HUME, Davin (1711-76). An English philosopher and historian. He was born at Edin burgh on April 26 (O. S.), 1711. His father was the laird of Ninewells in Berwickshire, but David, being the youngest son, had to make his fortune with no other assistance than an educa, tion and the influence of his family. He appears to have studied in the University' of Edinburgh when twelve years of age, but his education for the most part consisted in home reading. His family designed the law to be his profession, and he submitted to the initial steps of the proper practical training, but it was not a pursuit to his liking. Deserting it, lie experimented in a mer cantile house in Bristol, but commerce was not more congenial to him than jurisprudence, and he gave it a very short trial. To use his own words, "I now went over to France with a view of prosecuting my studies in a country retreat, and there I laid the plan of life which I have steadily and successfully pursued. I resolved to make a very rigid frugality supply my deficiency of fortune, to maintain unimpaired my inde pendency, and to regard every object as con temptible except the improvement• of my talent in literature." He spent- much of the next three years at La Fleche, in intercourse with the Jesuits, and then he wrote his Treatise of Nature, which, however, lie did not publish till 1739-40. It consists of three books, "Of the Understanding," "Of the Passions." and "Of Morals." Now one of the three or four most fa mous philosophical productions of England. at the time of its appearance "it fell deadhorn from the press without reaching such a distinc tion as even to excite a murmur among the zeal ots," as Hume himself acknowledged, much to his mortification. Ile now turned to political theory, and published anonymously in 1741-42 two volumes of Essays Moral and Political. In 1744 he was a candidate for the chair of 'ethics and pneumatic philosophy' in the University of Edinburgh, but his Treatise had given him a reputation for 'heresy, deism. skepticism, athe ism, etc.,' and the university would have none of him. In 1746 lie obtained a 'very genteel' ap pointment as secretary to General Saint Clair on "10 shillings a day. perquisites, and no ex penses." An expedition had been planned to Canada. hut an unsuccessful attack on L'Orient, in France. led to a recall of the general. Two years after Hume accompanied General Saint Clair to the Court of Turin, as secretary and aide-de-camp, and took notes of his impressions of Holland, Germany, and Italy.
In 1748, during his absence on the Continent, he published his Enquiry Concerning Human Un darstanding. The following year lie returned to England; in 1751 he gave to the public the Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, and in 1752 the Political Discourses, said to have been the 'cradle of political economy.' At. the same time he also composed Dialogues on Natural Religicv, which, however, were not published till after his death. By this time he had put by enough money to gain him an income of £50 a year. Besides he had "a hundred pounds' worth of hooks, great stores of linens and fine clothes. and near £100 in his pocket, along with order. frugality, a strong spirit of independency, good health, a contented humor, and an unabated love of study," as he himself relates. in 1751 he had removed to Edinburgh, and a year later he was elected librarian to the Faculty of Advocates at a salary of £40. In 1754 he published the first volume of the History of Great Britain, Contain ing the Reign of James 1., and Charles I.; the second volume appeared two years afterwards. Then he took up the Tudors, and, working back ward, finished his History of England in 1762. In 1757 he had published Four Dissertations: the Natural History of Religion; of the Pas sions: of Tragedy: of the Standard of Taste. In 1763 be was a member of the embassy to Franc' under Lord Hertford, and there found himself famous. Ile was lionized by the frivolous society ladies, fsh'd by the nobles, and taken by the men of letters into their friendship. After his re turn he was made Under-Secretary of State (1767-69), and by 1769 had an income of £1000 a year. In 1770 he retired from public life and built a home in Edinburgh on a new street, which was jocularly called 'Saint David's Street,' after him. Here lie wrote My Own Life, and here he
died, August 25, 1776. His History of England became a classic as soon as it appeared: his economic writings were a fitting prelude to those of his friend Adam Smith (q.v.), while his philosophical works roused Kant "from his I dog matic slumber," gave rise by reaction to Scottish philosophy, and are the immortal text-book. of skepticism and agnosticism. His philosophy was hut the consistent development of Berke ley's idealism. (See BERKELEY.) Berkeley had de nied the reality of matter, and had accounted for what passed for matter by making it a complex of sensations and ideas, hut he still held to the reality of mind as the subject of sensations and ideas. flume dropped out mind as Berkeley had dropped out matter, and thus left nothing to be known except 'perception' ( impressions a lid ideas), together with certain fictions of the imagination, of which he gives no satisfactory account that can he made consistent with hi, general position. "All the perceptions of the human mind resolve themselves into two dist inet hinds I shall call imprescions and ideas." These differ not by reason of any differences in the manner in which they are produced, but merely in priority and liveliness. Ideas are simply those perceptions which, appearing later than similar perceptions, are less forceful and vivid. ideas are of two sorts, ideas of the mem ory and ideas of the imagination. Of these the former are the more lively, and retain, in great measure. the order and sequence of these orig inal impressions. whereas ideas of the imagina tion are fainter and .are "not. restrained to the same order and form with the original impres sions." Ideas are associated in accordance with certain principles, viz.. "Resemblance, contiguity in time or place, and cause and effect." There are no general ideas. Ideas of space are complexes of niinima visi-bilia, or colored points, disposed in a certain manner. These points are indivisible. Ideas of time are derived from the succession of our perceptions, and as these perceptions are in the last instance indivisible, time is not infinitely divisible. No perception has any proper external, objective reference. A cause is an object prece dent and contiguous to another, and so united with it in the imagination that the idea of the one determines the mind to form the idea of the other, and the impression of the one to form a more lively idea of the other. "There is no sub stance, hence no mind except the bundle of per ceptions. A true skeptic will he diffident of his philosophical doubts, as well as of his phil osophical •onvictions." In ethics, Hume was a ( See CTILITARiANISNI.) Self love cannot be the sole basis of reasonable action. 'Crucial experiments' render sneli a view inipOs Sympathy is a real principle in human nature, and reflections on public interest and utility arc the sole sources of the mural approba tion paid to fidelity, justice, veracity, integrity. Sympathy does the work it does because it is our pleasure in other persons' pleasures and our dis pleasure in their pains. Thu: our own pleasure and pain are the springs of action, but they are not the ends of action.
A complete edition of llume's philosophical works Was published by Green and Grose (4 187 475) ; his Treafi.se and two Eng/0/1(s in two volumes by Selby-liigge (Ox ford, 18S9.9t r ; his History has appeared in al most innumerable editions; h is autobiography was edited by Adam Smith (London, 1777). Con sult also: Burton. Life and Correspondence of Ilarid Hume IEdinimrgli, 1811;1: and Huxley, I)', hi Hume (London, 1S79), containing a popu lar account of flume's philosophical views. For treatment of flume's philosophy, consult: dodl, Humes Lehre run de r G•kenntnis r Haile, 1 71) : t;orriismns mon/ skepsis in florid Humes Philosophie (Berlin. 1s741: Mei ming, /fume -;:tudren iVienna, 1s77 - 82) ; Die Et hik Darid Ilunos (Berlin, 1878); 'I'. 11. Green, Introduction to Mime, in (base's edition of liume's works; also published as part of vol. ii. of Green's ll'orkA (Lon don. 1885) ; Knight, Munro (London, 1886) and the various histories of modern philosophy by Ueb•rweglIeinze, Falekenburg, IlidTding, and Windelba ml.