HUME In fact it has no significance ; and Hume has himself in a striking letter to Gilbert Elliott indicated the true relation of the two works. "I believe, the Philosophical Essays contain everything of consequence relating to the under standing which you would meet with in the Treatise, and I give you my advice against reading the latter. By shortening and simplifying the questions, I really render them much more complete. Addo dam miiiuo. The philosophical principles are the same in both." The Essays are undoubtedly written with more maturity and skill than the Treatise; they contain in more detail application of the principles to concrete problems, such as miracles, providence, immortality ; but the entire omission of the discussion forming part ii. of the first book of the Treatise, and the great compression of part iv., are real defects which must always render the Treatise the more important work in the history of philosophy. In 1749 Hume returned to England, enriched with "near a thousand pounds." Two years he spent at Ninewells, and then in 1751 removed to Edinburgh, where for the most part he resided during the next twelve years of his life. These years are the richest so far as literary production is concerned. In 1751 he published his Political Discourses, which had a great and well-deserved success. In the same year appeared the recast of the third book of the Treatise, called Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, of which he says that " of all his writings, philosophical, literary, or historical, it is incomparably the best." At this time also we hear of the Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, a work which Hume was prevailed on not to publish, but which he touched and retouched with the greatest care, and evidently regarded with the greatest favour. The work itself, left by Hume with instructions that it should be published, did not appear till 1779. In 1751 Hume was again unsuccessful in the attempt to gain a professor s chair. A candidate unknown to fame then or afterwards was appointed to the chair of logic at Glasgow. In the following year he received the first public preferment that had ever fallen to his lot, the librarianship of the Advocates Library in Edinburgh, small in emoluments, but rich in opportunity for literary work. His delight was great. In his playful style he writes to Dr Clephane, " I have been ready to burst with vanity and self-conceit this week past, and, being obliged from decorum to keep a strict watch over myself and check all emphasis of that kind, I really begin to find my health injured by it. " The usual objections had been raised to his election without avail ; but, " what is more extraordinary, the cry of religion could not hinder the ladies from being violently my partisans, and I owe my success in a great measure to their solicita tions. One has broke off all commerce with her lover because he voted against me ; and W. Lockhart, in a speech to the faculty, said that there was no walking the streets, nor even enjoying one s own fireside, on account of their importunate zeal. The town says that even his bed was not safe for him, though his wife was cousin-german to my antagonist." The only work published at this time which requires somewhat special notice is the set of essays called Political Discourses. In these Hume shows greater aptitude for economical inquiries, and makes greater advances in political economy, than any previous writer. Although only a few of the many subjects of discussion are touched upon, the general principles of the science are firmly expressed and illustrated with clearness that leaves nothing to be desired. The fundamental theorem, "everything in the world is purchased by labour, and our passions are the only causes of labour," on which Smith afterwards constructed his more elaborate system, is used as the key to resolve the difficulties regarding the advantages of foreign trade, the causes of the efflux and influx of bullion, the general range of prices in a country, the influence of credit on prices and on trade, the connexion of interest, profits, and the general conditions of industry, and the most economical modes of levying taxes. In many respects the analysis of the complex phenomena of commerce is more sound and thorough than that given in the Wealth of Nations, for Hume never forgets that the ultimate causes of our economic movements are the " customs and manners " of the people, and always finds his solution by referring to the elementary factors of industry. It is curious that on the publication of the Wealth of Nations Hume indicated to Smith that he differed from him regarding the influence of rent on prices, the point from which the later advances of English political economy have taken their start. It is also remarkable that Hume had formed a much sounder judgment than Smith on the merits of the French Econo mists. In short, the main errors of the Wealth of Nations are to be found in the deviations from the principles of the Political Discourses. In 1753 Hume was fairly settled in Edinburgh, enjoying the dignity and delights of householding, and preparing for his new attempt in literature, the History of England. 1 He had decided to begin the History, not with Henry VII., as Adam Smith recommended, but with James I., considering that the political differences and parties of .his time took their origin from that period, and that then, as he thought, " the misrepresentations of faction began chiefly to take place." On the whole his attitude in respect to dis puted political principles seems not to have been at first consciously unfair. " I am sensible," he writes to Clephane, " that the history of the two first Stuarts will be most agreeable to the Tories, that of the two last to the Whigs ; but we must endeavour to be above any regard either to Whigs or Tories." As for the qualities necessary to secure success as a writer on history, he felt that he possessed them in a high degree : and, though neither his ideal of an historian nor his equipment for the task of historical re search would now appear adequate, in both he was much in advance of his contemporaries and predecessors. Naturally, then, he was "sanguine in his expectations of the success of his work." " But," he writes in the well-known passage of his Life, " miserable was my disappointment. I was assailed by one cry of reproach, disapprobation, and even detestation ; . . . what was still more mortifying, the book seemed to sink into oblivion. Mr Millar told me that in 1 " About seven months ago," he writes to Dr Clephane, " I got a house of my own, and completed a regular family, consisting of a head, viz., myself, and two inferior members, a maid and a cat. My sister has since joined me, and keeps me company. With frugality I can reach, I find, cleanliness, warmth, light, plenty, and contentment. What would you have more ? Independence ? I have it in a supreme degree. Honour ? That is not altogether wanting. Grace V That will come in time. A wife ? That is none of the indispensable requi sites of life. Books ? That is one of them ; and I have more than I can use. In short, I cannot find any blessing of consequence which I am not possessed of in a greater or less degree ; and without any great effort of philosophy, I may be easy and satisfied. As there is no happiness without occupation, I have begun a work which will employ me several years, and which yields me much satisfaction. Tis a history of Great Britain, from the Union of the Crowns to the present time. I have already finished the reign of King James I. My friends flatter me (by which I mean that they don t flatter me) that I have succeeded. You know that there is no post of honour in the English Parnassus more vacant than that of history. Style, judgment, impartiality, care everything is wanting in our historians ; and even Kapin, during this latter period, is extremely deficient, I make my work very concise, after the manner of the ancients. It divides into three very moderate volumes : one to end with the death of Charles the First ; the second at the Revolution ; the third at the Accession, for I dare come no nearer the present times. The work will neither please the duke of Bedford nor James Fraser; but I hope it will please you and posterity.
KTTJ^ua tis att."
