others, which seemed to me inferior to
the rest of the collection. You will very much oblige him, if
you use the same freedom. I remarked to him some Scotticisms;
but you are better qualified for doing him that service. I
have not seen any of his essays; and am afraid his prose is
inferior to his poetry. He will soon be in town, when I shall
be enabled to write you further particulars.
In 1756, Spence published his edition of Blacklock's poems, with a long
introduction, in which all allusion to Hume's letter, and his services
to Blacklock, is carefully avoided. Blacklock was subsequently
alienated from Hume, and was accused by some of ingratitude; while
others threw the odium of the dispute on Hume, who, they said, was
mortified because Spence's edition of Blacklock's Poems was not
dedicated to him. Whoever may have been in the wrong, the latter
supposition is erroneous, as we shall find Hume at a much later period
conferring services on Blacklock, who in his turn gratefully
acknowledges them. The zeal of Spence to blot from the work any mark
that might connect it with the name of Hume, is alluded to with
good-natured sarcasm, in a letter to Dr. Clephane, farther on.
The following letter, connected with another curious circumstance,
describes an incident in Hume's conduct to Blacklock.
HUME _to_ ADAM SMITH.
"_Edinburgh, 17th December, 1754._
"DEAR SIR,--I told you that I intended to apply to the Faculty for
redress; and, if refused, to throw up the library. I was assured that
two of the curators intended before the Faculty to declare their
willingness to redress me, after which there could be no difficulty to
gain a victory over the other two. But before the day came, the Dean
prevailed on them to change their resolution, and joined them himself
with all his interest. I saw it then impossible to succeed, and
accordingly retracted my application. But being equally unwilling to
lose the use of the books, and to bear an indignity, I retain the
office, but have given Blacklock, our blind poet, a bond of annuity for
the salary. I have now put it out of these malicious fellows' power to
offer me any indignity, while my motive for remaining in this office is
so apparent. I should be glad that you approve of my conduct. I own I
am satisfied with myself."[394:1]
The following minute or memorandum, in Hume's handwriting,[394:2]
explains the ground of his disgust. One of the "malicious fellows"
appears to have been Lord Monboddo; another, Sir David Dalrymple,
afterwards Lord Hailes, with whom he never was on very cordial terms.
"_Edinburgh, 27th June, 1754._
"This day Mr. James Burnet, [Mr. Thomas Millar,] and Sir David
Dalrymple, curators of the library, (then follow some arrangement as to
meetings,) having gone through some accounts of books, lately bought for
the library, and finding therein the three following French books, Les
Contes de La Fontaine, L'Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules, and L'Écumoire,
they ordain that the said books be struck out of the catalogue of the
library, and removed from the shelves as indecent books, and unworthy of
a place in a learned library.
"And to prevent the like abuses in time to come, they appoint that after
this no books shall be bought for the library, without the authority of
a meeting of the curators in time of session, and of two of them in time
of vacation."
It involves no approval of the licentious features of French literature,
to pronounce this resolution of the curators pre-eminently absurd. A
public library, purged of every book of which any portion might offend
the taste of a well-regulated mind of the present day, would
unfortunately be very barren in the most brilliant departments of the
literature of other days and other languages. It would be wrong in the
guardians of a public library to advance to the dignity of its shelves,
those loathsome books written for the promotion of vice, of which,
though they be published by no eminent bookseller, exhibited on no
respectable counter, advertised in no newspaper, too many have found
their way, by secret avenues, into the heart of society, where they
corrupt its life-blood. But if Greece, Rome, and France,--if our own
ancestors, had a freer tone in their imaginative literature than we
have, we must yet admit their works to our libraries, if we would have
these institutions depositaries of the genius of all times and all
places. The Faculty of Advocates are probably not less virtuous at this
moment than they were in 1754, yet they have now on their shelves the
brilliant edition of all La Fontaine's works, published at Amsterdam in
1762,--so that the expurgatory zeal of the three curators, had only put
their constituents to the expense of replacing the condemned
book.[396:1] L'Écumoire may also still be found in the Advocates'
library, along with the other still more censurable works of its author,
Crebillon the younger, who was certainly a free writer, but scarcely
deserved the very opprobrious name which he obtained, of the French
Petronius. Hume was afterwards the acquaintance and correspondent of
this author, who was anxious to hear that his works were well received
in Britain. Would Hume tell him that it was considered in Edinburgh an
offence against decency, to admit one of them to a national library? The
other condemned work, which is generally attributed to Bussy Rabutin, is
not now to be found in the catalogues of the Advocates' library.[396:2]
Amidst such unpleasant interruptions he brought the first volume of his
History to a conclusion; and thus announces the fact to a friend, while
in the midst of his satisfaction he does not forget poor Blacklock.
HUME _to_ DR. CLEPHANE.
"_Sept. 1, 1754._
"DEAR DOCTOR,--I desire you to give me joy. _Jamque opus exegi, &c._
This day I received from the press the last sheet of the volume of
history which I intended to publish; and I am already well advanced in
composing the second volume. It was impossible for the booksellers to
refuse to several the sight of the sheets as we went on; and Whig and
Tory, and Tory and Whig, (for I will alternately give them the
precedence,) combine as I am told in approving of my politics. A few
Christians only (and but a few) think I speak like a Libertine in
religion: be assured I am tolerably reserved on this head. Elliot tells
me that you had entertained apprehensions of my discretion: what I had
done to forfeit with you the character of prudence, I cannot tell, but
you will see little or no occasion for any such imputation in this work.
I composed it _ad populum_, as well as _ad clerum_, and thought, that
scepticism was not in its place in an historical production. I shall
take care to convey a copy to you by the first opportunity, and shall be
very proud of your approbation, and no less pleased with your
reprehensions.
"Our friend Aber is again to enjoy the privilege of franking after a
_hiatus valde deflendus_. Edmonstone is at Peterhead drinking the waters
for his health. Sir Harry lives among his boroughs, but not so assiduous
in his civilities as formerly; an instance of ingratitude which one
would not expect in a man of such nice honour. I was lately told, that
one day last winter he went to pay a visit to a deacon's wife, who
happened in that very instant to be gutting fish. He came up to her with
open arms, and said he hoped madam was well, and that the young ladies
her daughters were in good health. 'Oh, come not near me,' cried she,
'Sir Harry; I am in a sad pickle, as nasty as a beast.'--'Not at all,
madam,' replied he, 'you are in a very agreeable négligé.' 'Well,' said
she, 'I shall never be able to understand your fine English.'--'I mean,
madam,' returned he, 'that you are drest in a very genteel
_deshabillé_.'
"There is a young man of this country, Mr. Thomas Blacklock, who has
discovered a very fine genius for poetry, and under very extraordinary
circumstances. He is the son of a poor tradesman, and was born blind;
yet, notwithstanding these disadvantages, he has been able to acquire a
great knowledge of Greek, Latin, and French, and to be well acquainted
with all the classics in these languages, as well as in our own. He
published last winter a volume of Miscellanies, which all men of taste
admired extremely for their purity, elegance, and correctness; nor were
they devoid of force and invention. I sent up half-a-dozen to Dodsley,
desiring him to keep one, and to distribute the rest among men of taste
of his acquaintance. I find they have been much approved of, and that
Mr. Spence, in particular, has entertained thoughts of printing a new
edition by subscription, for the benefit of the author. You are an
acquaintance of Mr. Spence: encourage, I beseech you, so benevolent a
thought, and promote it every where by your recommendation. The young
man has a great deal of modesty, virtue, and goodness, as well as of
genius, and notwithstanding very strict frugality, is in great
necessities; but curst, or blest, with that honest pride of nature,
which makes him uneasy under obligations, and disdain all applications.
I need say no more to you. Dear Doctor, believe me, with great honesty
and affection, your friend and servant."[399:1]
Before the year 1754 came to an end, there was published, in a quarto
volume of four hundred and seventy-three pages, "The History of Great
Britain. Volume I. Containing the reigns of James I. and Charles I. By
David Hume, Esq."[399:2] He had now laid the foundation of a title to
that which all the genius and originality of his philosophical works
would never have procured for him--the reputation of a popular author.
