Publications. -In 1737 he published his Treatise of Human Nature; in 1741, his Essays, Moral and Political; in 1748, his Philosophical Essays on the Understanding; in 1751, An Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals; in 1752, Political Discourses; in 1755, Natural History of Religion. The History of England was published in the interval between 1754 and 1762.

As a writer alone, no one, perhaps, in England, has been made the object of more. violent attack than Hume. Each of his writings has been alternately extolled and denounced. Inasmuch as they cover such debatable ground, and discuss their subjects with the utmost freedom of opinion, it is only natural that they should find favor with no party in particular.

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Merits as a Historian. - With regard to Hume's merit as a historian, it is not easy to arrive at any very decided opinion. His history has ever been, and will continue to be, until superseded by a better, the most readable general work on the English past. In one respect, at least, its merits are unquestionable the pureness and grace of his style. Gibbon declares that he always closed one of Hume's volumes "with a mixed sensation of delight and despair." As an investigator into the facts and truths of history, on the other hand, Hume is undoubtedly weak and untrustworthy not merely because he wrote his work from the point of view of one political party (the Tory), or that he is guilty of many inaccuracies; but because, as is evident from the time spent in its composition, and from outside evidence as to Hume's mode of study and composition, the writer was superficial and careless. In this respect, Hume differs widely from his contemporary Gibbon, whose work was the result of protracted years of the most exhaustive study. Besides, the official publication, in the present century, of old records and state papers has thrown upon the world an immense mass of hitherto buried knowledge, which the English historian who would be true to his mission must carefully digest and assimilate, at the expense, perhaps, of a radical change of his views on many a fundamental point. For instance, Queen Elizabeth, as revealed in the light of contemporaneous documents, is anything but the "Good Queen Bess" of popular tradition.

Influence of his Philosophical Opinions. - Hume's influence as a writer on morals and philosophy is even greater, perhaps, than that as a historian. His position, as before remarked, is that of a thorough-going infidel. His "Essay on Miracles," the most celebrated of all, is still, in one form or another, the battle-ground between believer and unbeliever. By reason of the vigor and grace of its style, it has always been the most formidable engine of attack upon Christianity. Hume was not merely a metaphysical thinker, however. His politico-economical essays are masterpieces of clear thinking applied to practical subjects. They have been highly praised by subsequent leaders in the science, and may be considered as the forerunner, and in methodical arrangement the superior, of Adam Smith's celebrated dissertation.

Gibbon.

Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794, by his great work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, created for himself. a permanent place in literature.

Career. - Gibbon belonged to an ancient family in Kent. He studied first at the Westminster school, and then at Oxford, but his health was delicate, and his progress in knowledge was but little; and he left the University after a residence of fourteen months. Falling in with the writings of Bossuet and Parsons, he was convinced of the unsoundness of Protestantism and became a Catholic. Partly for the benefit of his health, and partly to separate him from certain unfavorable influences, his father placed him under the care of a Protestant minister at Lausanne, in Switzerland. After residing here for eighteen months, Gibbon abjured his new faith, and was received again into the communion of the Protestant Church. He continued to reside at Lausanne for several years, pursuing his studies.

Love Affair. -Gibbon formed an attachment for a beautiful and accomplished lady of Lausanne, Susan Curchod; and the devotion of the young Englishman was understood to be acceptable to the lady. But his father interposed, and the matter was dropped. The lady afterwards became the wife of the celebrated Necker, and the mother of the equally celebrated Madame de Staël. Gibbon says that the wound was insensibly healed by time, but he never married. "Since the failure of my first wishes, I have never entertained any serious thoughts of a matrimonial connection."

Literary Ambition. — On returning to England, in 1758, after an absence of five years, Gibbon was dazzled and stimulated by the literary fame of Addison, Swift, Hume, Robertson, and others, and he formed the purpose of emulating in some way their illustrious example. He made several attempts at authorship, with only indifferent

success.

