Chapter V: Preface (3)

"David Hume was a man of parts, natural and acquired, far
superior to most of mankind; of a benevolent heart, a
friendly, kind disposition, and a real affection for all his
connexions. No man is without his failings; and his great
views of being singular, and a vanity to show himself superior
to most people, led him to advance many axioms that were
dissonant to the opinions of others, and led him into
sceptical doctrines only to show how minute and puzzling they
were to other folk; in so far, that I have often seen him (in
various companies, according as he saw some enthusiastic
person there) combat either their religious or political
principles; nay, after he had struck them dumb, take up the
argument on their side with equal good humour, wit, and
jocoseness, all to show his pre-eminency. For the justness of
these observations, I appeal to his life, wrote by himself,
and published by his friend and admirer, Adam Smith, where you
see he was so chagrined at no notice of, or answer being made
to, his Essays, and was so disappointed, that he proposed to
retire to Saumure, or some other part of France, to be lost to
the unheeding world; and, in short, be a perfect hermit. But,
on being answered by a bishop, on some of his dogmas, and
other favourable circumstances flattering him that he would at
last be conspicuous, he gave up the project, and was first a
companion, for some time, to the Marquis of Annandale; then
librarian to the Advocates here; after that, secretary to
General Sinclair at Turin (who was, under pretence of an
ambassador to his Sardinian Majesty, a spy, as his conduct was
dubious to the allies, against Louis XV.;) afterwards, by
General Conway's interest, secretary to Lord Hertford at
Paris; left there chargé d'affairs; and, finally, one of the
under secretaries of state for about half a year. After which
he settled in Edinburgh for life, and made all his friends and
connexions happy by the possession of so worthy a man.--Thus
far I have given my real sentiments of the man, and can only
now regret that he was so weak as to write his life in the
style he did.

"I must add, that he was a cheerful and most agreeable
companion, well informed, and who accommodated himself to the
company; and, for all his abstruse learning, was never happier
than in a select company of ladies and friends, and fond to
engage in a party at whist, of which game he was a complete
adept, and, of consequence, successful. He never played deep;
never above a shilling, one, two, or three; and I have known
him come into Edinburgh for some weeks, pay his residence
there, and get a recruit of clothes and necessaries out of his
gains; nay, sometimes to have a pound or two to give in
assistance to a necessitous relation; and carry back to his
brother's house, at Ninewells, the cash he brought with him
from that place, in order to defray the expenses of his visit
to the metropolis. General Scott of Balcomie, who was a good
judge in these matters, was so convinced of his superior skill
at whist, that I was assured he offered David his purse to
gamble at London; and that he would give him £1000 a-year if
he would communicate his winnings. This he refused with
disdain, saying, he played for his amusement; and though
General Scott would give him ten times more per annum, he
would be accessary to no such fraudulent doings.

"It was very remarkable, that, though from study and reading
the purest authors in the English language he learnt to write
in a correct and elegant style, yet, in conversing, he spoke
with the tone, idiom, and vulgar voice of the commonalty in
the Merse or Berwickshire. This, I presume, arose from his
having been greatly, in his early years, about his brother's
house, conversing with servants, &c.; and having no ear
(though a foreign or even a dead language, which he acquired
by grammar and rules, he wrote pointedly,) it was impossible
for him to attain, in speaking, any other dialect of the Scots
than that he caught in his childhood: besides, he had but a
creeping voice, rather effeminate than manly.

"I could give you several anecdotes with regard to him; I
shall content myself with one. One day when he was advancing
some irreligious maxims in a sarcastical style, I said to him,
'L----, David, ye are much altered in your sentiments since
you professed yourself a sincere Roman Catholic, confessed
yourself to the priests, declared yourself a sincere penitent,
got absolution, and even extreme unction.' He was much
offended at this, as he believed none knew, in this country,
that all this had happened to him at Nice. He answered in a
huff, 'I was in a high fever then, and did not know what I
said, or they did with me.' I replied, 'You put me in mind of
Patie Birnie's answer to the minister of Kinghorn, who,
stumbling o'er him in a passage dead drunk, said, 'Ah! Patie,
is this your promise that you would never be fu' again, if the
Lord spared you?'--'Wow,' quo' Pate, 'I wonder to hear ane of
your honour's sense mind what ony body says in a red raving
fever; I kent naithing of what was ga'en.' David and I, for
years after, were tolerable good friends, but never so cordial
as before. G. N." [These initials are supposed to be those of
George Nichol, M. P.]

