CHAPTER LX. LITERATURE AND ART. LX. TURE AND ART. CIIAP. IT seems no unfair pretension that some place in History, however humble, should be allotted to LITERA Historians. Those who have successfully chronicled great deeds, ought not themselves to be left unchronicled. On this supposition the Literature of the period now before us may deserve especial notice, since, so far as historical writers are concerned, it was in truth our Golden Era. Besides several of less distinction, as Dr. Watson and Lord Lyttleton, it comprised the three eminent names of Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon. Of these three it is remarkable that two were natives of Mid-Lothian. David Hume was born at Edinburgh in 1711. He first attracted public favour such was then the temper of the timesby a volume of sceptical Essays. These, if they did not induce, at least did not prevent, the choice which the Faculty of Advocates made of him for their Librarian. In that office he received little or no emolument, but had at his command a large LX. ART. and excellent collection of books, which suggested CHAP. to him the design of writing the History of England. He commenced with the accession of the LITERAHouse of Stuart; and in 1754 published his first TURE AND volume, continuing the narrative to the death of Charles the First. His volume was in quarto; which, till within these forty years, was the more common form of publication, both for Histories and Poems. At present a smaller size is so universally preferred, that, as a popular writer of our own day remarks, the remains of a quarto, if discovered in a future age, may create no less astonishment than the remains of a Mammoth! In his expectations of success, Hume at first was greatly disappointed. His tendency to palliate the errors of the Stuarts, or to lament their fate, raised a general cry of reproach against him. That might be borne, but it was far more mortifying to observe that after the first ebullitions of anger, the volume seemed to sink into oblivion. The publisher, Mr. Miller, told him that in a twelvemonth he had sold only forty-five copies of it. "I scarcely indeed," says Hume, "heard of one man in the three king"doms considerable for rank or letters that could "endure the book. I must only except the Pri"mate of England, Dr. Herring, and the Primate of "Ireland, Dr. Stone, which seem two odd excep"tions. These dignified prelates separately sent "me a message not to be discouraged."* "My own Life," p. xi. CHAP. LITERA TURE AND ᎪᎡᎢ . Two more years enabled Hume to come forth with a second volume, and bring down his narrative to the Revolution. This volume was better received, and as he declares, not only rose itself, but served to buoy up its unfortunate brother. It served also to give fresh spirit and a wider scope to his labours. In 1759 he published his History of the House of Tudor. Next he applied himself to finish in two volumes the remaining first part of English History, which he gave to the public in 1761. Thus in Hume's narrative the earlier portions were the last composed. To go backwards is scarce less difficult in writing than in walking; and it is no small proof of his merit and ability as an historian, to have overcome that difficulty of his composition, and left it hardly perceptible to a common reader. The volumes of 1761 were the last from Hume. In 1763 he was appointed Secretary to the Earl of Hertford, as ambassador at Paris, and in 1767 became Under-Secretary of State to General Conway. But in 1769 he finally retired to his native city, where, during his seven remaining years of life, he enjoyed in uninterrupted ease the fame and affluence which his works had brought him. William Robertson was born at Borthwick near Edinburgh, in 1721, and became a Divine of the Scottish Church. In February 1759 he published his History of Scotland, comprising mainly the events of Queen Mary's reign. The best judges promptly acknowledged the great merits of that performance. 66 Thus writes Lord Chesterfield: CHA P. LX. TURE AND ART. "There is an History lately come out, written by "one Robertson, a Scotchman, which for clearness, LITERApurity and dignity of style, I will not scruple to 66 compare with the best historians extant, not ex"cepting Davila, Guicciardini, and perhaps Livy. "A second edition is already published and bought up." The literary fame of Robertson obtained for him several marks of the Royal favour; and in 1762 he was chosen Principal of the University of Edinburgh. Thenceforth his life, almost destitute of incident, pursued the even tenor of its way. His History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, in the form of three quarto volumes, appeared in 1769. Two volumes on the History of America followed in 1777. The latter work had been designed as a mere appendage of the former; to contain only the discoveries or the conquests of the Spaniards at the time of Charles the Fifth. By degrees the plan of Robertson was extended to the whole of the New World. But he was led to contract it again in some degree by the outbreak of the war between Great Britain and her colonies, a period which justly seemed to him ill-adapted for the calm investigation of their rise and progress. A South-Sea Director was the grandfather, and a country gentleman the father, of Edward Gibbon. * Letter to his son, April 16. 1759. LITERA ART. 66 CHAP. He was born at Putney in the year 1737. An LX. early impulse led him to the Church of Rome, which on more mature reflection he abandoned. TURE AND Like Hume, he has left behind him some interesting Memoirs of his own career, and in these we may trace, how (also in conformity with Hume's example) he settled at last in utter disbelief of every form of Christianity. We find him quote with approbation the sardonic remark of Bayle: "I am most truly a Protestant, for I protest indifferently against all systems and all sects."* From Magdalen College, which was closed against the Romanist convert, he was sent by his father to Lausanne, where he passed some studious and not unhappy years. He returned to England in the spring of 1758, and six years afterwards travelled through Italy, but amidst all change of scene retained his taste for reading. After several lesser attempts in literature, and more than one abortive scheme, he applied himself in earnest to his great work, the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. But his studies at his house in Bentinck Street (and here again he stands in parallel with Hume) were broken through by a call to public life. "Yester 66 day morning," thus in 1774 he writes to Mr. Holroyd, "about half an hour after seven, as I was destroying an army of Barbarians, I heard "a double rap at the door, and my friend Mr. Eliot was soon introduced. After some idle conversa * Memoirs, p. 70. ed. 1814, |