LIFE OF DAVID HUME. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. LONDON:-1826. PRINTED FOR HUNT AND CLARKE TAVISTOCK-STREET, COVENT-GARDEN. PREFACE. HOWEVER brief the account which a man of commanding genius or talent may be disposed to give of himself, it can scarcely fail of possessing a portion of the characteristic handling which forms the principal charm of Autobiography. The well-known sketch by the celebrated DAVID HUME, entitled "My own Life," is an instance of this truth; for although it exhibits no pouring out of the mind in the egotistical style of unreserve, which is not without its attraction from men of a fervid and imaginative character, it is singularly indicative of the philosophic bearing and calm temperament of the distinguished author. It also supplies a genuine outline of his literary experience; and nothing can be more interesting than authenticated facts, attendant upon the early efforts of writers of celebrity, or more instructive than a comparison of their expectations and disappointments in the first stages of their progress, B 3 with the settled estimation and judgment of well-informed society, when they have attained the goal. Thus, in the following short narrative, we learn that no author met with more neglect than Hume in the first instance, or in due time attracted more wide and varied attention. We also acquire his only written defence of his greatest work, his "History of England," and what is best of all, his observations upon, and summary of his own character. All this would be attractive from a writer of far inferior pretensions to Mr Hume, but what ought to go farther than all the rest, simple and contracted as this account is, it may be safely asserted that, had it never been written, the world would have been much less informed than it is, in regard to some very distinguishing points in the mental and moral composition of one of the leading philosophers and historians of modern times. |