His other works might exhibit a wider and a more original grasp of
thought: but the readers of metaphysics and ethics are a small number;
while the readers of history, and especially of the history of their own
country, are a community nearly as great as the number of those who can
read their own language. In this large market he produced his ware; and
after some hesitation on the part of those ordinary readers, who had
never known his genius as a philosopher, and of those who knew his
previous writings, but did not esteem them, it took the place of a
permanent marketable commodity--a sort of necessary of literary life.
The general reader found in it a distinct and animated narrative,
announced in a style easy, strong, and elegant. The philosopher and
statesman found in it profound and original views, such as the author of
the "Treatise of Human Nature" could not wield the pen without
occasionally dropping on his page. It was a work at once great in its
excellencies and beauties, and great in its defects; yet even the
latter circumstance swelled its fame, by producing a host of
controversial attacks, conducted by no mean champions. No author or
speaker could launch into a defence of monarchical prerogative without
triumphantly citing the opinion of Hume;--no friend of any popular
cause, from Chatham downwards, could appeal to history without
condemning his plausible perversions. No season of a debating society
has ever ended without the vexed questions he has started being
discussed in conjunction with his name. Every newspaper has recorded the
editor's opinion of the tendency of Hume's History. In reviews and
magazines, and political pamphlets, the references, laudatory or
condemnatory, are still, notwithstanding all that has been done for
British history in later times, unceasing; and some books, of no small
bulk, have been written, solely against the History, as one pamphlet is
written against another.
Of a book which is so universally known, and has been subjected to so
thorough a critical examination, both in its narrative and its
reflective parts, a detailed criticism in a work like the present would
be superfluous and unwelcome. But the great extent of the controversial
writings on the subject, the quantity of able criticism which the
controversy has produced, the new light it has frequently been the means
of throwing on portions of British history, and the variety of
contending opinions it has elicited, do, in some measure, enable one who
is partial to that kind of reading, to note slightly and fugitively the
leading opinions which this controversy has developed; and thus, looking
back through the whole vista of debate and inquiry, to describe, in
general terms, the estimate which those who have since Hume's time
studied British history to best effect, have formed of his great work.
Perhaps, for casting a glance at the general principles he has announced
as to the progress of the constitution and public opinion in Britain, as
well as the general scope and extent of his historical labours, his work
may be divided into two leading departments; the history from the
accession of the house of Tudor downwards, which he completed in 1759;
and the history anterior to that epoch, which was published at a later
period of his life. In this arrangement, the general observations will
find their place in a subsequent portion of this work; while, in the
meantime, the opinions entertained of the narrative department of the
volume, published in 1754, may be noticed.
The chief charge brought against it has been, that in describing the
great conflict which ended in the protectorate, the author has shown a
partiality to the side of the monarch, and particularly to Charles I.
and his followers; and has endeavoured to make the opposite
side--Independents, Presbyterians, Republicans, or under whatever name
they raised the banner of opposition to the court--odious and
ridiculous.
Before Hume's day, every historian of those times took his side from the
beginning of the narrative, and proclaimed himself either the champion
or the opponent of the monarchical party. Salmon, Echard, and
Carte[401:1] wrote histories, in which, if they had spoken with decency
or temper of Oliver Cromwell, the Long Parliament, the Presbyterians, or
the Independents, they would have felt that they had as much neglected
their duty, as an advocate who, seeing some irregularity in the case of
the opposite party, fails to take advantage of it. The title-page of
Salmon announced his project: it promised "Remarks on Rapin, Burnet, and
other Republican writers, vindicating the just right of the Established
Church, and the prerogatives of the crown, against the wild schemes of
enthusiasts and levellers, no less active and diligent in promoting the
subversion of this beautiful frame of government, than their artful
predecessors in hypocrisy," &c. But Hume professed to approach the
subject as a philosopher, and to hold the balance even between Salmon
and Echard on the one side, and Oldmixon and Rapin on the other. Hence,
when it was believed that, under this air of impartiality, he masked a
battery well loaded and skilfully pointed against the principles of the
constitution, and the efforts of those who had fought for freedom, a
louder cry of indignation was raised against him than had ever assailed
the avowed retainers of the anti-popular cause.
The tendency of the History was unexpected and inexplicable. In his
philosophical examination of the principles of government, written in
times of hot party feeling, he had discarded the theories of arbitrary
prerogative and divine right with bold and calm disdain. His utilitarian
theory represented the good of the people, not the will or advantage of
any one man, or small class of men, as the right object of government.
Harrison, Milton, and Sidney, had not expressed opinions more thoroughly
democratic than his. "Few things," says a critic, well accustomed to
trace literary anomalies to their causes in the minds of their authors,
"are more unaccountable, and, indeed, absurd, than that Hume should have
taken part with high church and high monarchy men. The persecutions
which he suffered in his youth from the Presbyterians, may, perhaps,
have influenced his ecclesiastical partialities.[403:1] But that he
should have sided with the Tudors and the Stuarts against the people,
seems quite inconsistent with all the great traits of his character. His
unrivalled sagacity must have looked with contempt on the preposterous
arguments by which the _jus divinum_ was maintained. His natural
benevolence must have suggested the cruelty of subjecting the enjoyments
of thousands to the caprice of one unfeeling individual; and his own
practical independence in private life, might have taught him the value
of those feelings which he has so mischievously derided."[403:2]
In truth, it does not appear that Hume had begun his work with the
intention of adopting a side in the politics of the time; and that
sympathy, rather than rational conviction or political prejudice,
dictated his partisanship. His misapprehensions regarding the state of
the constitution, and the early foundation of British liberties, may be
attributed to another cause; but in his treatment of the question
between Charles I. and his opponents, he appears to have set out with
the design of preserving a rigid neutrality; to have gradually felt his
sympathies wavering,--to have at first restrained them, then let them
sway him slightly from the even middle path, and finally allowed them to
take possession of his opinions; opinions which, in their form of
expression, still preserved that tone of calm impartiality with which
he had set out. In the work of Clarendon--a scholar, a gentleman, a
dignified and elegant writer, a man of high-toned and manly feeling--he
found an attractive guide. In looking at the structure of Hume's
narrative, we can see that Clarendon was the author, whose account of
the great conflict was chiefly present to his mind; and dwelling on his
words and ideas, he must have in some measure felt the influence of that
plausible writer. As he went on with his narrative, he found on the one
side refinement and heroism, an elevated and learned priesthood, a
chivalrous aristocracy, a refined court,--all "the divinity" that "doth
hedge a king," followed by all the sad solemnity of fallen
greatness,--an adverse contest, borne with steady courage, and
humiliation and death endured with patient magnanimity. On the other
side appeared plebeian thoughts, rude uncivil speech, barbarous and
ludicrous fanaticism, and success consummated by ungenerous triumphs.
His philosophical indifference gave way before such temptations, and he
went the way of his sympathies. Yet he never permitted himself boldly
and distinctly to profess partisanship: he still bore the badge of
neutrality; and perhaps believed that he was swerving neither to the
right hand nor to the left. An eloquent writer has thus vividly
described the tone of his History:
Hume, without positively asserting more than he can prove,
gives prominence to all the circumstances which can support
his case. He glides lightly over those which are unfavourable
to it. His own witnesses are applauded and encouraged; the
statements which seem to throw discredit on them are
controverted; the contradictions into which they fall are
explained away; a clear and connected abstract of their
evidence is given. Every thing that is offered on the other
side is scrutinized with the utmost severity; every suspicious
circumstance is a ground for comment and invective; what
cannot be denied is extenuated, or passed by without notice.
Concessions even are sometimes made; but this insidious
candour only increases the effect of this vast mass of
sophistry.[405:1]
Yet when there was any thing of a grand and solemn character in the
proceedings of the Republican party,--when they were not connected with
the rude guards, and their insults to the fallen majesty of England;
with the long psalms, long sermons, and long faces of the Puritans; with
Trouble-world Lilburne, Praise-God Barebones, or eccentric, stubborn,
impracticable William Prynne,--he could employ the easy majesty of his
language in surrounding them with a suiting dignity of tone; and he did
so with apparent pleasure. Witness his description of the meeting of the
Long Parliament, and of the preparations for the king's trial before the
High Court of Justice.
