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LETTER LXXXI.: Hume's Departure for London. - David Hume, Letters of David Hume to William Strahan [1756]

Edition used:

Letters of David Hume to William Strahan, ed. G. Birkbeck Hill (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1888).

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LETTER LXXXI.

Hume's Departure for London.

  • Edinburgh,

20 of April1 1776.

Dear Strahan

My Body sets out to-morrow by Post for London2 ; but whether it will arrive there is somewhat uncertain. I shall travel by slow Journies. Last Monday, I sent off by the Waggon, directed to Mr. Cadel, the four last Volumes of my History. I bring up my philosophical Pieces corrected, which will be safe, whether I dye by the Road or not3 .

I am Dear Sir Yours sincerely

David Hume.

[1]Note 1. Hume had finished his far too brief Autobiography two days earlier.

[2]Note 2. Sometime in the spring of this year Dr. Black, Hume's physician, sent Adam Smith the following letter:—‘I write at present chiefly to acquaint you with the state of your friend David Hume's health, which is so bad that I am quite melancholy upon it, and as I hear that you intend a visit to this country soon, I wish, if possible, to hasten your coming, that he may have the comfort of your company so much the sooner. He has been declining several years, and this in a slow and gradual manner, until about a twelvemonth ago, since which the progress of his disorder has been more rapid.... His mother, he says, had precisely the same constitution with himself, and died of this very disorder; which has made him give up any hopes of his getting the better of it.... Do not however say much on this subject to any one else; as he does not like to have it spoke of, and has been very shy and slow in acquainting me fully with the state of his health.’ Burton's Hume, ii. 488. Hume's friends urged him to go to London, partly in the belief that the journey would do him good, and partly to get fresh medical advice. Black however had not thought well of the journey. On April 12, Hume wrote to John Home the dramatist:—’dr. Black (God bless him) tells me that nothing is so improper for me as leaving my own house, jolting about on the road, or lying in inconvenient inns, and that I shall die with much more tranquillity in St. David [? David's] Street than anywhere else. Besides, where can I expect spiritual assistance so consolatory? When are you to be down? Bring Smith with you.’ Caldwell Papers, i. 35. ‘He set out,’ he said ‘merely to please his friends.’ Works of John Home, i. 169. Meanwhile Adam Smith had started for Scotland, with Home. At Morpeth ‘they would have passed Hume, if they had not seen his servant, Colin, standing at the gate of an inn.’ Ib. 168. Leaving Smith to continue his journey alone, Home turned back, and accompanied his friend first to London, then to Bath, and afterwards to Edinburgh. They travelled in a post-chaise, by such easy stages that Hume took eleven days in going from Edinburgh to London. On Thursday, April 25, Home records in an interesting diary1 which he kept of the journey:—‘Left Darlington about nine o‘clock, and came to Northallerton2 . The same delightful weather. A shower fell that laid the dust, and made our journey to Boroughbridge more pleasant. Mr. Hume continues very easy, and has a tolerable appetite; tastes nothing liquid but water, and sups upon an egg. He assured me that he never possessed his faculties more perfectly; that he never was more sensible of the beauties of any classic author than he was at present, nor loved more to read. When I am not in the room with him he reads continually. The postboys can scarcely be persuaded to drive only five miles an hour, and their horses are of the same way of thinking. The other travellers, as they pass, look into the chaise, and laugh at our slow pace. This evening the post-boy from North Allerton, who had required a good deal of threatening to make him drive as slow as we desired, had no sooner taken his departure to go home than he set off at full speed. “Pour se dédommager,” said David.’ Ib. p. 171. Home says that they arrived in London on Wednesday, April 31 (sic). Wednesday was May 1. Hume describing his journey to Dr. Blair, says of Home's turning back to keep him company:—‘Never was there a more friendly action, nor better placed; for what between conversation and gaming (not to mention sometimes squabbling), I did not pass a languid moment.’ Burton's Hume, ii. 505. The ‘gaming’ was picquet. ‘Mr. David,’ writes Home, ‘was very keen about his cardplaying.’ Home's Works, i. 169.

Henry Mackenzie describes Home as ‘a man of infinite pleasantry as well as great talents, whose conversation, perhaps beyond that of any other of the set, possessed the charm of easy natural attractive humour. His playful vivacity often amused itself in a sort of mock contest with the infantile (if I may use such a phrase when speaking of such a man) simplicity of David Hume, who himself enjoyed the discovery of the joke which had before excited the laugh of his companions around him.’ Home's Works, i. 14. He was a good companion for a sick man; for Dr. Robertson used jokingly to say that ‘he invested his friends with a sort of supernatural privilege above the ordinary humiliating circumstances of mortality. “He never,” said the Doctor, “would allow that a friend was sick till he heard of his death.”’ Ib. p. 7. His kindness is shown in the following anecdote:—‘The lady John Home had married not being very remarkable for her personal attractions, David Hume, it is said, asked him “how he could ever think of such a woman?” Home, who was a man of great goodness and simplicity of character, replied, “Ah, David! if I had not, who else would have taken her?”’ Caldwell Papers, ii. 179.

[3]Note 3. ‘Newcastle, Wednesday, 24th April. Mr. Hume not quite so well in the morning—says that he had set out merely to please his friends; that he would go on to please them; that Ferguson and Andrew Stuart (about whom we had been talking) were answerable for shortening his life one week a-piece; for, says he, you will allow Xenophon to be good authority; and he lays it down, that suppose a man is dying, nobody has a right to kill him. He set out in this vein, and continued all the stage in his cheerful and talking humour.’ Home's Works, i. 169.