[9:1] Hume was inclined to admire the polity of the Church of England, on grounds peculiar to himself. The tendency of his remarks on the wealth and dignity of that establishment, is to hold that heaping riches and honours on a clergy, by occupying their minds in pomps and vanities, diverts a certain portion of the spirit of priestcraft from its natural propensity to subdue or annoy the rest of the community, and is on the whole a judicious investment of a considerable proportion of the wealth and honours which may happen to be at the command of a state. Adam Smith's opinion, on the other hand, was, that the people are best protected against the influence of priestcraft, by allowing no sect to have a superiority over others, and by leaving the clergy of different denominations to expend their zeal in fighting with each other.

[11:1] Original at Kilravock.

[13:1] Scroll in Hume's handwriting, Minto MSS.

[13:2] Four Dissertations: The Natural History of Religion; Of the Passions; Of Tragedy; Of the Standard of Taste. 8vo, A. Millar. Hume, in his "own life," says they were published in the interval between the first and second volumes of his History.

[14:1] In a copy which I possess, after p. 200, the end of the third dissertation, there are four strips of paper, the remains of half a sheet cut away. This occurs in signature K, and signature L begins with the fourth dissertation.

[14:2] Vol. i. p. 246.

[15:1] A simple example tells at once the whole philosophy of this view. In an unhealthy community, a workman dies after he has been ten years married, and leaves a widow and children dependant on the public. In a healthy community, he lives for twenty years after his marriage, and leaves children grown up and able to provide for themselves.

In general, the aim of all remarks on Hume's writings in the present work is expository, not controversial. The reader desirous of having every light thrown on Hume's opinions, will care nothing about mine; but where, as in the present case, he seems to have gone astray from his own leading principles, it appeared to be right to notice the aberration.

[16:1] This letter is not dated.

[18:1] MS. R.S.E.

[18:2] He persisted in spelling the poet's name thus.

[19:1] MS. Advocates' Library. A good example of the same thing being done in two ways, is afforded by comparing Hume's resignation with that of his venerable predecessor, Ruddiman. The latter is a document of considerable length, and ends in the following strain:--"But though I can be no longer serviceable to the honourable Faculty in that my former capacity, yet there is one duty still in my power, and which can never be dispensed with; and that is, that from the deep and most grateful sense which I shall always retain of your great and manifold favours, I should earnestly pray to Almighty God for the honour, prosperity, and flourishing state of your most learned and useful society; that ye may continue a great ornament to those high courts, of which you are members; and that in them, and every where else, ye may shine forth with that splendour and dignity, that unblemished character for justice and probity, and the faithful discharge of all those duties your honourable profession has laid upon you, for which you are so remarkable; and which the superior name and rank you bear in the world, give your country just ground to expect of you.

"This is the last best testimony and assurance I can give, of my most sincere gratitude, warm affection, and high regard to the honourable Faculty; and that I am, now, and always, my much honoured patrons and masters, your most obliged, most humble, and most dutiful servant,--

Dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus hos regit artus

"T. RUDDIMAN."

[20:1] These two distichs are taken from separate parts of the fourth book of Ovid's "Tristia." The first is accurate, but the second is evidently a variation of the following:

Sic ubi mota calent viridi mea pectora Thyrso
Altior humano spiritus ille malo est.

[22:1] _Literary Gazette_, 1822, p. 636. MS. R.S.E.