He seems to have felt, not unfrequently, the inconsistencies that must
be perceptible between the tone of his historical, and the political
doctrines of his philosophical works; and his attempts to reconcile them
with each other, sometimes only serve to make the difference more
conspicuous. Speaking of the act of holding judgment on Charles I., he
says, "If ever, on any occasion, it were laudable to conceal truth from
the populace, it must be confessed that the doctrine of resistance
affords such an example; and that all speculative reasoners ought to
observe, with regard to this principle, the same cautious silence which
the laws, in every species of government, have ever prescribed to
themselves." One could imagine a congress of crowned heads, or a
conclave of cardinals, adopting such a view; and resolving, at the same
moment, that it should be kept as secret as the grave. But that a man
should speak of the right of resistance as existing, and say the
knowledge of it ought not to be promulgated, and print and publish this
in a book in his own vernacular language, is surely as remarkable an
anomaly, as the history of practical contradictions can exhibit.
Owing to his opinion of the manner in which the Abbé Le Blanc had
rendered his "Political Discourses" into French, he expressed a wish, in
the following courteous letter, that the History should have the benefit
of being translated by the same hand.
HUME _to the_ ABBÉ LE BLANC.
"_Edinburgh, 15th October, 1754._
"SIR,--You will receive, along with this, a copy of the first volume of
my 'History of Great Britain,' which will be published next winter in
London. The honour which you did me in translating my 'Political
Discourses,' inspires me with an ambition of desiring to have this work
translated by the same excellent hand. The great curiosity of the events
related in this volume, embellished by your elegant pen, might challenge
the attention of the public. If you do not undertake this translation, I
despair of ever seeing it done in a satisfactory manner. Many
intricacies in the English government,--many customs peculiar to this
island, require explication; and it will be necessary to accompany the
translation with some notes, however short, in order to render it
intelligible to foreigners. None but a person as well acquainted as you
with England and the English constitution, can pretend to clear up
obscurities, or explain the difficulties which occur. If, at any time,
you find yourself at a loss, be so good as to inform me. I shall spare
no pains to solve all doubts; and convey all the lights which, by my
long and assiduous study of the subject, I may have acquired. The
distance betwixt us need be no impediment to this correspondence. If you
favour me frequently with your letters, I shall be able to render you
the same service as if I had the happiness of living next door to you,
and was able to inspect the whole translation. In this attempt, the
knowledge of the two languages is but one circumstance to qualify a man
for a translator. Though your attainments, in this respect, be known to
all the world, I own that I trust more to the spirit of reflection and
reasoning which you discover; and I thence expect that my performance
will not only have justice done it, but will even receive considerable
improvements as it passes through your hands. I am, with great regard,
Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant."[407:1]
The Abbé received the proposal with rapture: he offered to translate
with the zeal not only of the illustrious author's admirer, but of his
friend. He desired Hume to postpone the publication for a while in
London, and to send him the sheets with the utmost rapidity, lest he
might be forestalled by some of that numerous host of rapid penmen, who
are ready, in obedience to the commands of the booksellers, to translate
such works, without knowing English, or even French. Holland was at that
period a great book mart, and there the Abbé found rivals still more
expeditious; for he was obliged to write to Hume, at a time when he
seems to have made little or no progress with his work, stating that he
is disheartened by the prospect of the immediate appearance of a
translation in Holland, where they employ, in the rendering of excellent
books into French, people who are only fit to manufacture paper. In the
end, having encountered a host of interruptions, he intimates that he
has placed the work in the hands of another person.[408:1]
HUME _to_ DR. CLEPHANE.
"_Oct. 18th, 1754._
"DEAR DOCTOR,--I received your kind letter, for which I thank you. Poor
Aber[408:2] is disappointed by a train of Norland finesse, alas--what
you will. I have given orders to deliver to you a copy of my History,
as soon as it arrives in London, and before it be published. Lend it not
till it be published. It contains no paradoxes, and very little
profaneness,--as little as could be expected. The Abbé Le Blanc, who has
translated some other of my pieces, intends to translate it, and the
enclosed is part of a copy I send him: excuse the freedom--you may
perhaps receive some other packets of the same kind, which you will
please to send carefully to the post-house. The General and Sir Henry
are in town, who remember you. Edmonstone is well, and I just now left
him a-bed. I may perhaps be in London for good and all in a year or two.
Show me that frugality could make £120 a-year do, and I am with you: a
man of letters ought always to live in a capital, says Bayle. I believe
I have no more to say. You'll own that my style has not become more
verbose, on account of my writing quartos. Yours affectionately,"
&c.[409:1]
HUME _to_ WILLIAM MURE _of Caldwell_.
"DEAR MURE,--I had sent to Sharpe a copy of my History, of which I hope
you will tell me your opinion with freedom;
Finding, like a friend,
Something to blame, and something to commend.
"The first quality of an historian, is to be true and impartial. The
next to be interesting. If you do not say that I have done both parties
justice, and if Mrs. Mure be not sorry for poor King Charles, I shall
burn all my papers and return to philosophy.
"I shall send a copy to Paris to L'Abbé Le Blanc, who has translated
some other of my pieces; and therefore your corrections and amendments
may still be of use, and prevent me from misleading or tiring the French
nation. We shall also make a Dublin edition; and it were a pity to put
the Irish farther wrong than they are already. I shall also be so
sanguine as to hope for a second edition, when I may correct all errors.
You know my docility."[410:1]
HUME _to_ MRS. DYSART _of Eccles_.
"_9th October._
"DEAR MADAM,--As I send you a long book, you will allow me to write a
short letter, with this fruit of near two years' very constant
application, my youngest and dearest child. You should have read it
sooner; but, during the fine weather, I foresaw that it would produce
some inconvenience: either you would attach yourself so much to the
perusal of me, as to neglect walking, riding, and field diversions,
which are much more beneficial than any history; or if this beautiful
season tempted you, I must lie in a corner, neglected and forgotten. I
assure you I would take the pet if so treated. Now that the weather has
at last broke, and long nights are joined to wind and rain, and that a
fireside has become the most agreeable object, a new book, especially if
wrote by a friend, may not be unwelcome. In expectation, then, that you
are to peruse me first with pleasure, then with ease, I expect to hear
your remarks, and Mr. Dysart's, and the Solicitor's. Whether am I Whig
or Tory? Protestant or Papist? Scotch or English? I hope you do not all
agree on this head, and that there are disputes among you about my
principles. We never see you in town, and I can never get to the
country; but I hope I preserve a place in your memory. I am, &c.
"P.S.--I have seen John Hume's new unbaptized play,[411:1] and it is a
very fine thing. He now discovers a great genius for the theatre."
[Written at the top.] "I must beg of you not to lend the book out of
your house, on any account, till the middle of November; any body may
read it in the house."[411:2]
In a continuation of the letter, of which the part relating to Blacklock
was cited above, he thus desires Adam Smith's opinion of the History:--
"Pray tell me, and tell me ingenuously, what success has my History met
with among the judges with you. I mean Dr. Cullen, Mr. Betham, Mrs.
Betham, Mr. Leichman, Mr. Muirhead, Mr. Crawford, &c. Dare I presume
that it has been thought worthy of examination, and that its beauties
are found to overbalance its defects? I am very desirous to know my
errors; and I dare swear you think me tolerably docile to be so veteran
an author. I cannot, indeed, hope soon to have an opportunity of
correcting my errors; this impression is so very numerous. The sale,
indeed, has been very great in Edinburgh; but how it goes on in London,
we have not been precisely informed. In all cases I am desirous of
storing up instruction; and as you are now idle, (I mean, have nothing
but your class to teach, which to you is comparative idleness,) I will
insist upon hearing from you.
"_Edinburgh, 17th Dec. 1754._"
The following letter, still on the same subject, introduces the name of
a new correspondent.
HUME _to the_ EARL _of_ BALCARRES.
"_Edinburgh, 17th December, 1754._
"MY LORD,--I did really intend to have paid my respects to your lordship
this harvest; but I have got into such a recluse, studious habit, that I
believe myself only fit to converse with books; and, however I may
pretend to be acquainted with dead kings, shall become quite unsuitable
for my friends and cotemporaries. Besides, the great gulf that is fixed
between us terrifies me. I am not only very sick at sea, but often can
scarce get over the sickness for some days.
