ii LATER YEARS 39 



But he liked applause as well as fame, and, to his 

 bitter disappointment, he says: 



" 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 fall into oblivion. Mr. Millar 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, consider- 

 able 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 ex- 

 ceptions. These dignified prelates separately sent me mes- 

 sages not to be discouraged." 



It certainly is odd to think of David Hume 

 being comforted in his affliction by the inde- 

 pendent and spontaneous sympathy of a pair of 

 archbishops. But the instincts of the dignified 

 prelates guided them rightly; for, as the great 

 painter of English history in Whig pigments has 

 been careful to point out,* Hume's historical 

 picture, though a great work, drawn by a master 

 hand, has all the lights Tory, and all the shades 

 Whig. 



Hume's ecclesiastical enemies seem to have 

 thought that their opportunity had now arrived; 

 and an attempt was made to get the General 



* Lord Macaulay, Article on History, Edinburgh Review, 

 vol. Ixvii. 



