EconlibThe LibraryOther Sites |
Front Page  Titles (by Subject) LETTER LXXXVI.: Return to Edinburgh: A dying Man's Corrections. - Letters of David Hume to William Strahan
Return to Title Page for Letters of David Hume to William StrahanThe Online Library of LibertyA project of Liberty Fund, Inc.Search this Title:Also in the Library:
LETTER LXXXVI.: Return to Edinburgh: A dying Man's Corrections. - 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).
About Liberty Fund:Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. Copyright information:The text is in the public domain. Fair use statement:This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit.
LETTER LXXXVI.Return to Edinburgh: A dying Man's Corrections.
27 of July, 1776. Dear Sir I arriv’d here about three weeks ago in a very shattered Condition: The Motion of the Chaise, especially during the last days, made me suffer very much; and my Physicians are now of Opinion (which was always my Sentiment) that all Exercise is hurtful to me. I am however in very good Spirits during the Intervals of my Colics; and employ myself in my usual Occupations. As a proof of it, I send you three Leaves of the sixth Volume of my History, which you will please to substitute, instead of the three correspondent Leaves as they stand at present. They contain some Corrections, or rather Omissions, which I think Improvements1 . You will wonder, that, in my present Situation I employ myself about such Trifles, and you may compare me to the modern Greeks, who, while Constantinople was besieged by the Turks and they themselves were threatened with total Destruction, occupyed themselves entirely in Disputes concerning the Procession of the holy Ghost2 . Such is the Effect of long Habit! I am Dear Sir Your most obedient humble ServantDavid Hume3 [1]Note 1. On leaves 89-90, 147-8, 251-4 in the edition of 1773, there are long passages which are not found in the edition of 1778. The first is about the meeting of the clergy at St. Andrews; the second, about Philip IV of Spain and the Earl of Bristol; and the third about Charles the First's message to the House of Commons as delivered by Secretary Coke. [2]Note 2. In the Council held at Ferrara and Florence in 1438, fifteen years before the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, when the Greek Church sought union with the Latin in the hope of receiving assistance against the common enemy of the faith, ‘the single or double procession of the Holy Ghost’ was one of the four questions which for nine months was agitated between the two Churches. ‘On the substance of the doctrine the controversy was equal and endless; reason is confounded by the procession of a deity; the gospel which lay on the altar was silent.... The danger and relief of Constantinople might excuse some prudent and pious dissimulation; and it was insinuated that the obstinate heretics who should resist the consent of the East and West would be abandoned in a hostile land to the revenge or justice of the Roman pontiff.... It was agreed (I must entreat the attention of the reader) that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, as from one principle and one substance, that he proceeds by the Son, being of the same nature and substance, and that he proceeds from the Father and the Son by one spiration and production. It is less difficult to understand the articles of the preliminary treaty; that the Pope should defray all the expenses of the Greeks in their return home; that he should annually maintain two gallies and three hundred soldiers for the defence of Constantinople,’ etc. Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ed. 1807, xii. 88-92. Voltaire, describing the capture of the city, says:—‘On s‘occupait toujours de controverses, et les Turcs étaient aux portes.’ Œuvres de Voltaire, xiv. 408. [3]Note 3. Strahan replied on Aug. 1:—‘This will be a very correct edition, and I will take care it shall be printed accurately and neatly; and what is very encouraging, your History sells better of late years than before; for the late edition will be gone some time before this can be finished. In short, I see clearly, your reputation is gradually rising in the public esteem.—A flattering circumstance this, even in the decline of life; and when by the unalterable course of nature, nothing will soon be left of us but a Name.—By the bye, does not this almost universal solicitude to live after we close our eyes to this present scene, mean something1 ?—I hope, I almost believe it does. Else why are we on a variety of occasions, so much interested in what is to pass after our deaths? And do we not, in most of our labours, regard posterity, and look forward to times long posterior to our existence here? You yourself are a living evidence of the truth of what I am now saying. [3]Note 3. Strahan replied on Aug. 1:—‘This will be a very correct edition, and I will take care it shall be printed accurately and neatly; and what is very encouraging, your History sells better of late years than before; for the late edition will be gone some time before this can be finished. In short, I see clearly, your reputation is gradually rising in the public esteem.—A flattering circumstance this, even in the decline of life; and when by the unalterable course of nature, nothing will soon be left of us but a Name.—By the bye, does not this almost universal solicitude to live after we close our eyes to this present scene, mean something1 ?—I hope, I almost believe it does. Else why are we on a variety of occasions, so much interested in what is to pass after our deaths? And do we not, in most of our labours, regard posterity, and look forward to times long posterior to our existence here? You yourself are a living evidence of the truth of what I am now saying.
Addison's Cato, v. I. Gibbon in his Autobiography, speaking of an author's regard for ‘the fair testimonies of private and public esteem,’ says:—‘Even his moral sympathy may be gratified by the idea that one day his mind will be familiar to the grandchildren of those who are yet unborn.’ Gibbon's Misc. Works, i. 273. |