First Inception of his Great Work. - It was about six years later, in 1764, in his twenty-eighth year, while on a visit to the Eternal city, that the idea of his great work first flashed upon him. "It was at Rome, on the 15th of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind."

Publication. The first volume of The Decline and Fall came out in 1776. Its success was immediate and great. "I am at a loss to describe the success of the work, without betraying the vanity of the writer. The first impressions were exhausted in a few days; a second and third edition were scarcely adequate to the demand; and the bookseller's property was twice invaded by the pirates of Dublin. My book was upon every table, and almost on every toilette; the historian was

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crowned by the taste or fashion of the day." The second and third volumes appeared in 1781, after an interval of five years. The author then carried into effect a plan which he had long contemplated, and returned to Lausanne for his permanent residence. There, in cheerful scclusion, he wrote the remaining volumes of his history, and he thus commemorates the conclusion of his labors:

"It was on the day, or rather night, of the 27th of June, 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page in a summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent. I will no: dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps, the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind, by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that, whatsoever might be the future fate of my history, the life of the historian must be short and precarious. I will add two facts, which have seldom occurred in the composition of six, or even five quartos. 1. My first rough manuscript, without any intermediate copy, has been sent to the press. 2. Not a sheet has been seen by any human eyes excepting those of the author and the printer; the faults and the merits are exclusively my own." — Autobiography.

Gibbon proceeded at once to England with his manuscripts and superintended the printing. The final publication took place on the anniversary of his fifty-first birthday. His profit on the sale of his work was £6000, that of his publisher was £60,000.

In 1788 Gibbon returned to his seclusion at Lausanne, with the intention of ending his days there. But the commotion of the French Revolution produced a feeling of insecurity, and in 1793 he reluctantly bade the place a final adieu, and went back to England.

Character of the Work. - The Decline and Fall is universally ac knowledged to be one of the greatest masterpieces of historical composition, having the artistic finish of the classic models and the exhaustive learning and research of modern history. It is subject, however, to one great blot. The author's prejudices against Christianity warped his judgment whenever that subject was introduced.

"Christianity alone receives no embellishment from the magic of Gibbon's language; his imagination is dead to its moral dignity; it is kept down by a general tone of jealous disparagement, or neutralized by a painfully elaborate exposition of its darker and degenerate periods. There are occasions, indeed, when its pure and exalted humanity, when its manifestly beneficial influence, can compel even him, as it were, to fairness, and kindle his unguarded eloquence to its usual fervor; but in general he soon relapses into a frigid apathy; affects an ostentatiously severe impartiality; notes all the faults of Christians in every age with bitter and almost malignant sarcasm; reluctantly, and with exception and reservation, admits their claim to admiration — the glories of Christianity, in short, touch no chord in the heart of the writer; his

imagination remains unkindled; his words, though they maintain their stately and measured march, have become cool, argumentative, and inanimate.” — Milman.

In the mere matter of style, Gibbon is obviously open to the criticism of being wanting in simplicity. If not too ornate and elaborate, the ornament and elaboration are at least too apparent.

"He will not condescend to be plain; he forgets that the very business of the historian is to relate the history of events as they happened. He must always shine; but, laboring for effect, he wholly omits the obvious consideration that relief is absolutely necessary to produce it; and forgets that a strong, unbroken light may dazzle without pleasing, or may shine rather than illuminate, and that a broad glare may be as confused and uninteresting as darkness itself. The main fault of his style is the perpetual effort which it discloses. Hume may have concealed his art better than Robertson, yet the latter is ever at his entire ease, while Gibbon is ever in the attitudes of the Academy: he is almost agonistic. He can tell you nothing in plain terms, unadorned with figure, unseasoned with epigram and point." Brougham.

Gibbon wrote some other works besides The Decline and Fall, but the only one of them of any note was his Autobiography, written to amuse his leisure hours after his great work was off his hands and he had become famous. It is considered one of the happiest efforts in that line of composition.

