The  last  vestiges  of  theological  prepossessions    which  were  still  faintly  visible  in  Descartes  and  Locke    were  discarded  ;  and  reason  , in  all  her  strength  and  all  her  purity  , came  into  her  own .sx   It  is  in  the  sense  that  Hume  gives  one  of  being  committed  absolutely  to  reason    of  following  wherever  reason  leads  , with  a  complete  , and  even  reckless  , confidence    that  the  great  charm  of  his  writing  consists .sx   But  it  is  not  only  that   :sx   one  is  not  alone  ;  one  is  in  the  company  of  a  supremely  competent  guide .sx   With  astonishing  vigour  , with  heavenly  lucidity  , Hume  leads  one  through  the  confusion  and  the  darkness  of  speculation .sx   One  has  got  into  an  aeroplane  , which  has  glided  imperceptibly  from  the  ground  ;  with  thrilling  ease  one  mounts  and  mounts  ;  and  , supported  by  the  mighty  power  of  intellect  , one  looks  out  , to  see  the  world  below  one  , as  one  has  never  seen  it  before .sx   In  the  Treatise  there  is  something  that  does  not  appear  again  in  Hume's  work    a  feeling  of  excitement    the  excitement  of  discovery .sx   At  moments  he  even  hesitates  , and  stands  back  , amazed  at  his  own  temerity .sx   "  The  intense  view  of  these  manifold  contradictions  and  imperfections  in  human  reason  has  so  wrought   .sx
upon  me  , and  heated  my  brain  , that  I  am  ready  to  reject  all  belief  and  reasoning  , and  can  look  upon  no  opinion  even  as  more  probable  or  likely  than  another .sx   Where  am  I  , or  what   ?sx   From  what  causes  do  I  derive  my  existence  , and  to  what  condition  shall  I  return ?sx   Whose  favour  shall  I  court  , and  whose  anger  must  I  dread   ?sx   What  beings  surround  me   ?sx   and  on  whom  have  I  any  influence  , or  who  have  influence  on  me   ?sx   I  am  confounded  with  all  these  questions  , and  begin  to  fancy  myself  in  the  most  deplorable  condition  imaginable  , environed  with  the  deepest  darkness  , and  utterly  deprived  of  the  use  of  every  member  and  faculty .sx   " And  then  his  courage  returns  once  more  , and  he  speeds  along  on  his  exploration .sx   
The  Treatise  , published  in  1738  , was  a  complete  failure .sx   For  many  years  more  Hume  remained  in  poverty  and  insignificance .sx   He  eked  out  a  living  by  precarious  secretaryships  , writing  meanwhile  a  series  of  essays  on  philosophical  , political  and  aesthetic  subjects  , which  appeared  from  time  to  time  in  small  volumes  , and  gradually  brought  him  a  certain  reputation .sx   It  was  not  till  he  was  over  forty  , when  he  was  made  librarian  to  the  Faculty  of  Advocates  in   .sx
Edinburgh  , that  his  position  became  secure .sx   The  appointment  gave  him  not  only  a  small  competence  , but  the  command  of  a  large  library  ;  and  he  determined  to  write  the  history  of  England    a  task  which  occupied  him  for  the  next  ten  years .sx   
The  History  was  a  great  success  ;  many  editions  were  printed  ;  and  in  his  own  day  it  was  chiefly  as  a  historian  that  Hume  was  known  to  the  general  public .sx   After  his  death  his  work  continued  for  many  years  the  standard  history  of  England  , until  , with  a  new  age  , new  fields  of  knowledge  were  opened  up  and  a  new  style  of  historical  writing  became  fashionable .sx   The  book  is  highly  typical  of  the  eighteenth  century .sx   It  was  an  attempt    one  of  the  very  earliest    to  apply  intelligence  to  the  events  of  the  past .sx   Hitherto  , with  very  few  exceptions  ( Bacon's  Henry  the  Seventh  was  one  of  them  ) history  had  been  in  the  hands  of  memoir  writers  like  Corn-mines  and  Clarendon  , or  moralists  like  Bossuet .sx   Montesquieu  , in  his  Considerations  sur  les  Romains  , had  been  the  first  to  break  the  new  ground  ;  but  his  book  , brilliant  and  weighty  as  it  was  , must  be  classed  rather  as  a  philosophical  survey  than  a  historical  narration .sx   Voltaire  , almost  exactlycontemporary  with  Hume  , was  indeed  a  master  of  narrative  , but  was  usually  too  much  occupied  with  discrediting  Christianity  to  be  a  satisfactory  historian .sx   Hume  had  no  such  arriere  pensee  ;  he  only  wished  to  tell  the  truth  as  he  saw  it  , with  clarity  and  elegance .sx   And  he  succeeded .sx   In  his  volumes    especially  those  on  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts    one  may  still  find  entertainment  and  even  instruction .sx   Hume  was  an  extremely  intelligent  man  , and  anything  that  he  had  to  say  on  English  history  could  not  fail  to  be  worth  