This is the melancholy history of the literary career of the celebrated HUME, as appears from

VOL. II.

F

the

above account is taken, " to my native country of Scotland, "determined never more to fet my foot out of it; and retain"ing the fatisfaction of never having preferred a request to one "GREAT MAN, or ever making advances of friendship to any "of them." He was now more than fifty years of age, and thought of paffing all the rest of his life in this philosophical manner, when, in the year 1763, he received an invitation from the Earl of Hertford, with whom he was not in the leaft acquainted, to attend him on his embaffy to PARIS, with a near prospect of being appointed secretary to the embaffy, and in the mean while of performing the functions of that office. After fome hesitation, and repeated folicitation from the Earl, he accepted the offer, and the appointment of fecretary. He continued at PARIS until the beginning of the year 1766, and seems to have been by no means displeased with his reception there. "Thofe," fays he, "who have not seen the strange effects of "modes, will never imagine the reception I met with at PA"RIS from men and women of all ranks and ftations: the "" more I refiled from their exceffive civilities, the more I was "loaded with them. There is, however, a real fatisfaction in "living at PARIS, from the great number of fenfible, know"ing, and polite perfons with which that city abounds above "all places in the universe." In 1776 he accepted the office of under fecretary to Mr. CONWAY; and returned to Edinburgh, in 1769, poffeffed of a revenue of £1000 a year, good health, high spirits, and the profpect of enjoying ease as his reputation increased; but in the fpring of the year 1775 he was ftruck with a diforder in his bowels which was incurable; and he expired on Sunday, the 25th of Auguft, 1776. His character is thus drawn by his friend Dr. ADAM SMITH. <<Thus died our most excellent and never-to-be-forgotten friend, concerning whose

philofophical

the short sketch he made of his own life, while he calmly waited under an incurable diforder the moment of approaching diffolution; a work which proclaims the mildness, the modefty, and

the

philofophical writings men will no doubt judge variously, every one approving or condemning them according as they happen to coincide or disagree with his own; but concerning whofe character and conduct there can scarce be a difference of opinion. His temper, indeed, seemed to be more happily balanced, if I may be allowed fuch an expreffion, than that, perhaps, of any other man I have ever known. Even in the lowest state of his fortune, his great and neceffary frugality never hindered him from exercifing, upon proper occafions, acts both of charity and generofity. It was not a frugality founded upon avarice, but upon the love of independency. The extreme gentleness of his nature never weakened either the firmness of his mind, or the steadiness of his refolutions. His conftant pleasantry, ever the genuine effufion of good nature and good humour, tempered with delicacy and modefty, was without even the slightest tincture of malignity, fo frequently the disagreeable source of what is called WIT in other men. It never was the meaning of his raillery to mortify; and therefore, far from offending, it feldom failed to please and delight thofe who were the objects of it. To his friends, who were frequently the objects of it, there was not, perhaps, any one of all his great and amiable qualities which contributed more to endear his converfation: and that gaiety of temper fo agreeable in fociety, but which is so often accompanied with frivolous and superficial qualities, was in him certainly attended with the most severe application, the most extenfive learning, the greatest depth of thought, and a capacity in every respect the most comprehenfive. Upon the whole, I have always confidered him, both in his life-time, and fince his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wife and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit.”

the refignation of his temper, as clearly as his other works demonftrate the power and extent of his mind. The hiftory, indeed, of every man who attempts to deftroy the reigning prejudices, or correct the prevailing errors, of his age and country, is nearly the fame. He who has the happiness to see objects of any description with greater perfpicacity than his contemporaries, and prefumes to diffeminate his fuperior knowledge by the unreserved publication of his opinions, fets himself up as a common mark for the shafts of envy and resentment to pierce, and feldom escapes from being charged with wicked designs against the interefts of mankind. A writer, whatever his character, ftation, or talents may be, will find that he has a host of malevolent inferiors ready to feize every opportunity of gratifying their humbled pride, by attempting to level his superior merits, and subdue his rifing fame. Even the compaffionate few, who are ever ready to furnish food to the hungry, cloathing to the naked, and confolation to the afflicted, feldom feel any other sensation than that of jealousy, on beholding the wreath of merit placed on the brows of a deferving rival. The EPHESIANS, with republican pride, being unable to endure the reproach which they felt from the pre-eminency of any individual, banished to fome other state the citizen who presumed to excel the generality of F 2

his

his countrymen. It would be in fome measure adopting this egregious and tyrannical folly, were I to exhort the man whose merits tranfcend those who are his equal in rank or ftation, to break off all intercourfe and connection with them; but I am certain that he might, by an occafional retirement, elude the effects of their envy, and avoid those provocations to which, by his fuperiority, he will otherwise be continually exposed.

To treat the frailties of our fellow-creatures with tenderness, to correct their errors with kindness, to view even their vices with pity, and to induce, by every friendly attention, a mutual complacency and good will, is not only an important moral duty, but a means of increasing the fum of earthly happiness. It is, indeed, difficult to prevent an honeft mind from burfting forth with generous indignation against those artful hypocrites, who, by fpecious and plaufible practices, obtain the falfe character of being wife and good, and obtrude their flimsy and heterodox opinions upon the unthinking world, as the fair and genuine fentiments of TRUTH and VIRTUE. The anger which arises in a generous and ardent mind, on hearing a noble action calumniated, or a useful work illiberally attacked, is not eafily reftrained; but fuch feelings fhould be checked

and

and regulated with a greater degree of caution than even if they were less virtuous and praiseworthy; for if they are indulged with frequency, their natural violence may weaken the common charities of the mind, and convert its very goodness and love of virtue into a mournful mifanthropy, or virulent deteftation of mankind. The precepts here of a divine old man

I could recite. Tho' old, he still retain'd
His manly fenfe, and energy of mind.
Virtuous and wife he was, but not severe ;
He ftill remember'd that he once was young;
His eafy prefence check'd no decent joy.
Him e'en the dissolute admir'd; for he

A graceful looseness, when he pleas'd, put on,
And laughing could inftruct. Much had he read,
Much more had seen : he studied from the life,
And in th' original perus'd mankind.

Vers'd in the woes and vanities of life,

He pitied MAN. Of right and wrong he taught
Truths as refin'd as ever ATHENS heard;
And, ftrange to tell! he practis'd what he preach'd.
Skill'd in THE PASSIONS, how to check their sway
He knew, as far as REASON can controul

The lawlefs powers,

Let not the MAN whofe exalted mind, improved by study and obfervation, furveys with a difcriminating eye the moral depravities and mental weakneffes of human nature, fubmit to treat his envious inferiors with inveterate anger, and undistinguishing revenge. Their