Sir Walter Scott, who in his fourth year had been taken to Bath for his health, and had stayed there about a year (about 1775), says:—‘My residence at Bath is marked by very pleasing recollections. The venerable John Home was then at the watering-place, and paid much attention to my aunt and to me.’ Lockhart's Scott, ed. 1839, i. 30.

[2]Note 2. Sometime in the spring of this year Dr. Black, Hume's physician, sent Adam Smith the following letter:—‘I write at present chiefly to acquaint you with the state of your friend David Hume's health, which is so bad that I am quite melancholy upon it, and as I hear that you intend a visit to this country soon, I wish, if possible, to hasten your coming, that he may have the comfort of your company so much the sooner. He has been declining several years, and this in a slow and gradual manner, until about a twelvemonth ago, since which the progress of his disorder has been more rapid.... His mother, he says, had precisely the same constitution with himself, and died of this very disorder; which has made him give up any hopes of his getting the better of it.... Do not however say much on this subject to any one else; as he does not like to have it spoke of, and has been very shy and slow in acquainting me fully with the state of his health.’ Burton's Hume, ii. 488. Hume's friends urged him to go to London, partly in the belief that the journey would do him good, and partly to get fresh medical advice. Black however had not thought well of the journey. On April 12, Hume wrote to John Home the dramatist:—’dr. Black (God bless him) tells me that nothing is so improper for me as leaving my own house, jolting about on the road, or lying in inconvenient inns, and that I shall die with much more tranquillity in St. David [? David's] Street than anywhere else. Besides, where can I expect spiritual assistance so consolatory? When are you to be down? Bring Smith with you.’ Caldwell Papers, i. 35. ‘He set out,’ he said ‘merely to please his friends.’ Works of John Home, i. 169. Meanwhile Adam Smith had started for Scotland, with Home. At Morpeth ‘they would have passed Hume, if they had not seen his servant, Colin, standing at the gate of an inn.’ Ib. 168. Leaving Smith to continue his journey alone, Home turned back, and accompanied his friend first to London, then to Bath, and afterwards to Edinburgh. They travelled in a post-chaise, by such easy stages that Hume took eleven days in going from Edinburgh to London. On Thursday, April 25, Home records in an interesting diary1 which he kept of the journey:—‘Left Darlington about nine o‘clock, and came to Northallerton2 . The same delightful weather. A shower fell that laid the dust, and made our journey to Boroughbridge more pleasant. Mr. Hume continues very easy, and has a tolerable appetite; tastes nothing liquid but water, and sups upon an egg. He assured me that he never possessed his faculties more perfectly; that he never was more sensible of the beauties of any classic author than he was at present, nor loved more to read. When I am not in the room with him he reads continually. The postboys can scarcely be persuaded to drive only five miles an hour, and their horses are of the same way of thinking. The other travellers, as they pass, look into the chaise, and laugh at our slow pace. This evening the post-boy from North Allerton, who had required a good deal of threatening to make him drive as slow as we desired, had no sooner taken his departure to go home than he set off at full speed. “Pour se dédommager,” said David.’ Ib. p. 171. Home says that they arrived in London on Wednesday, April 31 (sic). Wednesday was May 1. Hume describing his journey to Dr. Blair, says of Home's turning back to keep him company:—‘Never was there a more friendly action, nor better placed; for what between conversation and gaming (not to mention sometimes squabbling), I did not pass a languid moment.’ Burton's Hume, ii. 505. The ‘gaming’ was picquet. ‘Mr. David,’ writes Home, ‘was very keen about his cardplaying.’ Home's Works, i. 169.

Henry Mackenzie describes Home as ‘a man of infinite pleasantry as well as great talents, whose conversation, perhaps beyond that of any other of the set, possessed the charm of easy natural attractive humour. His playful vivacity often amused itself in a sort of mock contest with the infantile (if I may use such a phrase when speaking of such a man) simplicity of David Hume, who himself enjoyed the discovery of the joke which had before excited the laugh of his companions around him.’ Home's Works, i. 14. He was a good companion for a sick man; for Dr. Robertson used jokingly to say that ‘he invested his friends with a sort of supernatural privilege above the ordinary humiliating circumstances of mortality. “He never,” said the Doctor, “would allow that a friend was sick till he heard of his death.”’ Ib. p. 7. His kindness is shown in the following anecdote:—‘The lady John Home had married not being very remarkable for her personal attractions, David Hume, it is said, asked him “how he could ever think of such a woman?” Home, who was a man of great goodness and simplicity of character, replied, “Ah, David! if I had not, who else would have taken her?”’ Caldwell Papers, ii. 179.

[1]This Diary was published by Henry Mackenzie in the Appendix to his Life of Home. By a narrow edge of paper left between pages 180 and 181, it is easy to see that there has been a suppression. If the manuscript is still in existence, it would be interesting to see what the passage is that has been suppressed.

[2]Johnson had passed a night here less than three years earlier. Writing to Mrs. Thrale on Aug. 12, 1773, he said:—‘We dined at York, and went on to Northallerton, a place of which I know nothing but that it afforded us a lodging on Monday night, and about two hundred and seventy years ago gave birth to Roger Ascham.’ Piazzi Letters, i. 105.