attending  to .sx   But  , unfortunately  , mere  intelligence  is  not  itself  quite  enough  to  make  a  great  historian .sx   It  was  not  simply  that  Hume's  knowledge  of  his  subject  was  insufficient    that  an  enormous  number  of  facts  , which  have  come  into  view  since  he  wrote  , have  made  so  many  of  his  statements  untrue  and  so  many  of  his  comments  unmeaning  ;  all  that  is  serious  , but  it  is  not  more  serious  than  the  circumstance  that  his  cast  of  mind  was  in  reality  ill-fitted  for  the  task  he  had  undertaken .sx   The  virtues  of  a  meta-physician  are  the  vices  of  a  historian .sx   A  generalised  , colourless  , unimaginative  view  of  things  is  admirable  when  one  is  considering  the  law  of  causality  , but  one  needs  something  else  if  one  has  to  describe  Queen  Elizabeth .sx   
This  fundamental  weakness  is  materialised  in  the  style  of  the  History .sx   Nothing  could  be  more  enchanting  than  Hume's  style  when  he  is  discussing  philosophical  subjects .sx   The  grace  and  clarity  of  exquisite  writing  are  enhanced  by  a  touch  of  colloquialism    the  tone  of  a  polished  conversation .sx   A  personality    a  most  engaging  personality  just  appears .sx   The  cat-like  touches  of  ironic  malice    hints  of  something  very  sharp  behind  the  velvet    add  to  the  effect .sx   "  Nothing  , " Hume  concludes  , after  demolishing  every  argument  in  favour  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  , "  could  set  in  a  fuller  light  the  infinite  obligations  which  mankind  have  to  divine  revelation  , since  we  find  that  no  other  medium  could  ascertain  this  great  and  important  truth .sx   " The  sentence  is  characteristic  of  Hume's  writing  at  its  best  , where  the  pungency  of  the  sense  varies  in  direct  proportion  with  the  mildness  of  the  expression .sx   But  such  effects  are  banished  from  the  History .sx   A  certain  formality  , which  Hume  doubtless  supposed  was  required  by  the  dignity  of  the  subject  , is  interposed  between  the  reader  and  the  author  ;  an  almost  completely  latinised  vocabulary  makes  vividness  impossible  ;  and  a  habit  of  oratio  obliqua  has  a  deadening  effect .sx   We  shall  never  know  exactly  what  Henry  the  Secondsaid    in  some  uncouth  dialect  of  French  or  English    in  his  final  exasperation  against  Thomas  of  Canterbury  ;  but  it  was  certainly  something  about  "  a  set  of  fools  and  cowards  , " and  "  vengeance  , " and  "  an  upstart  clerk .sx   " Hume  , however  , preferred  to  describe  the  scene  as  follows   :sx   "  The  King  himself  being  vehemently  agitated  , burst  forth  with  an  exclamation  against  his  servants  , whose  want  of  zeal  , he  said  , had  so  long  left  him  exposed  to  the  enterprises  of  that  ungrateful  and  imperious  prelate .sx   " Such  phrasing  , in  conjunction  with  the  Middle  Ages  , is  comic .sx   The  more  modern  centuries  seem  to  provide  a  more  appropriate  field  for  urbanity  , aloofness  and  commonsense .sx   The  measured  cynicism  of  Hume's  comments  on  Cromwell  ; for  instance  , still  makes  good  reading    particularly  as  a  corrective  to  the  O  , altitudo !sx   sentimentalities  of  Carlyle .sx   
Soon  after  his  completion  of  the  History  Hume  went  to  Paris  as  the  secretary  to  the  English  Ambassador .sx   He  was  now  a  celebrity  , and  French  society  fell  upon  him  with  delirious  delight .sx   He  was  flattered  by  princes  , worshipped  by  fine  ladies  , and  treated  as  an  oracle  by  the  philosophes .sx   To  such  an  extent  did  he  become  the   .sx
fashion  that  it  was  at  last  positively  de  rigueur  to  have  met  him  , and  a  lady  who  , it  was  discovered  , had  not  even  seen  the  great  philosopher  , was  banished  from  Court .sx   His  appearance  , so  strangely  out  of  keeping  with  mental  agility  , added  to  the  fascination .sx   "  His  face  , " wrote  one  of  his  friends  , "  was  broad  and  flat  , his  mouth  wide  , and  without  any  other  expression  than  that  of  imbecility .sx   His  eyes  vacant  and  spiritless  , and  the  corpulence  of  his  whole  person  was  far  better  fitted  to  communicate  the  idea  of  a  turtle-eating  alderman  than  of  a  refined  philosopher .sx   " All  this  was  indeed  delightful  to  the  French .sx   They  loved  to  watch  the  awkward  affability  of  the  uncouth  figure  , to  listen  in  rapt  attention  to  the  extraordinary  French  accent  , and  when  , one  evening  , at  a  party  , the  adorable  man  appeared  in  a  charade  as  a  sultan  between  two  lovely  ladies  and  could  only  say  , as  he  struck  his  chest  , over  and  over  again  , "  Eh  bien  , mesdemoiselles  , eh  bien  , vous  voila  done   !sx   "  their  ecstasy  reached  its  height .sx   It  seemed  indeed  almost  impossible  to  believe  in  this  combination  of  the  outer  and  inner  man .sx   Even  his  own  mother  never  got  below  the  surface .sx   "  Our  Davie  , " she  is  reported  to  have  said  , "  is  a  fine  good-natured  cratur  , but  uncommon  wake-minded .sx   " In  no  sense  whatever  was  this  true .sx   Hume  was  not  only  brilliant  as  an  abstract  thinker  and  a  writer  ;  he  was  no  less  competent  in  the  practical  affairs  of  life .sx   In  the  absence  of  the  Ambassador  he  was  left  in  Paris  for  some  months  as  charge  d'affaires  , and  his  dispatches  still  exist  to  show  that  he  understood  diplomacy  as  well  as  ratiocination .sx   
Entirely  unmoved  by  the  raptures  of  Paris  , Hume  returned  to  Edinburgh  , at  last  a  prosperous  and  wealthy  man .sx   For  seven  years  he  lived  in  his  native  capital  , growing  comfortably  old  amid  leisure  , books  , and  devoted  friends .sx   It  is  to  this  final  period  of  his  life  that  those  pleasant  legends  belong  which  reveal  the  genial  charm  , the  happy  temperament  , of  the  philosopher .sx   There  is  the  story  of  the  tallow-chandler's  wife  , who  arrived  to  deliver  a  monitory  message  from  on  High  , but  was  diverted  from  her  purpose  by  a  tactful  order  for  an  enormous  number  of  candles .sx   There  is  the  well-known  tale  of  the  weighty  philosopher  getting  stuck  in  the  boggy  ground  at  the  base  of  the  Castle  rock  , and  calling  on  a  passing  old  woman  to  help  him  out .sx   She  doubted  whether  any  help  should  be  given   .sx
to  the  author  of  the  Essay  on  Miracles .sx   "  But  , my  good  woman  , does  not  your  religion  as  a  Christian  teach  you  to  do  good  , even  to  your  enemies   ?sx   "  "  That  may  be  , " was  the  reply  , "  but  ye  shallna  get  out  of  that  till  ye  become  a  Christian  yersell   :sx   and  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Belief  "    a  feat  that  was  accomplished  with  astonishing  alacrity .sx   And  there  is  the  vision  of  the  mountainous  metaphysician  seated  , amid  a  laughing  party  of  young  ladies  , on  a  chair  that  was  too  weak  for  him  , and  suddenly  subsiding  to  the  ground .sx   
In  1776  , when  Hume  was  sixty-five  , an  internal  complaint  , to  which  he  had  long  been  subject  , completely  undermined  his  health  , and  recovery  became  impossible .sx   For  many  months  he  knew  he  was  dying  , but  his  mode  of  life  remained  unaltered  , and  , while  he  gradually  grew  weaker  , his  cheerfulness  continued  unabated .sx   With  ease  , with  gaiety  , with  the  simplicity  of  perfect  taste  , he  gently  welcomed  the  inevitable .sx   This  wonderful  equanimity  lasted  till  the  very  end .sx   There  was  no  ostentation  of  stoicism  , much  less  any  Addisonian  dotting  of  death-bed  i's .sx   Not  long  before  he  died  he  amused  himself  by  writing  his  autobiography    a  model  of  pointed  brevity .sx   
In  one  of  his  last  conversations    it  was  with  Adam  Smith    he  composed  an  imaginary  conversation  between  himself  and  Charon  , after  the  manner  of  Lucian   :sx   "  '  Have  a  little  patience  , good  Charon  , I  have  been  endeavouring  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  Public .sx   If  I  live  a  few  years  longer  , I  may  have  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  downfall  of  some  of  the  prevailing  systems  of  superstition .sx '  But  Charon  would  then  lose  all  temper  and  decency .sx   '  You  loitering  rogue  , that  will  not  happen  these  many  hundred  years .sx   Do  you  fancy  I  will  grant  you  a  lease  for  so  long  a  term   ?sx   Get  into  the  boat  this  instant  , you  lazy  , loitering  rogue .sx '  "  Within  a  few  days  of  his  death  he  wrote  a  brief  letter  to  his  old  friend  , the  Comtesse  de  Boufflers  ;  it  was  the  final  expression  of  a  supreme  detachment .sx   "  My  disorder  , " he  said  , "  is  a  diarrhoea  , or  disorder  in  my  bowels  , which  has  been  gradually  under-mining  me  these  two  years  ;  but  , within  these  six  months  , has  been  visibly  hastening  me  to  my  end .sx   I  see  death  approach  gradually  , without  anxiety  or  regret .sx   I  salute  you  , with  great  affection  and  regard  , for  the  last  time .sx   " 
GIBBON   .sx
HAPPINESS  is  the  thought  that  immediately  rises  to  the  mind  at  the  thought  of  Edward  Gibbon :sx   and  happiness  in  its  widest  connotation    including  good  fortune  as  well  as  enjoyment .sx