The History of England, Volume I - David Hume
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Transcriber's Note:
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THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, VOLUME I
From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688
by
DAVID HUME, ESQ.
With the Author's Last Corrections and Improvements, to which is
prefixed a Short Account of His Life Written by Himself
COMPLETE IN SIX VOLUMES
MY OWN LIFE.
It is difficult for a man to speak long of himself without vanity;
therefore I shall be short. It may be thought an instance of vanity
that I pretend at all to write my life; but this narrative shall
contain little more than the history of my writings; as, indeed,
almost all my life has been spent in literary pursuits and
occupations. The first success of most of my writings was not such as
to be an object of vanity.
I was born the 26th of April, 1711, old style, at Edinburgh. I was of
a good family, both by father and mother: my father's family is a
branch of the Earl of Home's, or Hume's; and my ancestors had been
proprietors of the estate which my brother possesses, for several
generations. My mother was daughter of Sir David Falconer, President
of the College of Justice: the title of Lord Halkerton came by
succession to her brother.
My family, however, was not rich; and being myself a younger brother,
my patrimony, according to the mode of my country, was of course very
slender. My father, who passed for a man of parts, died when I was an
infant, leaving me, with an elder brother and a sister, under the care
of our mother, a woman of singular merit, who, though young and
handsome, devoted herself entirely to the rearing and educating of her
children. I passed through the ordinary course of education with
success, and was seized very early with a passion for literature,
which has been the ruling passion of my life, and the great source of
my enjoyments. My studious disposition, my sobriety, and my industry,
gave my family a notion that the law was a proper profession for me;
but I found an unsurmountable aversion to every thing but the pursuits
of philosophy and general learning; and while they fancied I was
poring upon Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil were the authors which
I was secretly devouring.
My very slender fortune, however, being unsuitable to this plan of
life, and my health being a little broken by my ardent application, I
was tempted, or rather forced, to make a very feeble trial for
entering into a more active scene of life. In 1734 I went to Bristol,
with some recommendations to several merchants; but in a few months
found that scene totally unsuitable to me. I went over to France with
a view of prosecuting my studies in a country retreat; and I there
laid that plan of life which I have steadily and successfully pursued.
I resolved to make a very rigid frugality supply my deficiency of
fortune, to maintain unimpaired my independency, and to regard every
object as contemptible, except the improvement of my talents in
literature.
During my retreat in France, first at Rheims but chiefly at La Fleche,
in Anjou, I composed my Treatise of Human Nature. After passing three
years very agreeably in that country, I came over to London in 1737.
In the end of 1738 I published my Treatise, and immediately went down
to my mother and my brother, who lived at his country-house, and
employed himself very judiciously and successfully in the improvement
of his fortune.
Never literary attempt was more unfortunate than my Treatise of Human
Nature. It fell DEAD-BORN FROM THE PRESS, without reaching such
distinction as even to excite a murmur among the zealots. But being
naturally of a cheerful and sanguine temper, I very soon recovered the
blow, and prosecuted with great ardour my studies in the country. In
1742 I printed at Edinburgh the first part of my Essays: the work was
favourably received, and soon made me entirely forget my former
disappointment. I continued with my mother and brother in the
country, and in that time recovered the knowledge of the Greek
language, which I had too much neglected in my early youth.
In 1745 I received a letter from the Marquis of Annandale, inviting me
to come and live with him in England; I found, also, that the friends
and family of that young nobleman were desirous of putting him under
my care and direction, for the state of his mind and health required
it.--I lived with him a twelve-month. My appointments during that
time made a considerable accession to my small fortune. I then
received an invitation from General St. Clair to attend him as a
secretary to his expedition, which was at first meant against Canada,
but ended in an incursion on the coast of France. Next year, to wit,
1747, I received an invitation from the general to attend him in the
same station in his military embassy to the courts of Vienna and
Turin. I then wore the uniform of an officer, and was introduced at
these courts as aide-de-camp to the general, along with Sir Harry
Erskine and Captain Grant, now General Grant. These two years were
almost the only interruptions which my studies have received during
the course of my life: I passed them agreeably and in good company;
and my appointments, with my frugality, had made me reach a fortune
which I called independent, though most of my friends were inclined to
smile when I said so: in short, I was now master of near a thousand
pounds.
I had always entertained a notion, that my want of success in
publishing the Treatise of Human Nature, had proceeded more from the
manner than the matter, and that I had been guilty of a very usual
indiscretion, in going to the press too early. I therefore cast the
first part of that work anew in the Enquiry concerning Human
Understanding, which was published while I was at Turin. But this
piece was at first little more successful than the Treatise of Human
Nature. On my return from Italy, I had the mortification to find all
England in a ferment, on account of Dr. Middleton's Free Enquiry,
while my performance was entirely over-looked and neglected. A new
edition which had been published in London, of my Essays, moral and
political, met not with a much better reception.