"I am very proud that my History, even upon second thoughts, appears to
have something tolerable in your lordship's eyes. It has been very much
canvassed and read here in town, as I am told; and it has full as many
inveterate enemies as partial defenders. The misfortune of a book, says
Boileau, is not the being ill spoke of, but the not being spoken of at
all. The sale has been very considerable here, about four hundred and
fifty copies in five weeks. How it has succeeded in London, I cannot
precisely tell; only I observe that some of the weekly papers have been
busy with me.--I am as great an Atheist as Bolingbroke; as great a
Jacobite as Carte; I cannot write English, &c. I do, indeed, observe
that the book is in general rather more agreeable to those they call
Tories; and I believe, chiefly for this reason, that, having no places
to bestow, they are naturally more moderate in their expectations from a
writer. A Whig, who can give hundreds a-year, will not be contented with
small sacrifices of truth; and most authors are willing to purchase
favour at so reasonable a price.
"I wish it were in my power to pass this Christmas at Balcarres. I
should be glad to accompany your lordship in your rural improvements,
and return thence to relish with pleasure the comforts of your fireside.
You enjoy peace and contentment, my lord, which all the power and wealth
of the nation cannot give to our rulers. The whole ministry, they say,
is by the ears. This quarrel, I hope, they will fight out among
themselves, and not expect to draw us in as formerly, by pretending it
is for our good. We will not be the dupes twice in our life.
"I have the honour to be, my lord, your lordship's most obedient and
most humble servant."[413:1]
The literary success that would satisfy Hume required to be of no small
amount. Though neither, in any sense, a vain man, nor a caterer for
ephemeral applause, he was greedy of fame; and what would have been to
others pre-eminent success, appears to have, in his eyes, scarcely risen
above failure. His expressions about the reception of his History, have
a tinge of morbidness. In John Home's memorandum of his latest
conversations, it is said that "he recurred to a subject not unfrequent
with him, that is, the design to ruin him as an author, by the people
that were ministers at the first publication of his History."[414:1] In
his "own life," written at the same time, the only passage truly bitter
in its tone, gives fuller expression to a like feeling:--"I was, I own,
sanguine in my expectations of the success of this work. I thought that
I was the only historian that had at once neglected present power,
interest, and authority, and the cry of popular prejudices; and as the
subject was suited to every capacity, I expected proportional applause.
But miserable was my disappointment: I was assailed by one cry of
reproach, disapprobation, and even detestation; English, Scotch, and
Irish, Whig and Tory, Churchman and Sectary, Freethinker and
Religionist, Patriot and Courtier, united in their rage against the man
who had presumed to shed a generous tear for the fate of Charles I. and
the Earl of Strafford; and after the first ebullitions of their fury
were over, what was still more mortifying, the book seemed to sink into
oblivion. Mr. Millar told me, that in a twelvemonth he sold only
forty-five copies of it. I scarcely, indeed, heard of one man in the
three kingdoms, considerable for rank or letters, that could endure the
book. I must only except the primate of England, Dr. Herring, and the
primate of Ireland, Dr. Stone, which seem two odd exceptions. These
dignified prelates separately sent me messages not to be discouraged.
"I was however, I confess, discouraged; and had not the war been, at
that time, breaking out between France and England, I had certainly
retired to some provincial town of the former kingdom, have changed my
name, and never more have returned to my native country. But as this
scheme was not now practicable, and the subsequent volume was
considerably advanced, I resolved to pick up courage, and to persevere."
Andrew Millar, a countryman of Hume, had, about this time, formed an
extensive publishing connexion in London. An arrangement was made, by
which he should take the History under his protection,--publish the
subsequent volumes, and push the sale of the first. The arrangement is
said to have been recommended by Hume's Edinburgh publishers; and it
shows how much, in that age, as probably also in this, even a great work
may depend on the publisher's exertions, for giving it a hold on the
public mind. Hume had a pretty extensive correspondence with Millar.
Many of the letters are purely on business, and sometimes on business
not very important; but others, such as the following, have some
literary interest. Hume appears to have contemplated a translation of
Plutarch, and Millar seems to have wished to make him editor of a London
newspaper.
HUME _to_ ANDREW MILLAR.
"_12th April, 1755._
"The second volume of my History I can easily find a way of conveying
to you when finished and corrected, and fairly copied. Perhaps I may be
in London myself about that time. I have always said, to all my
acquaintance, that if the first volume bore a little of a Tory aspect,
the second would probably be as grateful to the opposite party. The two
first princes of the house of Stuart were certainly more excusable than
the two second. The constitution was, in their time, very ambiguous and
undetermined; and their parliaments were, in many respects, refractory
and obstinate. But Charles the Second knew that he had succeeded to a
very limited monarchy. His long parliament was indulgent to him, and
even consisted almost entirely of royalists. Yet he could not be quiet,
nor contented with a legal authority. I need not mention the oppressions
in Scotland, nor the absurd conduct of King James the Second. These are
obvious and glaring points. Upon the whole, I wish the two volumes had
been published together. Neither one party nor the other would, in that
case, have had the least pretext of reproaching me with partiality.
"I shall give no farther umbrage to the godly, though I am far from
thinking, that my liberties on that head have been the real cause of
checking the sale of the first volume. They might afford a pretext for
decrying it to those who were resolved on other accounts to lay hold of
pretexts.
"Pray tell Dr. Birch, if you have occasion to see him, that his story of
the warrant for Lord Loudon's execution, though at first I thought it
highly improbable, appears to me at present a great deal more
likely.[416:1] I find the same story in "Scotstarvet's Staggering
State,"[417:1] which was published here a few months ago. The same
story, coming from different canals, without any dependence on each
other, bears a strong air of probability. I have spoke to Duke Hamilton,
who says, that I shall be very welcome to peruse all his papers. I shall
take the first opportunity of going to the bottom of that affair; and if
I find any confirmation of the suspicion, will be sure to inform Dr.
Birch. I own it is the strongest instance of any which history affords,
of King Charles's arbitrary principles.
"I have made a trial of Plutarch, and find that I take pleasure in it;
but cannot yet form so just a notion of the time and pains which it will
require, as to tell you what sum of money I would think an equivalent.
But I shall be sure to inform you as soon as I come to a resolution. The
notes requisite will not be numerous,--not so many as in the former
edition. I think so bulky a book ought to be swelled as little as
possible; and nothing added but what is absolutely requisite. The little
trial I have made, convinces me that the undertaking will require time.
My manner of composing is slow, and I have great difficulty to satisfy
myself."[417:2]
HUME _to_ ADAM SMITH.
"_Edinburgh, 9th January, 1755._
"DEAR SIR,--I beg you to make my compliments to the Society,[417:3]
and to take the fault on yourself, if I have not executed my duty, and
sent them, this time, my anniversary paper. Had I got a week's warning I
should have been able to have supplied them. I should willingly have
sent some sheets of the history of the Commonwealth, or Protectorship;
but they are all of them out of my hand at present, and I have not been
able to recall them.
"I think you are extremely in the right, that the Parliament's bigotry
has nothing in common with Hiero's generosity. They were, themselves,
violent persecutors at home, to the utmost of their power. Besides, the
Hugunots in France were not persecuted; they were really seditious,
turbulent people, whom their king was not able to reduce to obedience.
The French persecutions did not begin till sixty years after.
"Your objection to the Irish massacre is just, but falls not on the
execution, but the subject. Had I been to describe the massacre of
Paris, I should not have fallen into that fault. But, in the Irish
massacre, no single eminent man fell, or by a remarkable death.[418:1]
If the elocution of the whole chapter be blamable, it is because my
conception laboured with too great an idea of my subject, which is there
the most important. But that misfortune is not unusual. I am,"
&c.[418:2]
We shall have farther occasion to notice the deep interest which Hume
took in John Home's tragedy of Douglas. The following letter, which is
without date, was, probably, written at the beginning of the year 1755,
and before Home made his unsuccessful journey to London, to submit his
effort to the judgment of Garrick.
