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“David Hume,” Encyclopædia; or, a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature . . . . ([vols 7, 8, 9, and 10] Philadelphia, 1793), vol. 8, pp. 708–10.
Anonymous
The Encyclopaedia Britannica was first published in three volumes in Edinburgh (1768–71). This was followed by an expanded second edition (1777–84) and a third edition (1787–97). The first American edition of the Encyclopaedia was based on the third British edition, but with additions. It was published in Philadelphia by Robert Dobson in eighteen volumes (1789–98) with a three volume Supplement (1800–1803). See Robert D. Arner, Dobson’s Encyclopaedia: The Publisher, Text, and Publication of America’s First Britannica, 1789–1803 (Philadelphia, 1991).
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HUME (David, Esq;) a late celebrated philosopher and historian, was born in the south part of Scotland on the 26th of April O. S. in the year 1711. Being the younger son of a country gentleman of good family, but no great fortune, his patrimony was of consequence insufficient to support him. For this reason he was destined for the bar, and passed through his academical courses in the university of Edinburgh; but being more inclined to studies of a different nature, he never put on the gown, nor even took the introductory steps necessary for that purpose. The writings of Locke and Berkely had directed the attention of the generality of learned men towards metaphysics; and Mr Hume having early applied himself to studies of this kind, published in 1739 the two first volumes of his Treatise of human nature, and the third the following year. He had the mortification, however, to find his book generally decried; and to perceive, that the taste for systematic writings was now on the decline. He therefore divided this treatise into separate Essays and Dissertations, which he afterwards published at different times with alterations and improvements.
In 1742, Mr. Hume published two small volumes, consisting of Essays moral, political, and literary. These were better received than his former publication; but contributed little to his reputation as an author; and still less to his profit; and his small patrimony being now almost spent, he accepted an invitation from the marquis of Annandale to come and live with him in England. With this nobleman he staid a twelve-month; during which time his small fortune was considerably increased. He then received an invitation from General St. Clair, to attend him as a secretary on his expedition, which was at first meant against Canada, but afterwards ended in an excursion against the coast of France. [In] 1747, he received an invitation from the general to attend him in the same station in his military embassy to the courts of Vienna and Turin. He then wore the uniform of an officer; and was introduced at these courts as aid decamp to the general, along with Sir Harry Erskine and captain Grant, afterwards general Grant. In 1749 he returned to Scotland, and lived two years with his brother at his country-house; where he composed the second part of his essays, called Political Discourses. And now the general approbation of his performances was indicated by a more extensive sale than formerly, and likewise by the numerous answers published by different persons in order to counteract their supposed pernicious tendency. In 1752, were published at Edinburgh his Political Discourses, the only work of his which was well received on its first appearance; and the same year, at London, his Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, which in his own opinion was incomparably the best of his performances. This year also he was appointed librarian to the faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh; the principal advantage resulting from which employment was, that he had by that means the command of a large library. He then formed the plan of writing the History of England; but deeming the whole to be too extensive, he confined his history to that of Britain under the house of Stuart. The book as almost universally decried on its first appearance, and soon after seemed to sink in oblivion. Dr Herring primate of England, and Dr Stone primate of Ireland, were the only literati of the author’s acquaintance who approved of the work, and sent him messages not to be discouraged.
Notwithstanding the approbation of these eminent men, however, Mr Hume’s spirits were so much sunk by his bad success, that he had some thoughts of retiring to France, changing his name, and bidding adieu to his own country for ever; but his design was rendered impracticable by the breaking out of the war of 1755 between France and Britain. He then published his Natural History of Religion; to which an answer was published, soon after its appearance, in the name of Dr Hurd bishop of Litchfield and Coventry, of which, however, he hath since disclaimed being the sole author. In 1756, the second volume of the History of the Stuarts was published, two years after the appearance of the first. This was better received, and helped to retrieve the character of the former volume. Three years after, his History of the House of Tudor made its appearance; which was almost as ill received as the History of the Stuarts had been, the reign of Elizabeth being particularly obnoxious. The author, however, had now learned to despise popular clamours; and continued to finish at his leisure the more early part of the English history, which was published in 1761, and was received with tolerable success.
Mr Hume being now turned of fifty, and having obtained by the sale of his books a competent and independant fortune, retired into his native country of Scotland, determined never more to set his foot out of it. From this resolution, however, he was diverted by the earl of Hertford; whom he attended as secretary on his embassy to Paris in 1763. In 1765, the earl being appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland, Mr Hume was entrusted with the sole management of the business of the state till the arrival of the duke of Richmond towards the latter end of the year. In 1767, he returned to Edinburgh, with a much larger income, procured to him by the earl of Hertford, than he formerly had; and now formed the same design he had formerly entertained, namely, of burying himself in his philosophical retreat. In this, however, he was again disappointed, by receiving an invitation from general Conway to be under secretary; and this invitation he was prevented from declining, both by the character of the person, and his connections with lord Hertford. In 1769 he returned to Edinburgh, possessed of L. 1000 a-year, healthy, and though somewhat striken in years, yet having a prospect of long enjoying his ease, and of seeing the increase of his reputation. Of his last illness and character, he himself gives the following account: “In spring 1775, I was struck with a disorder in my bowels; which at first gave me no alarm, but has since, as I apprehend it, become mortal and incurable. I now reckon upon a speedy dissolution. I have suffered very little pain from my disorder; and what is more strange, have notwithstanding the great decline of my person, never suffered a moment’s abatement of my spirits; insomuch, that were I to name the period of my life which I should most choose to pass over again, I might be tempted to point to this latter period. I possess the same ardour as ever in study, and the same gaiety in company. I consider, besides, that a man of sixty-five, be dying, cuts off only a few years of infirmities; and though I see many symptoms of my literary reputation breaking out at last with an additional lustre, I know that I could have but few years to enjoy it. It is difficult to be more detached from life than I am at present.
“To conclude, historically, with my own character. I am, or rather was (for that is the style I must now use in speaking of myself, which emboldens me the more to speak my sentiments); I was, I say, a man of mild dispositions, of command of temper, of an open, social, and cheerful humour, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of great moderation in all my passions. Even my love of literary fame, my ruling passion, never soured my temper, notwithstanding my frequent disappointments. My company was not unacceptable to the young and careless, as well as to the studious and literary; and as I took a particular pleasure in the company of modest women, I had no reason to be displeased with the reception I met with from them. In a word, though most men any wise eminent have found reason to complain of calumny, I never was touched, or even attacked, by her baleful tooth; and though I wantonly exposed myself to the rage of both civil and religious factions, they seemed to be disarmed in my behalf of their wonted fury. My friends never had occasion to vindicate any one circumstance of my character and conduct: not but that the zealots, we may well suppose, would have been glad to invent and propagate any story to my disadvantage, but they could never find any which they thought would wear the face of probability. I cannot say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not a misplaced one; and this is a matter of fact which is easily cleared and ascertained.”
His fears concerning the incurableness of his disorder proved too true. He died on the 25th of August 1776; and was interred in the Calton burying-ground, Edinburgh, where a monument is erected to his memory.