Such is the force of natural temper, that these disappointments made
little or no impression on me. I went down in 1749, and lived two
years with my brother at his country-house, for my mother was now
dead. I there composed the second part of my Essay, which I called
Political Discourses, and also my Enquiry concerning the Principles of
Morals, which is another part of my treatise that I cast anew.
Meanwhile my bookseller, A. Miller, informed me that my former
publications (all but the unfortunate Treatise) were beginning to be
the subject of conversation; that the sale of them was gradually
increasing; and that new editions were demanded. Answers by Reverends
and Right Reverends came out two or three in a year; and I found, by
Dr. Warburton's railing, that the books were beginning to be esteemed
in good company. However, I had a fixed resolution, which I
inflexibly maintained, never to reply to any body; and not being very
irascible in my temper, I have easily kept myself clear of all
literary squabbles. These symptoms of a rising reputation gave me
encouragement, as I was ever more disposed to see the favourable than
the unfavourable side of things; a turn of mind which it is more happy
to possess, than to be born to an estate of ten thousand a year.
In 1751 I removed from the country to the town, the true scene for a
man of letters. In 1752 were published at Edinburgh, where I then
lived, my Political Discourses, the only work of mine that was
successful on the first publication. It was well received at home and
abroad. In the same year was published, in London, my Enquiry
concerning the Principles of Morals; which, in my own opinion, (who
ought not to judge on that subject,) is of all my writings,
historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best. It
came unnoticed and unobserved into the world.
In 1752 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. I then formed the plan of writing the
History of England; but being frightened with the notion of continuing
a narrative through a period of one thousand seven hundred years, I
commenced with the accession of the house of Stuart, an epoch when, I
thought, the misrepresentations of faction began chiefly to take
place. 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. Miller 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 a message not to be discouraged.
I was, however, I confess, discouraged; and had not the war at that
time been 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.
In this interval I published at London my Natural History of Religion,
along with some other small pieces: 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.
In 1756, two years after the fall of the first volume, was published
the second volume of my History, containing the period from the death
of Charles I. till the Revolution. This performance happened to give
less displeasure to the whigs, and was better received. It not only
rose itself, but helped to buoy up its unfortunate brother.
But though I had been taught by experience, that the whig party were
in possession of bestowing all places, both in the state and in
literature, I was so little inclined to yield to their senseless
clamour, that in above a hundred alterations, which farther study,
reading, or reflection, engaged me to make in the reigns of the two
first Stuarts, I have made all of them invariably to the tory side.
It is ridiculous to consider the English constitution before that
period as a regular plan of liberty.
In 1759 I published my History of the House of Tudor. The clamour
against this performance was almost equal to that against the History
of the two first Stuarts. The reign of Elizabeth was particularly
obnoxious. But I was now callous against the impressions of public
folly, and continued very peaceably and contentedly in my retreat in
Edinburgh, to finish, in two volumes, the more early part of the
English History, which I gave to the public in 1761, with tolerable,
and but tolerable, success.
But notwithstanding this variety of winds and seasons to which my
writings have been exposed, they had still been making such advances,
that the copy-money given me by the booksellers much exceeded any
thing formerly known in England: I retired to my native country of
Scotland, determined never more to set my foot out of it; and
retaining the satisfaction of never having preferred a request to one
great man, or even making advances of friendship to any of them. As I
was now turned of fifty, I thought of passing all the rest of my life
in this philosophical manner, when I received, in 1763, an invitation
from the Earl of Hertford, with whom I was not in the least
acquainted, to attend him on his embassy to Paris, with a near
prospect of being appointed secretary to the embassy; and, in the
meanwhile, of performing the functions of that office. This offer,
however inviting, I at first declined, both because I was reluctant to
begin connexions with the great, and because I was afraid that the
civilities and gay company of Paris would prove disagreeable to a
person of my age and humour: but on his lordship's repeating the
invitation, I accepted of it. I have every reason, both of pleasure
and interest, to think myself happy in my connexions with that
nobleman, as well as afterwards with his brother General Conway.
Those who have not seen the strange effects of modes will never
imagine the reception I met with at Paris, from men and women of all
ranks and stations. The more I resiled from their excessive
civilities, the more I was loaded with them. There is, however, a
real satisfaction in living at Paris, from the great number of
sensible, knowing, and polite company with which that city abounds
above all places in the universe. I thought once of settling there
for life.