HUME _to_ JOHN HOME.
"DEAR SIR,--With great pleasure I have more than once perused your
tragedy. It is interesting, affecting, pathetic. The story is simple and
natural; but what chiefly delights me, is to find the language so pure,
correct, and moderate. For God's sake read Shakspere, but get Racine and
Sophocles by heart. It is reserved to you, and you alone, to redeem our
stage from the reproach of barbarism.
"I have not forgot your request to find fault; but as you had neither
numbered the pages nor the lines in your copy, I cannot point out
particular expressions. I have marked the margin, and shall tell you my
opinion when I have the pleasure of seeing you. The more considerable
objections seem to be these: _Glenalvon's_ character is too abandoned.
Such a man is scarce in nature; at least it is inartificial in a poet to
suppose such a one, as if he could not conduct his fable by the ordinary
passions, infirmities, and vices of human nature. _Lord Barnet's_[419:1]
character is not enough decided; he hovers betwixt vice and virtue;
which, though it be not unnatural, is not sufficiently theatrical nor
tragic. After _Anna_ had lived eighteen years with _Lady Barnet_, and
yet had been kept out of the secret, there seems to be no sufficient
reason why, at that very time, she should have been let into it. The
spectator is apt to suspect that it was in order to instruct him; a very
good end, indeed, but which might have been attained by a careful and
artificial conduct of the dialogue.
"There seem to be too many casual rencounters. _Young Forman_[420:1]
passing by chance, saves _Lord Barnet_; _Old Forman_, passing that way,
by chance, is arrested. Why might not _Young Forman_ be supposed to be
coming to the castle, in order to serve under _Lord Barnet_, and _Old
Forman_, having had some hint of his intention, to have followed him
that way?
[Some lines torn off and lost.]
Might not _Anna_ be supposed to have returned to her mistress after long
absence? This might account for a greater flow of confidence."[420:2]
HUME _to_ ANDREW MILLAR.
"_Edinburgh, 12th June, 1755._
"DEAR SIR,--I give you a great many thanks for thinking of me in your
project of a weekly paper. I approve very much of the design, as you
explain it to me; and there is nobody I would more willingly engage
with. But, as I have another work in hand, which requires great labour
and care to finish, I cannot think of entering on a new undertaking,
till I have brought this to a conclusion. Your scheme would require me
immediately to remove to London; and I live here, at present, in great
tranquillity, with all my books around me; and I cannot think of
changing while I have so great a work in hand as the finishing of my
History.
"There are four short Dissertations, which I have kept some years by me,
in order to polish them as much as possible. One of them is that which
Allan Ramsay mentioned to you. Another, of the Passions; a third, of
Tragedy; a fourth, some Considerations previous to Geometry and Natural
Philosophy.[421:1] The whole, I think, would make a volume, a fourth
less than my Inquiry, as nearly as I can calculate; but it would be
proper to print it in a larger type, in order to bring it to the same
size and price. I would have it published about the new year; and I
offer you the property for fifty guineas, payable at the publication.
You may judge, by my being so moderate in my demands, that I do not
propose to make any words about the bargain. It would be more convenient
for me to print here, especially one of the Dissertations, where there
is a good deal of literature; but, as the manuscript is distinct and
accurate, it would not be impossible for me to correct it, though
printed at London. I leave it to your choice; though I believe that it
might be as cheaply and conveniently and safely executed here. However,
the matter is pretty near indifferent to me. I would fain prognosticate
better than you say with regard to my History; that you expect little
sale till the publication of the second volume. I hope the prejudices
will dissipate sooner. I am," &c.[422:1]
In 1755, an effort was made to establish a periodical Review in
Scotland, characterized by a higher literary spirit, and a more original
tone of thinking, than the other periodical literature of the day could
boast. It assumed the name, so famous in later times, of _The Edinburgh
Review_. With such contributors as Smith, Robertson, Blair, and Jardine,
it could not fail to achieve its object, so far as its own merit was
concerned; but the public did not appreciate its excellence, and it died
after two half-yearly numbers, which may now be found on the shelves of
the curious. On this matter, Mackenzie says,
David Hume was not among the number of the writers of the
_Review_, though we should have thought he would have been the
first person whose co-operation they would have sought. But I
think I have heard that they were afraid both of his extreme
good nature, and his extreme artlessness; that, from the one,
their criticisms would have been weakened or suppressed; and,
from the other, their secret discovered. The merits of the
work strongly attracted his attention, and he expressed his
surprise, to some of the gentlemen concerned in it, with whom
he was daily in the habit of meeting, at the excellence of a
performance written, as he presumed, from his ignorance on the
subject, by some persons out of their own literary circle. It
was agreed to communicate the secret to him at a dinner, which
was shortly after given by one of their number. At that dinner
he repeated his wonder on the subject of _The Edinburgh
Review_. One of the company said he knew the authors, and
would tell them to Mr. Hume upon his giving an oath of
secrecy. "How is the oath to be taken," said David, with his
usual pleasantry, "of a man accused of so much scepticism as I
am? You would not trust my Bible oath; but I will swear by the
το καλον and the το πρεπον never to reveal your secret." He
was then told the names of the authors and the plan of the
work; but it was not continued long enough to allow of his
contributing any articles.[423:1]
It was a strong judgment to pass on a man who filled the office of
secretary of legation, and under-secretary of state, that a secret was
not safe in his keeping. Perhaps Hume had acquired absent habits about
trifles. But he could transact important business with ability, and keep
important secrets with strictness. There is a general propensity to
find, in the nature and habits of abstruse thinkers, an innocent
simplicity about the passing affairs of the world, which is often
dispelled by a nearer view of their characters. Hume was careless about
small matters; but in the serious transactions of life, he was
sagacious, prompt, and energetic. Though he did not contribute to it,
he owed some substantial services to this periodical, in the conflict in
the ecclesiastical courts, which, in the course of events, comes now to
be considered.[424:1]
Hume was not one of those who, when they find that the opinions they
have formed are at variance with those of the rest of mankind, blaze the
unpopular portions forth in the light of day, or fling them in the face
of their adversaries. Among his intimate friends, he could pass sly
jests about his opinions; using, in regard to them, those strong
expressions which he knew his adversaries would apply to them. But he
disliked ostentation of any kind. He particularly disliked the
ostentation of singularity; and so little was he aware that he was
outraging any of the world's opinions, in promulgating the fruits of his
metaphysical speculations, that he appears to have been much astonished
that any one should find in them any ground for serious objection, and
to have marvelled greatly that clergymen and others should deem him an
unfit person to be a professor of moral philosophy, or a teacher of
youth. "Rara temporum felicitas, ubi sentire quæ velis, et quæ sentias
dicere, licet," was the motto of his first work; and he seems to have
thought that he lived in an age when speculation might soar with
unclipped wings, and when his opinions would be questioned only before
the tribunal of reason.
In all this, however, he now found that he was mistaken, and that there
were persons who, professing to have charge of these matters, and to
know the final judgment concerning them, thought right to execute it on
earth, by punishing the man whose opinions were different from their
own. The soul of this crusade was a certain Reverend George Anderson, a
restless, fiery, persevering being, probably of great polemical note in
his day, the observed of all observers as he passed through the city, a
Boanerges in church courts; but now only known through the eminence of
those against whom the fury of his zeal was directed. Hume was not the
only object of pursuit. Other game was started at the same time in the
person of his friend, Lord Kames. It is somewhat remarkable, that it was
against the latter that the pursuit was most persevering and bitter. He
was certainly not a man likely to have provoked such attacks. It is true
that he meddled with dangerous subjects, but he did so with great
caution and skill. Bred to the practice of the bar, at a time when the
advocate often felt a temptation to insinuate doctrines which could not
be proclaimed without risk, he became like a chemist who is expert in
the safe manipulation of detonating materials. Yet he made a narrow
escape; for as he had been raised to the bench in 1752, any proceeding
by a church court, professing to subject him to punishment, temporal or
eternal, however lightly it might have fallen on a philosopher, might
have tended materially to injure the usefulness of a judge.
