Part 2 (1/2)

CHAPTER II

LATER YEARS: THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND

In 1744, Hume's friends had endeavoured to procure his nomination to the Chair of ”Ethics and pneuh About this matter he writes to his friend William Mure:--

”The accusation of heresy, deisainstbore down by the contrary authority of all the good coood coes, it is to be hoped, for the sake of their veracity, that they knew their candidate chiefly as the very good company that he alas; and had paid as little attention, as good company usually does, to so solid a work as the _Treatise_ Hunation, that Hutcheson and Leechh liberal, professors of orthodoxy, should have expressed doubts as to his fitness for beco a professedly presbyterian teacher of presbyterian youth The town council, however, would not have him, and filled up the place with a safe nobody

In May, 1746, a new prospect opened General St Clair was appointed to the command of an expedition to Canada, and he invited Hume, at a week's notice, to be his secretary; to which office that of judge advocate was afterwards added

Huenteel, 10_s_ a day, perquisites, and no expenses;” and, to another, he speculates on the chance of procuring a coiment ”But this I build not on, nor indeed am I very fond of it,” he adds; and this was fortunate, for the expedition, after dawdling away the summer in port, was suddenly diverted to an attack on L'Orient, where it achieved a huge failure and returned ignoland

A letter to Henry Home, written when this unlucky expedition was recalled, shows that Hume had already seriously turned his attention to history Referring to an invitation to go over to Flanders with the General, he says:

”Had I any fortune which would give me a prospect of leisure and opportunity to prosecutecould be e in one ca introduced frequently to the Duke's, than most officers could do after many years' service But to what can all this serve? I am a philosopher, and so I suppose must continue”

But this vaticination was shortly to prove erroneous Hume seems to have made a very favourable impression on General St Clair, as he did upon every one hoed with a mission to the court of Turin, in 1748, the General insisted upon the appointment of Hume as his secretary He further made hied to encase his ure in a military uniforuised in scarlet,” and that he wore his uniforrocer of the train-bands” Hume, always ready for a joke at his own expense, tells of the considerate kindness hich, at a reception at Vienna, the Eer released hi backwards ”We esteeed to her for this attention, especiallyon the the many attractions of this appointret, where I had treasured up stores of study and plans of thinking for many years;” and his only consolation is that the opportunity of beco conversant with state affairs may be profitable:--

”I shall have an opportunity of seeing courts and camps: and if I can afterward be so happy as to attain leisure and other opportunities, this knowledge may even turn to account to me as a man of letters, which I confess has always been the sole object ofhad an intention, insoreater experience in the operations of the field and the intrigues of the cabinet will be requisite, in order to enable ment on these subjects”

Hu his stay there, his mother died, to his heartfelt sorrow A curious story in connection with this event is told by Dr Carlyle, who knew Hume well, and whose authority is perfectly trustworthy

”Mr Boyle hearing of it, soon after went to his aparted in the same house, where he found him in the deepest affliction and in a flood of tears After the usual topics and condolences Mr Boyle said to hi thrown off the principles of religion: for if you had not, you would have been consoled with the firood lady, as not only the best of mothers, but the most pious of Christians, was completely happy in the realh I throw out my speculations to entertain the learned and s I do not think so differently froine'”

If Hume had told this story to Dr Carlyle, the latter would have said so; it must therefore have come from Mr Boyle; and one would like to have the opportunity of cross-exaentleman as to Hume's exact words and their context, before i his version of the conversation Mr Boyle's experience of mankind must have been small, if he had not seen the firrief by a like loss, and as completely inconsolable Huion,” but he was none the less a very honest man, perfectly open and candid, and the last person to use a his friends; unless, indeed, he saw no other way of putting a stop to the intrusion of unst the bitter-sweet memories stirred in his affectionate nature by so heavy a blow

The _Philosophical Essays_ or _Inquiry_ was published in 1748, while Huland, he had the mortification to find it overlooked in the hubbub caused by Middleton's _Free Inquiry_, and its bold handling of the topic of the _Essay on Miracles_, by which Hume doubtless expected the public to be startled

Between 1749 and 1751, Hume resided at Ninewells, with his brother and sister, and busied himself with the composition of his ues on Natural Religion_, the _Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals_, and the _Political Discourses_

_The Dialogues on Natural Religion_ were touched and re-touched, at intervals, for a quarter of a century, and were not published till after Hu the Principles of Morals_ appeared in 1751, and the _Political Discourses_ in 1752 Full reference will be made to the two former in the exposition of Hume's philosophical views The last has been well said to be the ”cradle of political econoated and expounded in later times, these earliest, shortest, and simplest developht even by those who are reat subject”[9]

The _Wealth of Nations_, the masterpiece of Hume's close friend, Adam Smith, it must be remembered, did not appear before 1776, so that, in political econo, and a fertile innovator

The _Political Essays_ had a great and rapid success; translated into French in 1753, and again in 1754, they conferred a European reputation upon their author; and, as more to the purpose, influenced the later French school of econohteenth century

By this tih reputation in the world of letters, but he considered hial habits had enabled him to accumulate 1,000, and he tells Michael Ramsay in 1751:--

”While interest remains as at present, I have 50 a year, a hundred pounds worth of books, great store of linens and fine clothes, and near 100 inspirit of independency, good health, a contented humour, and an unabated love of study In these circumstances I must estee willing to draw ain in the lottery of life, there are very few prizes hich I would e After soh, and hope I shall be able with these revenues to say with Horace:--

'Est bona libroruis in annum Copia'”

It would be difficult to find a better example of the honourable independence and cheerful self-reliance which should distinguish a hout his career By honourable effort, the boy's noble ideal of life, became the man's reality; and, at forty, Hu that he had not wasted his youth in the pursuit of illusions, but that ”the solid certainty of waking bliss” lay before him, in the free play of his powers in their appropriate sphere

In 1751, Huh and took up his abode on a flat in one of those prodigious houses in the Lawnmarket, which still excite the ad to a house in the Canongate

His sister joined hi 30 a year to the coly playful letters to Dr Clephane, he thus describes his establishment, in 1753