I was appointed secretary to the embassy; and in summer, 1765, Lord
Hertford left me, being appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. I was
charge d'affaires till the arrival of the Duke of Richmond, towards
the end of the year. In the beginning of 1766 I left Paris, and next
summer went to Edinburgh, with the same view as formerly of burying
myself in a philosophical retreat. I returned to that place, not
richer, but with much more money, and a much larger income, by means
of Lord Hertford's friendship, than I left it; and I was desirous of
trying what superfluity could produce, as I had formerly made an
experiment of a competency. But in 1767 I received from Mr. Conway an
invitation to be under-secretary; and this invitation, both the
character of the person, and my connexions with Lord Hertford,
prevented me from declining. I returned to Edinburgh in 1769, very
opulent, (for I possessed a revenue of 1000L. a year,) healthy, and,
though somewhat stricken in years, with the prospect of enjoying long
my ease, and of seeing the increase of my reputation.
In spring, 1775, I was struck with a disorder in my bowels, which at
first gave me no alarm, but has since, as I apprehend it, become
mortal and incurable. I now reckon upon a speedy dissolution. I have
suffered very little pain from my disorder; and what is more strange
have, notwithstanding the great decline of my person, never suffered a
moment's abatement of my spirits, inasmuch that were I to name a
period of my life which I should most choose to pass over again, I
might be tempted to point to this later period. I possess the same
ardour as ever in study, and the same gaiety in company. I consider,
besides, that a man of sixty-five, by dying, cuts off only a few years
of infirmities; and though I see many symptoms of my literary
reputation's breaking out at last with additional lustre, I know that
I could have but few years to enjoy it. It is difficult to be more
detached from life than I am at present.
To conclude historically with my own character. I am, or rather was,
(for that is the style I must now use in speaking of myself, which
emboldens me the more to speak my sentiments)--I was, I say, a man of
mild disposition, of command of temper, of an open, social, and
cheerful humour, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of
enmity, and of great moderation in all my passions. Even my love of
literary fame, my ruling passion, never soured my temper,
notwithstanding my frequent disappointments. My company was not
unacceptable to the young and careless, as well as to the studious and
literary; and as I took a particular pleasure in the company of modest
women, I had no reason to be displeased with the reception I met with
from them. In a word, though most men, anywise eminent, have found
reason to complain of calumny, I never was touched, or even attacked
by her baleful tooth; and though I wantonly exposed myself to the rage
of both civil and religious factions, they seemed to be disarmed in my
behalf of their wonted fury. My friends never had occasion to
vindicate any one circumstance of my character and conduct: not but
that the zealots, we may well suppose, would have been glad to invent
and propagate any story to my disadvantage, but they could never find
any which they thought would wear the face of probability. I cannot
say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself; but I
hope it is not a misplaced one; and this is a matter of fact which is
easily cleared and ascertained.
April 18, 1776.
LETTER
FROM
ADAM SMITH. LL. D.
To
WILLIAM STRAHAN, ESQ.
Kirkaldy, Fifeshire, Nov. 9, 1776
DEAR SIR,
It is with a real, though a very melancholy pleasure, that I sit down
to give you some account of the behaviour of our late excellent
friend, Mr. Hume, during his last illness.
Though in his own judgment his disease was mortal and incurable, yet
he allowed himself to be prevailed upon, by the entreaty of his
friends, to try what might be the effects of a long journey. A few
days before he set out, he wrote that account of his own life, which,
together with his other papers, he has left to your care. My account,
therefore, shall begin where his ends.
He set out for London towards the end of April, and at Morpeth met
with Mr. John Home, and myself, who had both come down from London on
purpose to see him, expecting to have found him at Edinburgh. Mr.