Kames' work, which was published in 1751, and entitled "Essays on the
Principles of Morality and Natural Religion," bears evident marks of
having been written in opposition to the opinions laid down by Hume,
although the author probably did not wish to expose the works of his
kind friend to odium, by making a particular reference to them. It is
clear that he considered his own opinions likely to be so very popular
among the orthodox, that it would be doing an evil turn to his friend,
to mention him as the promulgator of views on the other side. In his
advertisement, he said, the object of his book was "to prepare the way
for a proof of the existence of the Deity," and the Essays end with a
prayer. Their leading principle is, that according to the doctrine of
predestination, there can be no liberty to human beings, in the ordinary
acceptation of the term, while the Deity has nevertheless, for wise
purposes, which we cannot fathom, implanted in our race the feeling that
we are free. Some have held that, while the scheme of predestination was
exhibited by Hume as a mere metaphysical theory, Kames united it to
vital religion. He had the misfortune, however, to write in a
philosophical tone; and those who constituted themselves judges of the
matter, seem to have taken example from the stern father, who, when
there is a quarrel in the nursery, punishes both sides, because
quarrelling is a thing not allowed in the house. In a letter to Michael
Ramsay, Hume says, in continuation of a passage printed above,[427:1]
"Have you seen our friend Harry's Essays? They are well wrote, and are
an unusual instance of an obliging method of answering a book.
Philosophers must judge of the question; but the clergy have already
decided it, and say he is as bad as me! Nay, some affirm him to be
worse,--as much as a treacherous friend is worse than an open enemy."
Dr. Blair is believed to have been the champion of Kames; and the
following notice of his connexion with the controversy, given by
Mackenzie, is valuable and instructive.
It is a singular enough coincidence with some church
proceedings, about fifty years after,[427:2] that Dr. Blair,
in defence of his friend's Essays, expressly states, that one
purpose of those Essays was to controvert what appeared to him
to be a very dangerous doctrine, held by the author of certain
other _Essays_, then recently published, (by Mr. David Hume,)
that, by no principle in human nature, can we discover any
real connexion between _cause_ and _effect_. According to Dr.
Blair, the object of one of Lord Kames' Essays is to show,
that though such connexion is not discoverable by _reason_,
and by a process of argumentative induction, there is,
nevertheless, a real and obvious connexion, which every one
intuitively perceives between an _effect_ and its _cause_. We
feel and acknowledge, that every effect implies a cause; that
nothing can begin to exist without a cause of its existence.
"We are not left," says the author of the Vindication, "to
gather our belief of a _Deity_, from inferences and
conclusions deduced through intermediate steps, many or few.
How unhappy would it be, for the great bulk of mankind, if
this were necessary!"
The first attack was made in a pamphlet, called "An Estimate of the
Profit and Loss of Religion, personally and publicly stated: illustrated
with reference to 'Essays on Morality and Natural Religion,'" published
at Edinburgh, in 1753; the work of Anderson himself, and endowed with
all the marks of its author. This was levelled against Kames alone; but
it was followed in 1755 by a pamphlet, in which, under the name of
Sopho, he was coupled with Hume, thus: "An Analysis of the Moral and
Religious Sentiments contained in the Writings of Sopho and David Hume,
Esq., addressed to the consideration of the reverend and honourable
members of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland." "My design,"
says the author, "is to analyze the works of these celebrated authors,
giving their own expressions under the different heads to which they
seem to belong. This method, I imagine, will not only give the clearest
view of the sentiments of these gentlemen, but is such as they
themselves must allow to be the most fair and candid; because if, in
stating the proposition, I should happen to mistake their meaning, their
own words, subjoined, must immediately do them justice." With this
preamble, the writer ranges his quotations under such heads as, "All
distinction betwixt virtue and vice is merely imaginary;" "Adultery is
very lawful, but sometimes not expedient," &c.
A counter pamphlet was published, called "Observations upon a pamphlet,
entitled 'An Analysis of the Moral and Religious Sentiments contained in
the Writings of Sopho and David Hume, Esq.'"[428:1] In reference to his
opponents' boasted series of accurate quotations, the writer of this
answer says, "If there should be found passages which are neither the
words nor the meaning of the author, the falsehood cannot be palliated
nor excused." And then, after giving a specimen of these "accurate"
quotations, he says,--
"In all that page there is no such sentence, neither is there
any such sentiment to be found. The passage from the beginning
is as follows," &c. and he continues: "To glean disunited
sentences, to patch them together arbitrarily, to omit the
limitations or remarks with which a proposition is delivered;
can this be styled exhibiting the sentiments of an author? I
hope I shall not be thought to deviate into any thing
ludicrous, when I refer the reader to a well-known treatise of
the Dean of St. Patrick's, in which the inquisitorial method
of interpretation in the Church of Rome is by so just and so
severe raillery rendered detestable. _Si non totidem
sententiis, ast totidem verbis; si non totidem verbis, ast
totidem syllabis; si non totidem syllabis ast totidem
literis._ This is the genuine logic of persecution."[429:1]
The matter was brought before the immediately ensuing General Assembly,
that of 1755; by which a general resolution was passed, expressive of
the Church's "utmost abhorrence" of "impious and infidel principles,"
and of "the deepest concern on account of the prevalence of infidelity
and immorality, the principles whereof have been, to the disgrace of
our age and nation, so openly avowed in several books published of late
in this country, and which are but too well known amongst us." But this
general anathema was not sufficient to satisfy the pious zeal of Mr.
Anderson, who, in anticipation of the meeting of the Assembly in 1756,
wrote another pamphlet, called "Infidelity a proper object of censure."
The initiatory step in the legislative business of the General Assembly,
is the bringing before it an overture, which has previously obtained the
sanction, either of one of the inferior church courts, or of a committee
of the Assembly for preparing overtures. In such a committee, it was
moved on 28th May, 1756, that the following overture should be
transmitted to the Assembly.
"The General Assembly, judging it their duty to do all in
their power to check the growth and progress of infidelity;
and considering, that as infidel writings have begun of late
years to be published in this nation, against which they have
hitherto only testified in general, so there is one person
styling himself David Hume, Esq. who hath arrived at such a
degree of boldness as publicly to avow himself the author of
books containing the most rude and open attacks upon the
glorious gospel of Christ, and principles evidently subversive
even of natural religion, and the foundations of morality, if
not establishing direct atheism: therefore the Assembly
appoint the following persons . . . . . as a committee to
inquire into the writings of this author, to call him before
them, and prepare the matter for the next General Assembly."
The matter was discussed with the usual keenness of such debates in such
bodies. But toleration was triumphant, and the overture was rejected by
fifty votes to seventeen.[430:1]
Still the indefatigable Anderson returned to the charge, though he
brought it against humbler persons in a less conspicuous arena. As he
found the authors above his reach, he resolved to proceed against the
booksellers; and he brought before the Presbytery of Edinburgh a
"Petition and Complaint" against Alexander Kincaid and Alexander
Donaldson, the publishers of "Kames' Essays," praying, "that the said
printer and booksellers may be summoned to the next meeting of the
Presbytery, and there and then to declare and give up the author of the
said book; and that he and they may be censured, according to the law of
the gospel, and the practice of this and all other well-governed
churches." Anderson indeed would seem to have imbibed the spirit of the
great Anthony Arnauld: who, when Nicole spoke of some rest from the
endless war of polemical controversy, exclaimed, "Rest! will you not
have enough of rest hereafter, through all eternity?" Before the
Presbytery could meet he accordingly published another pamphlet, called
"the Complaint of George Anderson, minister of the gospel, verified by
passages in the book libelled." He died in the 19th October,[432:1] just
ten days before the meeting of the presbytery, for which he had made
such active preparation. He fell in harness, and the departure of the
restless spirit of the champion from its tenement of clay, was death to
the cause. After the perusal of written pleadings, and a formal debate,
the complaint was dismissed.
This matter appears to have given Hume very little disturbance. He does
not mention it in his "own life." He laboured uninterruptedly at the
second volume of his History; and his correspondence, which we may now
resume, will be found to pursue its even tenor, taking no farther notice
of the proceedings of his opponents, than the simple question put to
Smith, whether it will be a matter of much consequence if he should be
excommunicated?
HUME _to_ DR. CLEPHANE.
