344 



HUME. 



selection. It is therefore chiefly by a quick succession 

 of them formed by the buoyant spirit of liberal sociali- 

 ty readily surmounting occasional causes of separation, 

 that they prove agreeable and useful. 



_ The philosophical opinions of Mr Hume subjected 

 him to many controversial attacks. To these he never 

 published any formal reply, but satisfied himself with 

 making occasional private observations, and availing 

 himself of public criticism for amending his works in 

 subsequent editions. 



In the manner in which he expressed himself towards 

 those who wrote against him, he shewed himself ex- 

 tremely sensible to the pleasing influence of civility, 

 and the galling effects of disrespect or rudeness. He 

 was pleased with Dr Campbell's Essay on Miracles, 

 and with an anonymous tract, entitled, A Delineation 

 of Morality, written by Mr Balfour, an advocate and 

 professor of moral philosophy. But such severities as 

 those of Hurd, Warburton, and Beattie, teeming with 

 petulance and abuse, produced in his mind the strong- 

 est feelings of alienation and contempt. His good hu- 

 mour probably too much depended on the cultivation 

 of that radical hauteur which sometimes forms the man 

 of fashion, and was too little cherished by that steady 

 forbearance and that system of universal allowances 

 which would have better suited the character of a phi- 

 losopher. 



The progress of his bodily disorder was rapid. In 

 April 1776, he set out for London at the intreaty of 

 his friends, who hoped that a long journey might im- 

 prove his health. At Morpeth he met with Dr Adam 

 Smith, and Mr Home, the author of the tragedy of 

 Douglas. The latter remained with him in England, 

 whileDr Smith returned to the north. Mr Hume finding 

 himself seemingly improved when he arrived in London, 

 went next to Bath to drink the waters, which contributed 

 still farther to a temporary recovery. But his complaint 

 relapsed with additional violence, and he returned to 

 Edinburgh under a deliberate expectation of soon finish- 

 ing his days. He employed himself in correcting his 

 works, reading books ot amusement, and conversing with 

 his friends. He encouraged his friends to speak to him 

 in the frankest manner as to a dying man. It is evident 

 that he did not entertain a belief in any future state. 

 Yet the constant expressions of a hope of this sort 

 which a man is accustomed to hear in the course of 

 early education, and in the common intercourse of life, 

 render the mind familiar with an imagery founded on 

 that hope to which the most sceptical occasionally recur 

 for amusement, even while they reject a belief which 

 appears to them incongruous. Some of them playfully 

 indulge in supposing themselves to have been imbued 

 with the belief of a mythology belonging to a different 

 age or country, and thus balance the influence of pre- 

 sent systems against that of others. Mr Hume had 

 too much respect for society to indulge in any open 

 scurrility directed exclusively against the religious sen- 

 timents of the age : but he playfully retailed the con- 

 versations which were likely to take place between 

 himself and Charon, the ferryman of the river Styx, at 

 the moment of his transit from the present to the un- 

 known world. He did not affect any great wish to 

 speak on the subject for the purpose of displaying his 

 indifference or his courage, and only touched on it oc- 

 casionally in reply to the enquiries of his friends. His 

 strength very gradually declined. 'When no longer 

 able to converse, he continued to read in a state of com- 

 posure ; and after four or five days passed under this 

 degree of debility, he died on the 25th of August 1776. 



In stature Mr Hume was above the ordinary size. Hume. 

 His countenance was open and free, a just picture of ^"V* 

 his benevolent and cheerful temper. His features were 

 large, and were exempt from that trifling smartness 

 and habitual intensity of expression which characterise 

 a bustling fashionable ambition. Lord Charlemont on 

 this account considered them as blank and unmeaning, 

 and wondered that the ladies at the court ofTurin valued 

 so much his company and conversation. His attrac- 

 tions seem to have consisted in the liberality of his 

 mind exhibited in the jolly openness of his counte- 

 nance. See Hardy's Memoirs ofl^ord Charlemont, and 

 the critique on them given in the Edinburgh Review. 



The manner in which he died has sometimes been 

 made the theme of injudicious comment, for the pur- 

 pose of elucidating the merits of particular views of 

 philosophy or religion. The equanimity displayed in 

 his last moments has been boastfully represented as a 

 triumph to infidelity, and a proof that a philosopher 

 may die in tranquillity. Such were the sentiments in- 

 culcated in a tract entitled, An Apology for the Life and 

 Writings of David Hume. But the eagerness with 

 which a single instance of this kind is grasped at might 

 be plausibly construed into a presumption of the gene- 

 ral fallacy of the remark. On the other hand, it is 

 equally unfavourable to candour to embrace, with ex- 

 clusive keenness, those anecdotes, whether well or i 

 supported, which represent persons of these sentiments 

 as doomed to the agonies of remorse in the hour of death. 

 This spirit has given rise to some misrepresentations of 

 fact, which fall under the character of pious frauds. We 

 are told, that though a man may lead the life of a fool, by 

 advocating the cause of Deism, yet a fool he cannot die ; 

 and then an anecdote is told of some noted infidel, which 

 bears the marks of evident fabrication. That this di- 

 rection of zeal is wholly superfluous and inefficient in 

 the support of religion, we may be satisfied, when we 

 reflect, that such anecdotes are only circulated concern- 

 ing those who are infidels by profession. It is main- 

 tained that many who, from motives of policy, appa- 

 rently acquiesce in the religion of the age, do not be- 

 lieve it in their hearts. Such persons might be suppo- 

 sed to labour under the double weight of infidelity and 

 hypocrisy ; yet we hear nothing of their death-bed ago. 

 nies. Allowing, therefore, facts of that kind to which 

 we have alluded to be as general as they have been some- 

 times represented, they must be otherwise accounted for 

 than by being considered as the unmingled effects of 

 the power of truth on the human conscience. They will 

 be explained in a more satisfactory manner, if ascri- 

 bed to the influence of that contrariety which an in- 

 dividual ef solitary professions feels between himself 

 and the rest of society, oppressing a mind bereft of 

 its energy by the decay of nature. Weak man, even 

 in his most vigorous moments, needs company to sup- 

 port him in the enjoyment of his opinions ; and the in- 

 fluence of this principle enters much deeper into the 

 private comfort of individuals than most men are will- 

 ing to allow. We should always beware of resting 

 questions of so grave moment on data thus preca- 

 rious. 



The character of David Hume as a man has been va- 

 riously estimated. About his agreeable qualities there 

 could be no difference of opinion ; and those who 

 abhorred his principles allowed that he possessed as 

 much worth as was compatible with infidelity. The 

 chief difference, therefore, depends on the amount of 

 that degree of praise. One tells us that he was a pat- 

 tern of good humour, benignity, and self-command; 