Home returned with him, and attended him, during the whole of his stay
in England, with that care and attention which might be expected from
a temper so perfectly friendly and affectionate. As I had written to
my mother that she might expect me in Scotland, I was under the
necessity of continuing my journey. His disease seemed to yield to
exercise and change of air, and when he arrived in London, he was
apparently in much better health than when he left Edinburgh. He was
advised to go to Bath to drink the waters, which appeared for some
time to have so good an effect upon him, that even he himself began to
entertain, what he was not apt to do, a better opinion of his own
health. His symptoms, however, soon returned with their usual
violence, and from that moment he gave up all thoughts of recovery,
but submitted with the utmost cheerfulness, and the most perfect
complacency and resignation. Upon his return to Edinburgh, though he
found himself much weaker, yet his cheerfulness never abated, and he
continued to divert himself, as usual, with correcting his own works
for a new edition, with reading books of amusement, with the
conversation of his friends, and sometimes in the evening with a party
at his favourite game of whist. His cheerfulness was so great, and
his conversation and amusements ran so much in their usual strain,
that, notwithstanding all bad symptoms, many people could not believe
he was dying. "I shall tell your friend, Colonel Edmonstone," said
Doctor Dundas to him one day, "that I left you much better, and in a
fair way of recovery." "Doctor," said he, "as I believe you would not
choose to tell any thing but the truth, you had better tell him, that
I am dying as fast as my enemies, if I have any, could wish, and as
easily and cheerfully as my best friends could desire." Colonel
Edmonstone soon afterwards came to see him, and take leave of him; and
on his way home he could not forbear writing him a letter, bidding him
once more an eternal adieu, and applying to him, as to a dying man,
the beautiful French verses in which the Abbe Chaulieu, in expectation
of his own death, laments his approaching separation from his friend
the Marquis de la Fare. Mr. Hume's magnanimity and firmness were
such, that his most affectionate friends knew that they hazarded
nothing in talking or writing to him as to a dying man, and that, so
far from being hurt by this frankness, he was rather pleased and
flattered by it. I happened to come into his room while he was
reading this letter, which he had just received, and which he
immediately showed me. I told him, that though I was sensible how
very much he was weakened, and that appearances were in many respects
very bad, yet his cheerfulness was still so great, the spirit of life
seemed still to be so very strong in him, that I could not help
entertaining some faint hopes. He answered, "Your hopes are
groundless. An habitual diarrhoea of more than a year's standing
would be a very bad disease at any age: at my age it is a mortal one.
When I lie down in the evening I feel myself weaker than when I rose
in the morning, and when I rise in the morning weaker than when I lay
down in the evening. I am sensible, besides, that some of my vital
parts are affected, so that I must soon die." "Well," said I, "if it
must be so, you have at least the satisfaction of leaving all your
friends, your brother's family in particular, in great prosperity."
He said that he felt that satisfaction so sensibly, that when he was
reading, a few days before, Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead, among all
the excuses which are alleged to Charon for not entering readily into
his boat, he could not find one that fitted him; he had no house to
finish, he had no daughter to provide for, he had no enemies upon whom
he wished to revenge himself. "I could not well imagine," said he,
"what excuse I could make to Charon in order to obtain a little
delay. I have done every thing of consequence which I ever meant to
do, and I could at no time expect to leave my relations and friends in
a better situation than that in which I am now likely to leave them: I
therefore have all reason to die contented." He then diverted himself
with inventing several jocular excuses, which he supposed he might
make to Charon, and with imagining the very surly answers which it
might suit the character of Charon to return to them. "Upon further
consideration," said he, "I thought I might say to him, 'Good Charon,
I have been correcting my works for a new edition. Allow me a little
time, that I may see how the public receives the alterations.' But
Charon would answer, 'When you have seen the effect of these, you will
be for making other alterations. There will be no end of such
excuses; so, honest friend, please step into the boat.' But I might
still urge, 'Have a little patience, good Charon, I have been
endeavouring to open the eyes of the public. If I live a few years
longer, I may have the satisfaction of seeing the downfall of some of
the prevailing systems of superstition.' But Charon would then lose
all temper and decency--'You loitering rogue, that will not happen
these many hundred years. Do you fancy I will grant you a lease for
so long a term? Get into the boat this instant, you lazy, loitering
rogue.'"
But though Mr. Hume always talked of his approaching dissolution with
great cheerfulness, he never affected to make any parade of his
magnanimity. He never mentioned the subject, but when the
conversation naturally led to it, and never dwelt longer upon it than
the course of the conversation happened to require. It was a subject,
indeed, which occurred pretty frequently, in consequence of the
inquiries which his friends, who came to see him, naturally made
concerning the state of his health. The conversation which I
mentioned above, and which passed on Thursday the 8th of August, was
the last, except one, that I ever had with him. He had now become so
very weak, that the company of his most intimate friends fatigued him;
for his cheerfulness was still so great, his complaisance and social
disposition were still so entire, that when any friend was with him,
he could not help talking more, and with greater exertion, than suited
the weakness of his body. At his own desire, therefore, I agreed to
leave Edinburgh, where I was staying partly upon his account, and
returned to my mother's house here, at Kirkaldy, upon condition that
he would send for me whenever he wished to see me; the physician who
saw him most frequently, Dr. Black, undertaking in the mean time to
write me occasionally an account of the state of his health.