"_Edinburgh, 20th April, 1756._
"DEAR DOCTOR,--There is certainly nothing so unaccountable as my long
silence with you; that is, with a man whose friendship I desire most to
preserve of any I know, and whose conversation I would be the most
covetous to enjoy, were I in the same place with him. But to tell the
truth, we people in the country, (for such you Londoners esteem our
city,) are apt to be troublesome to you people in town; we are vastly
glad to receive letters which convey intelligence to us of things which
we should otherwise have been ignorant of, and can pay them back with
nothing but provincial stories, which are no way interesting. It was
perhaps an apprehension of this kind which held my pen: but really, I
believe, the truth is, when I was idle, I was lazy--when I was busy, I
was so extremely busy, that I had no leisure to think of any thing else.
For, dear Doctor, what have we to do with news on either side, unless it
be literary news, which I hope will always interest us? and of these,
London seems to me as barren as Edinburgh; or rather more so, since I
can tell you that our friend Hume's 'Douglas,' is altered and finished,
and will be brought out on the stage next winter, and is a singular, as
well as fine performance, [----[433:1]] of the spirit of the English
theatre, not devoid of Attic and French elegance. You have sent us
nothing worth reading this winter; even your vein of wretched novels is
dried up, though not that of scurrilous partial politics. We hear of Sir
George Lyttleton's History, from which the populace expect a great deal:
but I hear it is to be three quarto volumes. 'O, magnum horribilem et
sacrum Libellum.'--This last epithet of _sacrum_ will probably be
applicable to it in more senses than one. However, it cannot well fail
to be readable, which is a great deal for an English book now-a-days.
"But, dear Doctor, even places more hyperborean than this, more
provincial, more uncultivated, and more barbarous, may furnish articles
for a literary correspondence. Have you seen the second volume of
Blackwell's 'Court of Augustus?' I had it some days lying on my table,
and, on turning it over, met with passages very singular for their
ridicule and absurdity. He says that Mark Antony, travelling from Rome
in a post-chaise, lay the first night at Redstones: I own I did not
think this a very classical name; but, on recollection, I found, by the
Philippics, that he lay at Saxa Rubra. He talks also of Mark Antony's
favourite poet, Mr. Gosling, meaning Anser, who, methinks, should rather
be called Mr. Goose. He also takes notice of Virgil's distinguishing
himself, in his youth, by his epigram on Crossbow the robber! Look your
Virgil, you'll find that, like other robbers, this man bore various
names. Crossbow is the name he took at Aberdeen, but Balista at Rome.
The book has many other flowers[434:1] of a like nature, which made me
exclaim, with regard to the author,
Nec _certe_[435:1] apparet . . . utrum
Minxerit in patrios cineres, an triste bidental
Moverit incestus. Certe furit.
But other people, who have read through the volume, say that,
notwithstanding these absurdities, it does not want merit; and, if it be
so, I own the case is still more singular. What would you think of a man
who should speak of the mayorality of Mr. Veitch; meaning the consulship
of Cicero?--Is not this a fine way of avoiding the imputation of
pedantry? Perhaps Cicero, to modernize him entirely, should be called
Sir Mark Veitch, because his father was a Roman knight.
"I do not find your name among the subscribers of my friend Blacklock's
poems, you have forgot; buy a copy of them and read them, they are many
of them very elegant, and merit esteem, if they came from any one, but
are admirable from him. [----[435:2]] Spence's industry in so good a
work, but there is a circumstance of his conduct that will entertain
you. In the Edinburgh edition there was a stanza to this effect:
The wise in every age conclude,
What Pyrrho taught and Hume renewed,
That Dogmatists are fools.
"Mr. Spence would not undertake to promote a London subscription, unless
my name, as well as Lord Shaftesbury's, (who was mentioned in another
place,) were erased: the author frankly gave up Shaftesbury, but said
that he would forfeit all the profit he might expect from a
subscription, rather than relinquish the small tribute of praise which
he had paid to a man whom he was more indebted to than to all the world
beside. I heard by chance of this controversy, and wrote to Mr. Spence,
that, without farther consulting the author, I, who was chiefly
concerned, would take upon me to empower him to alter the stanza where I
was mentioned. He did so, and farther, having prefixed the life of the
author, he took occasion to mention some people to whom he had been
obliged, but is careful not to name me; judging rightly that such good
deeds were only _splendida peccata_, and that till they were sanctified
by the grace of God they would be of no benefit to salvation.[436:1]
"I have seen (but, I thank God, was not bound to read) Dr. [Birch's]
'History of the Royal Society.' Pray make my compliments to him, and
tell him, that I am his most obliged humble servant. I hope you
understand that the last clause was spoken ironically. You would have
surprised _him_ very much had you executed the compliment. I shall
conclude this article of literature by mentioning myself. I have
finished the second volume of my History, and have maintained the same
unbounded liberty in my politics which gave so much offence: religion
lay more out of my way; and there will not be . . .[436:2] in this
particular: I think reason, and even some eloquence, are on my side, and
. . . will, I am confident, get the better of faction and folly, which
are the . . .[436:2] least they never continue long in the same shape. I
am sorry, however, that you speak nothing on this head in your
postscript to me.
"It gives me great affliction, dear Doctor, when you speak of gouts and
old age. Alas! you are going down hill, and I am tumbling fast after
you. I have, however, very entire health, notwithstanding my studious
sedentary life. I only grow fat more than I could wish. When shall I see
you? God knows. I am settled here; have no pretensions, nor hopes, nor
desires, to carry me to court the great. I live frugally on a small
fortune, which I care not to dissipate by jaunts of pleasure. All these
circumstances give me little prospect of seeing London. Were I to change
my habitation, I would retire to some provincial town in France, to
trifle out my old age, near a warm sun in a good climate, a pleasant
country, and amidst a sociable people. My stock would then maintain me
in some opulence; for I have the satisfaction to tell you, dear Doctor,
that on reviewing my affairs, I find that I am worth £1600 sterling,
which, at five per cent, makes near 1800 livres a-year--that is, the pay
of two French captains.
"Edmonstone left this town for Ireland. I wish he were out of the way:
he has no prospect of advancement suitable to his merit. Sir Harry, I
hope, has only run backwards to make a better jump. Pray imitate not my
example--delay not to write; or, if you do, I will imitate yours, and
write again without waiting for an answer. Ever most sincerely."[437:1]
FOOTNOTES:
[367:1] The appointment is thus recorded in the minutes of the Faculty
of Advocates.
"_28th January, 1752._
"The Faculty proceeded to the choice of a keeper of their library, in
place of the said Mr. Thomas Ruddiman; and some members proposed that a
dignified member of their own body, viz. Mr. Kenneth Mackenzie,
Advocate, Professor of the Civil Law in the University of Edinburgh,
should be named to that office, and others inclining that Mr. David Hume
should be elected, it was agreed that the matter should be put to a
vote. And the rolls being called, and votes distinctly marked and taken
down and numbered, it was found that the majority had declared for the
latter; upon which, the Dean and Faculty declared the said Mr. David
Hume duly elected keeper of their library, and appointed that the usual
salary of forty pounds sterling should be paid to him yearly on that
account. And in regard that he was to have their minutes, acts, and
records, under his custody, they appointed him also clerk to the
Faculty, which office had been lately resigned by Mr. David Falconer,
with power to the said Mr. Hume to officiate therein by a depute.
"Mr. Gilbert Elliot, senior, curator of the library, here proposed, that
in consideration that there would be a good deal of labour and trouble
in delivering over the library to Mr. Hume, and his receiving the same,
and doing several other things requisite and necessary relating thereto,
that the Faculty should name a certain salary to some person as under
keeper for some time till that business may be accomplished. The Dean
and Faculty resolved, that they would name no person, nor no salary, but
leave Mr. Hume, their library keeper, himself the nomination and choice
of his own depute, as he was to be answerable and accountable to the
Faculty for his whole charge and intromissions; but that, against the
next anniversary meeting, they would take under their consideration what
extraordinary work should be then accomplished, and do therein as should
be found reasonable.
"Lastly, the Dean and Faculty appointed Mr. George Brown to intimate to
Mr. David Hume their election of him for their library keeper, and that
he should be present at their next meeting to have the oath _de fideli_
administered to him."
