Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/60

120 of affliction, she used to rely, and that she now found her mind sinking into despair. She did not doubt but her son would afford her some substitute for her religion, and she conjured him to hasten to her, or at least to send her a letter, containing such consolations as philosophy can afford to a dying mortal. Hume was overwhelmed with anguish on receiving this letter, and hastened to Scotland, travelling day and night ; but before he arrived, his mother expired. No permanent impression seems, however, to have been made on his mind by this most trying event ; and whatever remorse he might have felt at the moment, he soon relapsed into his wonted obduracy of heart"

On the appearance of this anecdote, Baron Hume, the philosopher's nephew, communicated to the editor of the Quarterly Review the following anecdote, of a more pleasing nature, connected with the same circumstance; and while it is apparent that it stands on better ground, we may mention that it is acknowledged by the reviewer as an authenticated contradiction to the statement of Silliman. " David and he (the hon. Mr Boyle, brother of the earl of Glasgow) were both in London, at the period when David's mother died. Mr Boyle, hearing of it, soon after went into his apartment, for they lodged in the same house, where he found him in the deepest affliction, and in a flood of tears. After the usual topics of condolence, Mr Boyle said to him, 'My friend, you owe this uncommon grief to your having thrown off the principles of religion; for if you had not, you would have been consoled with the firm belief, that the good lady, who was not only the best of mothers, but the most pious of Christians, was completely happy in the realms of the just.' To which David replied, 'Though I throw out my speculations to entertain the learned and metaphysical world, yet, in other things, I do not think so differently from the rest of mankind as you imagine.' "

Hume returned, in 1749, to the retirement of his brother's house at Ninewells, and during a residence there for two years, continued his remodeling of his Treatise of Human Nature, and prepared for the press his celebrated Political Discourses. The former production appeared in 1751, under the title of an "Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals," published by Millar, the celebrated bookseller. Hume considered this the most perfect of his works, and it is impossible to resist admiration of the clearness of the arguments, and the beautiful precision of the theories; the world, however, did not extend to it the balmy influence of popularity, and it appeared to the author, that all his literary efforts were doomed to the unhappy fate of being little regarded at first, and of gradually decaying into oblivion. "In my opinion," he says, "(who ought not to judge on that subject,) [it] is, of all my writings, historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best. It came unnoticed and unobserved into the world."

In 1752, and during the author's residence in Edinburgh, appeared his "Political Discourses." The subjects of these admirable essays were of interest to every one, the method of treating them was comprehensible to persons of common discernment; above all, they treated subjects on which the prejudices of few absolutely refused conviction by argument, and the author had the opportunity of being appreciated and admired, even when telling truths. The book in these circumstances, was, in the author's words, "the only work of mine that was successful on the first publication. It was well received abroad and at home." The chief subjects were, "Commerce, money, interest, the balance of trade, the populousness of ancient nations, the idea of a perfect commonwealth." Sir Josiah Child, Sir William Petty, Hobbes, and Locke, had previously given the glimmerings of more liberal principles on trade and manufacture than those which they saw practised, and hinted at the common prejudices