[23:1] In a work by Dr. John Brown, called, "An Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times," 1757, there is the following passage:--"A certain historian, of our own times, bent upon _popularity_ and _gain_, published a large volume, and omitted no opportunity that offered to disgrace religion. A large impression was published, and a small part sold. The author being asked why he had so larded his work with irreligion, his answer implied:--'He had done it that his book might sell.' It was whispered him, that he had totally mistaken the spirit of the times;--that no allurements could engage the _fashionable_ infidel world to travel through a large quarto; and that, as the few readers of quartos that yet remain lie mostly among the serious part of mankind, he had offended his best customers, and ruined the sale of his book. This information had a notable effect; for a second volume, as large and instructive as the first, hath appeared; not a smack of irreligion is to be found in it; and an apology for the first concludes the whole."--P. 57.

Dr. Brown's book is said to have been very popular, and to have run to a seventh edition in a few months. It is rather singular that the edition marked as the seventh, has precisely the same matter in each page, and the same number of pages as the first.

[24:1] The letter does not appear to have been preserved.

[25:1] MS. R.S.E.

[25:2] Elliot had been made a Lord of the Admiralty in 1756.

[27:1] Viz. of Edinburgh.

[29:1] Minto MSS.

[29:2] The title of the Epigoniad does not, unfortunately, convey any associations to the general English reader, who requires to be told that it is derived from Ἑπίγονοι, or descendants, in allusion to those of the warriors who had been slain at the first siege of Thebes; and the main incident of the poem is the subsequent sacking of that city. It is not difficult for the reader of the better parts of the Epigoniad to imagine, that he is perusing Pope's translation of Homer. When an approach was thus made to a model so famous, all was supposed to have been gained; and it was thought that a work had been produced which would stand beside the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is hardly necessary, at the present day, to ask, whether the highest genius will produce an immortal poem out of the machinery of another age and nation, and appealing to sentiments which have no response in the habits or feelings of the people to whom its author appeals? We read the great national poems of other countries in their own language, because we thus endow ourselves, as far as it is possible, with the feeling and ideas of those to whom the poem was addressed. We read spirited translations, because they are an attempt to represent to us, in our own tongue, that which is grand in another language; and our interest is like that with which we view the portrait of a great man. We thus encounter Ulysses, Agamemnon, and Menelaus in the Iliad, with the interest of excited curiosity; and those who cannot read the original, are content to make acquaintance with persons whom a great genius has made so famous, even through a rude translation. But few cared to meet them reappearing in Wilkie's imitation; nor, however forcible may be his expressions, or flowing his versification, do we feel very vividly the horrors of Cacus' den, and the destructive ire of the Cyclops, or sympathize in the torments of Hercules, from the Centaur's poisoned robe, when they are described in the Epigoniad.

[31:1] The paper is reprinted from _The Critical Review_, in the Appendix to Ritchie's Life of Hume.

[33:1] These fictions were to a considerable extent superseded by an act, so late as the year 1833; 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 74.

[34:1] In 1757 Adam Ferguson became tutor to the family of Lord Bute.

[34:2] Minto MSS.

[35:1] Warburton writes as follows to Hurd:--"As to Hume, I had laid it aside ever since you was here; I will now, however, finish my skeleton. It will be hardly that. If, then, you think any thing can be made of it, and will give yourself the trouble, we may, perhaps, between us, do a little good, which, I dare say, we shall both think worth a little pains. If I have any force in the first rude beating out of the mass, you are best able to give it the elegance of form and splendour of polish. This will answer my purpose; to labour together in a joint work to do a little good. I will tell you fairly, it is no more the thing it should be, and will be, if you undertake it, than the Dantzic iron at the forge is the gilt and painted ware at Birmingham. It will make no more than a pamphlet; but you shall take your own time, and make it your summer's amusement, if you will. I propose it to bear something like this title:--'_Remarks on Mr. Hume's late Essay, called The Natural History of Religion; by a Gentleman of Cambridge, in a Letter to the Rev. Dr. W._' I propose the address should be with the dryness and reserve of a stranger, who likes the method of the letters on Bolingbroke's Philosophy, and follows it here against the same sort of writer, inculcating the same impiety, naturalism, and employing the same kind of arguments. The address will remove it from me; the author, a gentleman of Cambridge, from you; and the secrecy in printing from us both."--_Letters from a late Eminent Prelate to one of his Friends_, p. 240. In the immediately preceding letter, we find him saying, "I will trim the rogue's jacket, at least sit upon his skirts, as you will see when you come hither, and find his margins scribbled over."