"It is perhaps the best specimen of autobiography in the English language. Descending from the lofty level of his history, and relaxing the stately march which he maintains throughout that work, into a more natural and easy pace, this enchanting writer, with an ease, a spirit, and a vigor peculiar to himself, conducts his readers through a sickly childhood, a neglected and desultory education, and a youth wasted in the unpromising and unscholarlike occupation of a militia officer, to the period when he resolutely applied the energies of his genius to a severe course of voluntary study, which, in the space of a few years, rendered him a consummate master of Roman antiquity, and lastly produced the history of the decline and fall of the mighty empire."- London Quarterly Review.

Robertson.

William Robertson, 1721-1793, is another of the great historians of this period,- Hume, Gibbon, and Robertson constituting an illustrious trio, whose names always go together, although both their works and they themselves are quite unlike.

Robertson's chief works were A History of Scotland, A History of America, and A History of Charles V.

Career.-Robertson, a native of Scotland, the son of a Scotch minister of straightened means, studied at the University of Edinburgh, and entered the ministry, where he soon distinguished himself by his pulpit eloquence. Soon after the appearance of his History of Scotland, he

was chosen one of the Chaplains-in-ordinary to the King, and made Principal of the University of Edinburgh in 1763, which position he retained until his death. In 1764 Robertson was appointed his Majesty's Historiographer for Scotland.

Works.-Of Robertson's merits as a preacher we have but little means of judging, as he published but one sermon, and that on a historical subject, The Situation of the World at Christ's Appearance. This short but able monograph still possesses decided value. In 1758 appeared his first great work, A History of Scotland under Queen Mary and James VI. (I. of England). It established immediately the author's reputation as a historian. The History of Charles V. appeared in 1769, and the History of America in 1777. Robertson's last work, An Historical Disquisition Concerning the Knowledge which the Ancients had of India, based upon Major Rennell's Memoirs of a Map of Hindostan, has lost somewhat of its importance through the progress of discovery in the present century.

Merits as a Historian.-There has been some conflict of opinion as to Robertson's merits as a historian. His works were welcomed with almost unmixed applause. Scarcely was there a dissenting voice to be heard. Subsequent critics, however, have not been so unqualified in their praise; and some, indeed, have been severe in their strictures. In fact, the only historians of the eighteenth century that seem likely to hold their own are Hume and Gibbon, the former, probably, because he has no competitor on exactly the same ground. The modern school exacts of historians certain fundamental qualities, without which no one can be accepted; and these qualities are zeal and judgment in the quest of original authorities, and fidelity and impar tiality of statement. The absence of these qualities cannot be compensated for by any graces of style or depth of philosophy. Judged by such a test, then, Robertson must be pronounced wanting. Like Hume, he failed to consult state papers, which were, or might readily have been, placed within his reach. Of his three great works, the History of America is the one that has been most severely criticized. Robertson has been blamed for his unwarranted partiality towards the Spanish conquerors. Even Lord Brougham admits that this is a great stain upon the work. Robertson's best work is his History of Scotland. His style is here fresh and vigorous, and his familiarity with this subject much greater than with the others which he undertook.

His Style.-Robertson's style was extremely admired in his day. At present we should say that it is too rhetorical; that it has too much of what Lamb called the three-membered period; i. e., a period balanced in three phrases, and each phrase consisting of three predicates. With all his shortcomings, however, Robertson (and the same applies to his contemporaries, Hume and Voltaire,) marked a new era in the writing of history. It was evident that henceforth the historian was not to be confounded with the garrulous or the dry chronicler, but that he was expected to display philosophic culture. He was not to content himself with the bare description of events, but to show the causal relations existing among them. The historian was to show himself capable of seizing the spirit of an age or a reign, and representing it in its essential features. The historians of the eighteenth century, and Robertson prominent among them, did good service-not so much by the results which they attained, as by the novel spirit and aim which they gave to the study.