Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/42

102 Respecting Hume's merits as a poet, different opinions exist. While in the opinion of Dr Irving he never rises above mediocrity, Dr M'Crie places him in a somewhat higher rank: "The easy structure of his verse reminds us continually of the ancient models on which it has been formed; and if deficient in vigour his fancy has a liveliness and buoyancy which prevents the reader from wearying of his longest descriptions." These opinions are, after all, not irreconcilable; the poetry of Hume possesses little originality, but the reader is charmed with the readiness and the frequency of his imitations of the Roman poets.

As an historian, Hume can never become popular. He is by much too prolix, nor will this be wondered at when we consider the age at which he wrote his principal historical work. To the reader, however, who is disposed to follow him through his windings, he will be a most valuable, and in many cases, a most amusing author. As the kinsman of the earls of Angus, he had access to many important family papers, from which he has compiled the history prior to his own time. But when he writes of transactions within his own recollection, and more especially those in which he was personally engaged, there is so much judicious remark and honesty of intention, that it cannot fail to interest even a careless reader.

Besides the works which we have mentioned, Hume wrote "Apologia Basilica, Seu Machiavelli Ingenium Examinatum, in libro quern inscripsit Princeps, 4to, Paris, 1626." "De Episcopatu, May 1, 1609, Patricio Simsono." "A treatise on things indifferent." "Of obedience to superiors." In the Biographie Universelle there is a memoir of him, in which it is mentioned that "Jaques Iier Pempioye a concilier les difterends qui s'estaient eleve entre Dumoulin et Tilenus au sujet de la justification," and he is also there mentioned as having written "Le Contr' Assassin, ou Reponse a l'Apologie des Jesuites," Geneva, 1612, 8vo, and "L'Assassinat du Roi, ou Maximes Pratiquees en la personne du defaut Henrie le Grand," 1617, 8vo.

HUME,, the celebrated metaphysician, historian, and political economist, was the second son of Joseph Hume of Nine wells, near Dunse, and was born in the Tron church parish, Edinburgh, on the 26th of April, 1711, O. S. His mother was daughter to Sir David Falconer, a judge of the court of session under the designation of lord Newton, and for some years president of the college of justice. The family of Hume of Ninewells was ancient and respectable, and the gredt philosopher has himself informed us, that on the side both of father and mother, he was the descendant of nobility, a circumstance from which he seems to have derived a quiet satisfaction, probably owing more to his respect for the manners and feelings of the country and age in which he lived, than to his conviction of the advantages of noble birth. It is to be regretted that little is known about the early life of Hume, and the habits of his boyish years. There are indeed very few instances, in which the information which can be derived about the early habits and inclinations of a man who has afterwards distinguished himself, repays the labour of research, or even that of reading the statements brought forward; while many who have busied themselves in such tasks have only shown that the objects of their attention were by no means distinguished from other men, in the manner in which they have spent their childhood; but it must be allowed that in the case of Hume, a narrative of the gradual rise and development of that stoical contempt towards the objects which distract the minds of most men, that industry without enthusiasm, that independence without assumption, and strict morality founded only on reason, which distinguished his conduct through life, might have taught us a lesson of the world, and would at least have gratified a well grounded