Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/56

HUME cerning the Human Understanding," a new cast- ing of the unfortunate " Treatise," was printed at London. On his return from Italy in 1749, he lived with his brother and sister at Ninewells, his mother being now dead, and there wrote the " Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals" and his " Political Discourses" (1752). In 1752, after strong opposition, he was chosen librarian of the advocates' library of Edinburgh, and now began his " History of England." The first volume of the " History of the House of Stuart," containing the reigns of James I. and Charles I., came out toward the end of 1754, and was unfavorably received. In 1756 he published a second volume, embracing the reigns of Charles II. and James II., which was better received. Hume had now formed a wide acquaintance among the professional and literary men of Scotland, his amiable manners and pure morals having conquered the preju- dices excited by his skeptical opinions. The general assembly of 1755, however, condemned his writings, and even threatened him with excommunication. In 1757 appeared his " Nat- ural History of Keligion," which Dr. Hurd attacked in a violent pamphlet. Hume mean- while became the patron of the rising litera- ture of Scotland. He aided the blind poet Blacklock, and encouraged Wilkie, author of the " Epigoniad." Toward the end of 1758 he went to London to publish the " History of the House of Tudor." It appeared in 1759, and was severely criticised. In 1761 he published two volumes containing the earlier portion of the English annals. He proposed to write two more volumes to embrace the reigns of William III. and Anne, but this design was not fulfilled. By the sale of his copyrights he had now gath- ered a moderate fortune, and lived in Edin- burgh in philosophic ease. But in 1763 the marquis of Hertford invited him to accompany him to Paris, where the marquis was appointed minister. Hume at first declined the invitation, but finally attended the marquis, and was re- ceived at Paris with signal distinction. The whole royal family, the French philosophers, the nobility, and particularly the ladies of high rank and fashion, overwhelmed him with their attentions ; and Hume wrote to his friends in Scotland that Louis XIV. had never suffered so much flattery in three weeks as he had done. When Lord Hertford left Paris Hume became charge d'affaires. In the beginning of 1766 he returned to England, bringing with him Eous- seau, who sought there a refuge from persecu- tion ; he provided him with retired lodgings in Derbyshire, and obtained for him a pension from the king. But Rousseau soon afterward wrote a letter to Hume, accusing him of desiring to destroy his fame. Their quarrel made a great sensation, and Hume in self-defence pub- lished the letters that had passed between them. In 17G6 Hume went to Edinburgh, but was invited by Gen. Conway the next year to become under secretary of state. He remained in London until Conway was superseded, and in 1769 returned to Edinburgh. His income being now 1,000 a year, he engaged in build- ing a house, and in the pleasures of society. In March, 1775, his health began to decline. The next spring he wrote a congratulatory let- ter to Gibbon, who had sent him the first vol- ume of the "Decline and Fall." In April, 1776, he finished his "Own Life," a concise narrative of his literary career. After a jour- ney to Bath he returned to Edinburgh to die. Five days before his death he wrote to the countess de Boufflers : " I see death gradually approach without any anxiety or regret." He was buried in Calton hill graveyard, Edin- burgh, where a monument to him was erected. As a historian Hume holds a high rank among English writers. His narrative is interesting, his style clear, and with happy ease he blends profound thought, distinct portraiture, and skilful appeals to the feelings. He lacks, how- ever, accuracy and impartiality. His philo- sophical writings do not form a complete sys- tem. He discussed detached questions of meta- physics, and aimed at the refutation of what he considered erroneous opinions rather than at the attainment of positive results. He re- garded utility as the basis of morals, maintain- ing that the moral quality of actions was to he decided by their consequences. He asserts that the mind is conscious only of impressions and ideas, the latter following the former, and that there is no clearer proof of the existence of the mind than there is of matter. He traces the course of thought to the law of association, which he founds upon resemblance, contiguity, and cause and effect. But the doctrine of cause and effect is only a habit of the mind, resulting from experience. Thus all is uncer- tainty, and the mind reduced to skepticism. His history was continued by Smollett down to the death of George II., and after that by various authors. A new edition of his " Phil- osophical Works," edited by T. H. Green and T. H. Grose, has been commenced in London (4 vols., 1874 et seq.). See "Life and Corre- spondence of David Hume," edited by John Hill Burton (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1847). HUME, Joseph, a British statesman, born in Montrose, Scotland, in January, 1777, died in Burnley hall, Norfolk, Feb. 20, 1855. At about the age of nine he lost his father, the master of a small vessel, but was enabled by his moth- er, who established a crockery shop in Mont- rose, to receive a tolerable education. About 1790 he was placed with an apothecary of Montrose, and three years later he became a student of medicine at the university of Edin- burgh, where he remained till 1796, when he was admitted a member of the college of sur- geons of Edinburgh. Being appointed surgeon to an East Indiaman, he made two voyages to India, and in 1799 joined the medical establish- ment in Bengal. Finding that few of the com- pany's servants had acquired the native lan- guages, he applied himself to the study of them, and was soon able to speak them with fluency.