Thus were concocted the "Remarks on Mr. David Hume's Essay on the Natural History of Religion, addressed to the Rev. Dr. Warburton," (1757) wherein the candid author, in pursuance of his instructions, says, "Of my _person_, indeed, I must have leave to make no discovery; and to tell you the truth, I have taken such effectual precautions, as to that particular, that I will venture to say you will never know more of me than you do at present." The original notes are to be found in the quarto edition of Warburton's works. Hume says, in his "own life," of the Natural History of Religion, "Its public entry was rather obscure, except only that Dr. Hurd wrote a pamphlet against it, with all the illiberal petulance, arrogance, and scurrility which distinguish the Warburtonian school. This pamphlet gave me some consolation for the otherwise indifferent reception of my performance."

[37:1] Probably "An Essay towards a General History of Feudal Property in Great Britain, under several heads," 1757-8, by Mr. afterwards Sir John Dalrymple.

[38:1] MS. R.S.E.

[39:1] _Scots Magazine_ for 1802, p. 978.

[40:1] These analogies are taken from the technicalities of Scots law. The southern reader may as well be informed, that Prescription stands for "The Statute of Limitations" in Scotland; that a summons is the writ by which the plaintiff brings the defendant into court; and that "the lords' row," is the roll of cases in the Court of Session.

[41:1] Original in the possession of the Cambusmore family.

[43:1] MS. R.S.E.

[43:2] The Painter. The "Sketches and Essays on various subjects," were written by Armstrong.

[43:3] MS. R.S.E.

[45:1] Minto MSS.

[45:2] It appears, however, from a letter to Smith, farther on, that an attempt had been made to procure a chair for Ferguson, in Edinburgh, which had failed.

[46:1] John Stevenson was appointed professor of logic and metaphysics in 1730.

[47:1] MS. R.S.E.

[47:2] Without date.

[47:3] Original in possession of Sir Henry Jardine.

[48:1] Note B.

[48:2] It is also remarkable, that there is not one letter from Robertson among the MSS. R.S.E., or in any known collection.

[52:1] Perhaps this may be a mistake for M. Mérian, the name of the author of a translation of this essay, published in 1759.

[52:2] See above, p. 408. See the letters of Helvetius in the Appendix. He does not seem to have translated any of Hume's works, his proposed reciprocity treaty not having been concluded. He appears to have had considerably more at heart the being chosen a member of the Royal Society of London, as a means of restoring his lost popularity at home.

[55:1] A translation was published in 1764, by Besset de la Chapelle.

[55:2] Theory of Moral Sentiments.

[55:3] Essay on Taste.

[55:4] See next page.

[56:1] Stewart says this is the work subsequently published under the title of "An Essay on the History of Civil Society." But this may be doubted: see Hume's Remarks on it at the time of publication.

[56:2] See above, p. 30.

[58:1] This association of names is evidently intended as a sarcasm on Lord Lyttelton's taste.

[58:2] Stewart's Life of Smith.

[59:1] Probably Mr. Wilson, type-founder, Glasgow; the father of the art in Scotland.

[61:1] He did not consider his agreement about the Treatise of Human Nature a "previous" one, as the book was written. See vol. i. p. 65.

[61:2] _Literary Gazette_, 1822, p. 665. Original MS. R.S.E.

[62:1] MS. R.S.E.

[62:2] See this gentleman, who was a professor in Glasgow, mentioned above, p. 59, where his name is spelt Rouat.

[65:1] MS. R.S.E.

[65:2] MS. R.S.E.

