Page:Essays, Moral and Political - David Hume (1741).djvu/83

 contain some memorable Transaction proper to excite their Curiosity. But as I do not find that Truth, which is the Basis of History, is at all regarded in those Anecdotes, I cannot admit of this as a Proof of their Passion for that Study. However this may be, I see not why the same Curiosity might not receive a more proper Direction, and lead them to desire Accounts of those who lived in past Ages as well as of their Contemporaries. What is it to Cleora, whether Fulvia entertains a secret Commerce of Love with Philander or not? Has she not equal Reason to be pleased, when she is informed, (what is whispered about among Historians) that Cato's Sister had an Intrigue with Cæsar, and palmed her Son, Marcus Brutus, upon her Husband for his own, though in Reality he was her Gallant's? And are not the Loves of Messalina or Julia as proper Subjects of Discourse as any Intrigue, that this City has produced of late Years.

I know not whence it comes, that I have been thus seduced into a kind of Raillery against the Ladies: Unless, perhaps, it proceed from the same Cause, that makes the Person, who is the Favourite of the Com-