In this office, Hume succeeded the celebrated Thomas Ruddiman. The life
of this distinguished critic and philologist was written in an 8vo
volume by George Chalmers, (1794.) This book is valuable as containing
some of the finest specimens of mixed bombast and bathos in the English
language. Chalmers was a distinguished antiquary, and his high fame in
that department of research was well earned; but this did not content
his ambition, and like an eminent Anglo-Saxon antiquary of the present
day, he must needs mount a cap and bells on his head, by aping the style
of the fine writers of his age. Gibbon and Johnson seem to have been
honoured with an equal share in the elements of his style. He can say
nothing without a due pomp and state; when he tells us how John Love was
the son of a bookseller in Dumbarton, he must put it thus: "He was born
in July, 1695, at Dunbarton, the Dunbriton of the British, the _arx
Britonum_ of the Romans, the Dunclidon of Ravennas, the Alcluyd of Bede,
and he was the son of John Love, a bookseller, who, like greater dealers
in greater towns, supplied his customers with such books as their taste
required, and, like the father of Johnson, occasionally exhibited his
books at the neighbouring fairs." We are then of course provided with a
list of what these books sold by Love's father might or might not
probably be, which has this reference to the life of Ruddiman, that
_young_ Love quarrelled with him. We then find such solemn announcements
as the following: "Love had scarcely animadverted on Trotter, when he
was carried before the judicatories of the kirk by Mr. Sydserf, the
minister of Dumbarton, who accused him of _brewing on a Sunday_; and
who, after a juridical trial, was obliged to make a public apology for
having maliciously accused calumniated innocence." A printer publishing
books calculated for an extensive sale is thus described:--"To these
other qualities of prudence, of industry, and of attention, Ruddiman
added judgment. He did not print splendid editions of books for the
public good; he did not publish volumes for the perusal of the few; but
he chiefly employed his press in supplying Scotland with books, which,
from their daily use, had a general sale; and he was by this motive
induced to furnish country shopkeepers with school-books at the lowest
rate."
[373:1] The state of the library in Hume's time may be guessed at by
consulting the first volume of the catalogue, printed under Ruddiman's
auspices in 1742, folio. It is a singular circumstance that this library
has always been very deficient in the early editions of Hume's
works--those which were published before his librarianship. Another set
of works, which one misses in the early catalogues, consists in the
controversial books, written by Logan _against_ its previous librarian,
Ruddiman.
[373:2] The assistant, whose remuneration was to be at the pleasure of
the Faculty, according to the above minute, was Walter Goodall, an
unfortunate scholar, whom Hume's predecessor in office, the celebrated
Thomas Ruddiman, had attached to the library as a hanger-on and
miscellaneous drudge. The extent of his emoluments may be appreciated
from a minute of Faculty, (7th Jan. 1758,) which, in consideration of
his long services, awards him a salary of "£5 a-year, over and above
what he may receive from the keeper of the library." Goodall's character
and fate are summed up in the sententious remark of Lord Hailes, that
"Walter was seldom sober." Yet he did not a little for historical
literature. He was a violent Jacobite and champion of the innocence of
Queen Mary; and in 1754 he published, in two volumes 8vo, his
"Examination of the Letters said to be written by Mary, Queen of Scots,
to James, Earl of Bothwell, showing by intrinsick and extrinsick
evidence that they are forgeries." In 1759 he edited the best edition of
Fordun's Scotichronicon, in two volumes folio.
The following traditional anecdote has been preserved, of the keeper and
his assistant. "One day, while Goodall was composing his treatise
concerning Queen Mary, he became drowsy, and laying down his head upon
his MSS. in that posture fell asleep. Hume entering the library, and
finding the controversialist in that position, stepped softly up to him,
and laying his mouth to Watty's ear, roared out with the voice of a
stentor, that Queen Mary was a whore and had murdered her husband.
Watty, not knowing whether it was a dream or a real adventure, or
whether the voice proceeded from a ghost or a living creature, started
up, and before he was awake or his eyes well opened, he sprang upon
Hume, and seizing him by the throat, pushed him to the farther end of
the library, exclaiming all the while that he was some base Presbyterian
parson, who was come to murder the character of Queen Mary, as his
predecessors had contributed to murder her person. Hume used to tell
this story with much glee, and Watty acknowledged the truth of it with
much frankness." Chambers's Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen,
_voce_ GOODALL.
[375:1] "Of Love and Marriage," and "Of the Study of History."
[376:1] _Literary Gazette_, 1821, p. 745. The original is in the MSS.
R.S.E.
[378:1] Thus it appears that it was his original intention to continue
the history down to 1714, before he went back to the earlier periods.
[379:1] From the original at Kilravock.
[379:2] Probably Alexander Wedderburn, afterwards Lord Chancellor
Loughborough, who was then twenty years of age.
[379:3] From the original at Kilravock.
[381:1] Memorials of James Oswald, p. 72.
[383:1] _Scots Mag._ 1802, p. 794. Collated with original at Kilravock.
[385:1] _Scots Magazine_, 1802, p. 902.
[387:1] Alexander Hume, a director of the East India Company.
[387:2] _Edinburgh Annual Register_ for 1809, p. 553.
[387:3] Singer's edition of Spence's Anecdotes of Books and Men, p. 448.
[394:1] It is out of some vague rumour as to this transaction, that Lord
Charlemont must have constructed the following romantic story of Hume.
"He was tender-hearted, friendly, and charitable in the extreme, as will
appear from a fact, which I have from good authority. When a member of
the University of Edinburgh, and in great want of money, having little
or no paternal fortune, and the collegiate stipend being very
inconsiderable, he had procured, through the interest of some friend, an
office in the university, which was worth about £40 a-year. On the day
when he had received this good news, and just when he had got into his
possession the patent or grant entitling him to his office, he was
visited by his friend Blacklock, the poet, who is much better known by
his poverty and blindness than by his genius. This poor man began a long
descant on his misery, bewailing his want of sight, his large family of
children, and his utter inability to provide for them, or even procure
them the necessaries of life. Hume, unable to bear his complaints, and
destitute of money to assist him, ran instantly to his desk, took out
the grant, and presented it to his miserable friend, who received it
with exultation, and whose name was soon after, by Hume's interest,
inserted instead of his own."--_Hardy's Memoirs of Charlemont_, p. 9.
This story is constructed after the received model of the current
anecdotes of Fielding, Goldsmith, and others, and is perhaps as close to
the truth as many of them would be found to be, if they were minutely
investigated. It is pretty clear that Hume's generosity,--for generosity
he certainly had, to a very large extent, by the testimony of all who
knew him,--was not so much the creature of impulse, as that of the
authors who have been mentioned above: but such an instance as that just
given, is a warning to distrust those anecdotes of the inconsiderate
generosity of men of genius, that are put into a very dramatic shape.
[394:2] It is along with the letter to Smith in the MSS. R.S.E.
[396:1] The fastidious Gray's appreciation of La Fontaine, is thus
recorded. "The sly, delicate, and exquisitely elegant pleasantry of La
Fontaine he thought inimitable, whose muse, however licentious, is never
gross; not perhaps on that account the less dangerous."--Nicholls'
Reminiscences. Gray's Works, v. 45.
[396:2] In 1756, some disputes appear to have arisen between the Faculty
and their curators, owing to the arbitrary disposal of the books by the
latter. On 6th January it was represented by Mr. William Johnstone, that
the curators had ordered certain books to be sold, and that the practice
was a very questionable one, "seeing as one curator succeeded another
yearly, and different men had different tastes, the library might by
that means happen to suffer considerably." It was declared that the
curators had no right to dispose of books.
[399:1] From the original at Kilravock.
[399:2] Edinburgh: published by Hamilton, Balfour, and Neill. It is
entered in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ list for October.
[401:1] Carte's last volume was posthumously published in the year after
Hume's first.
[403:1] He does not appear to have suffered any _persecutions_ before he
wrote the first volume of the History of the Stuarts, unless the
opposition to his appointment as a professor deserves that name. The
tone of the History itself was indeed one of the grounds on which he was
attacked in the ecclesiastical courts.