[65:3] An account of all the books in which the constitutional principles of the history have been ably impugned, would only be reminding the reader of many works with which he is probably already familiar. But among the marked productions of this series, if he desire to have a calm appreciation of the merits of Hume's historical criticism, by those who have gone over the same ground, he will peruse the historical works of Hallam, and the treatises of Dr. Allen, including his articles in _The Edinburgh Review_, and his "Inquiry into the Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative." If, however, he wish to have all Hume's tergiversations sifted and exposed with forensic acuteness, and the zeal of an able and vigilant prosecutor,--to have before him, in short, the whole "case" of the British constitution against Hume, let him read Brodie's "History of the British Empire." It will gratify all the admirers of his book to know, that Mr. Brodie is occupied in the preparation of a new edition of his great work, which will, no doubt, be marked by all the same qualities which distinguished the first, increased by farther study and enthusiastic research. It is a singular incident in literary history, that immediately after the appearance of the first edition, filled as it is with a prodigious array of notes and references, the subject was gone over by Godwin in his "History of the Commonwealth," with but slight reference to Mr. Brodie's book; but in such a manner, from the structure of his narrative and otherwise, as to show that he had scarcely any other book before him.

This is not the place for a discussion of Mr. Brodie's charges against Hume: they are honestly supported by references, and will stand or fall on their own merits. But there is one instance in which Mr. Brodie's acuteness has led him farther than every one can follow him. Thus, speaking of a particular passage of Hume, he says, "he has given the very words of Perinchief, whom he yet durst not quote; and his pencil-marks are still at the place in the copy belonging to the Advocates' Library." This statement, to the effect that there exists evidence of Hume having read passages which he has designedly avoided citing, is frequently repeated; and if one would absolutely assure himself that Hume had read the passages, by reference to the copies of the books in the Advocates' Library, he finds one or two scores drawn across the margin with a pencil! The distinguished historical critic, who has noticed this circumstance, must make some allowance for the inferior acumen of ordinary readers, if they should fail to discover why this simple score must of necessity be David Hume--his mark.

Mr. Brodie's book is particularly valuable as a criticism on Hume's notions of the old prerogative in relation to the Star Chamber, the Court of High Commission, Martial Law, Impressments, and Forced Loans.

[68:1] Locke gives an admirable illustration of the sceptical spirit working on imperfect data, in the following anecdote. "It happened to a Dutch ambassador, who, entertaining the King of Siam with the particularities of Holland, which he was inquisitive after, amongst other things, told him, that the water in his country would sometimes, in cold weather, be so hard, that men walked upon it, and that it would bear an elephant if he were there. To which the king replied, 'Hitherto I have believed the strange things which you have told me, because I look upon you as a sober fair man: but now I am sure you lie.'"--_On the Understanding_, book iv. chap. 15, § 5.

[71:1] The forms of voting and coming to a decision in the British Parliament have been adopted by other countries, not from any partiality towards our systems, but because in this we seem to have approached abstract perfection; and the framers of codes, after all endeavours to make forms of like excellence, are obliged to have recourse to those which have been followed for centuries in St. Stephen's. In the French Assemblies, ingenuity was frequently exercised in vain to devise some plan by which, after a series of proposals had been made, and debated upon, the sense of the meeting in regard to them might be ascertained and recorded without the record being liable to be questioned as inaccurate. In the English system, the matter is at once solved. Each proposed resolution is made and put on record before the discussion begins, and however many different proposals there may be in relation to the subject of debate, they must be all put in writing, and each one must be singly, and without intermixture with the others, adopted or rejected by a vote of the house.

[72:1] He seems to have afterwards soothed himself with the reflection that his historical speculations were in favour of the stability of a fixed government, and opposed to innovating principles. In a letter to Madame de Boufflers, dated 23d Dec. 1768, he says:--

"Indeed, the prospect of affairs here is so strange and melancholy, as would make any one desirous of withdrawing from the country at any rate. Licentiousness, or rather the frenzy of liberty, has taken possession of us, and is throwing every thing into confusion. How happy do I esteem it, that in all my writings I have always kept at a proper distance from that tempting extreme, and have maintained a due regard to magistracy and established government, suitably to the character of an historian and a philosopher! I find, on that account, my authority growing daily; and indeed have now no reason to complain of the public, though your partiality to me made you think so formerly. Add to this, that the king's bounty puts me in a very opulent situation. I must, however, expect that, if any great public convulsion happen, my appointments will cease, and reduce me to my own revenue: but this will be sufficient for a man of letters, who surely needs less money both for his entertainment and credit, than other people."--_Private Correspondence_, p. 266.