ticular to me when I was introduced to him; | Burton quotes a sentence from a French and (can you imagine it ?) I was become so journal which tells of her in a year or two silly as to be a little mortified by it, till they told after, when she was living with the Presime that he never says any thing to any body dent Mesnieres, in a relation which, the first time he sees them. The Dauphin, as I am told from all hands, declares himself on though not that of marriage, seems to have every occasion very strongly in my favor; and been recognized as one not utterly hummany people assure me that I have reason to bling. The president's taste is, however, be proud of his judgment, even were he an in- called in question for his choice as "Cette dividual. I have scarce seen any of the gen- dame est peu jeune; elle est laide, seche iuses of Paris, who, I think, have in general et d'un esprit triste et mélancolique.' great merit, as men of letters. But every body is forward to tell me the high panegyrics I receive from them; and you may believe that approbation which has procured me all these civilities from the courtiers. "I know you are ready to ask me, my dear friend, if all this does not make me very happy. No, I feel little or no difference. As this is the first letter I write to my friends at home, I have amused myself (and I hope I have amused you) by giving you a very abridged account of these transactions. But can I ever forget that it is the very same species that would scarce show me common civilities a few years ago at Edinburgh, who now receive me with such applauses at Paris."

Hume's income was considerably increased by a pension procured for him by the interest of Lord Hertford; and the hope of becoming secretary to the embassy added to his comforts, as it gave the near expectation of a thousand a year additional, and

"Do you ask me," adds Hume, in the letter which mentions Madame Belot, "about my course of life? I can only say, that I eat nothing but ambrosia, drink nothing but nectar, breathe nothing but incense, and tread on nothing but flowers! Every man I meet, and, still more, every lady, would think they were wanting in the most indispensable duty, if they did not make a long and elaborate harangue in my praise. What happened last week, when I had the honor of being presented to the D-n's children, at Versailles, is one of the most curious scenes I have ever yet passed through. The Duc de Berry, the eldest, a boy of ten years old, stepped forth, and told me how many friends and admirers I had in this country, and that he reckoned himself in the number, from the pleasure he had received from the reading of many passages in my works. When he had finished, his brother, the Count de P. [Provence, afterwards Louis XVIII.,] who is two years younger, began his discourse, and informed me that I "Puts me," he says to Ferguson, "on the had been long and impatiently expected in France; and that he himself expected soon road to all the great foreign enjoyments. Yet I am sensible that I set out too late, and that I to have great satisfaction from the reading of my fine history. But what is more curious; am misplaced; and I wish, twice or thrice a when I was carried thence to the Count D'A. day, for my easy chair and my retreat in [D'Artois, afterwards Charles X.,] who is but James's Court. Never think, dear Ferguson, four years of age, I heard him mumble somethat as long as you are master of your own thing which, though he had forgot in the fireside and your own time, you can be unhappy, or that any other circumstance can make way, I conjectured, from some scattered words, to have been also a panegyric dictated to an addition to your enjoyment." him. Nothing could more surprise my friends, know nothing that is necessary to happiness the Parisian philosophers, than this incident. but cordiality, and the talent of finding diversion in all places. I remember, some where, a man's being told that he was too nice, because he could not dine on a ragout, and must have cold mutton."

"I

It is conjectured that this honor was paid me by express orders from the D., who, indeed, is not on any occasion sparing in my praise.

"All this attention and panegyric was at first oppressive to me; but now it sits more easy. I have recovered, in some measure, the use of the language, and am falling into friendships which are very agreeable; much more so than silly, distant admiration. They now begin to banter me, and tell droll stories of me, which they have either observed themselves, or have heard from others; so that you see I am beginning to be at home."

It is not surprising that Hume loved Paris. In a letter to Blair he tells of a masquerade to which he went with Lord Hertford:

Madame de Bocage did what she could to rival Madame Geoffrin, but failed; she was rich-she was beautiful, or was said to be so-her rank was unimpeachable, but she had one fault, and that was fatal-she wrote poetry; the Columbiade and the Amazones are, or were, epics, and the guests who appeared at her parties feared to be examined in them, and had not courage to submit to the test.

"We went both unmasked; and we had mystère que les femmes galantes de ce scarce entered the room when a lady, in mask, temps-là avaient des petites maisons." came up to me and exclaimed:- Ha! Monsieur Hume, vous faites bien de venir ici a visage découvert. Que vous serez bien comblé ce soir d'honnêtetés et de politesses! Vous verrez, par des preuves pen équivoques, jusqu'à quel point vous êtes chêri en France. This prologue was not a little encouraging; but, as we advanced through the hall, it is difficult to imagine the caresses, civilities, and panegyrics which poured on me from all sides. You would have thought that every one had taken advantage of his mask to speak his mind with impunity. I could observe that the ladies were rather the most liberal on this occasion. But what gave me chief pleasure was to find that most of the eulogiums bestowed on me, turned on personal character, my naivéte, and simplicity of manners, the candor and mildness of my disposition, &c.-Non sunt mihi cornea fibra. I shall not deny that my heart felt a sensible satisfaction from this general effusion of good will; and Lord Hertford was much pleased, and even surprised, though he said, he thought that he had known before upon what footing I had stood with the good company of Paris."

There is an amusing chapter in Mr. Burton's book on the society of Paris, at the time of Hume's visit, but no attempt to describe that society has been perfectly successful. It can only approach to be felt after continued study of the thousand memoirs of the day. The books from which we can learn most of it, and all we can learn is very imperfect, are, Grimm, Marmontel, and Madame du Deffand, and, in her way, Madame de Genlis. The mystery of fashion is impenetrable. Madame du Geoffrin, the star described as of most splendor in the Parisian heaven, had no claim of rank; she was the daughter of a valet de chambre, and the widow of a manufacturer; she brought round her artists, and authors, and celebrities of all kinds; D'Alembert, Helvetius, Marmontel, and Raynal were sure to be met with her on her public days, and Rousseau, when at rare intervals he ventured from his solitude. Her manners were natural and goodnatured; she believed, and acted on the belief, that if it were not for the rich, the poor could not live at all; and she patronized all manner of artists and artisans. At her parties, politics were carefully and even anxiously excluded. In spite of her patronage of the philosophers, she was suspected by them of some concealed religion-" Elle avait un apartement dans un couvent de religieuses et une tribune a l'Eglise des Capucins-mais avec autant de

Madame du Deffand declared war against Hume from the first. He went to Madame De Boufflers' parties, and she was jealous, as this was treason to her. There is a letter of her's to Walpole, from which a sentence is worth transcribing; it is lively, and will give some notion of the heartlessness, as well as the wit of these strange people.

"Vous me faites un grand plaisir de m' apprendre que David Hume, va en Ecosse; je suis bien aise que vous ne soyez plus á portee de le voir, et moi ravie de l'assurance de ne le revoir jamais. Vous me demanderez ce qu'il m'a fait? Il m'a deplu. Haissant les idoles je déteste leurs prêtres et leurs adorateurs. Pour d'idoles, vous n'en verrez pas chez moi; vous y pourrez voir quelquefois de leurs adorateurs, mais qui sont plus hypocrites que devots; leur culte est exterieur; les pratiques, les cérémonies de cette religion sont des soupers, des musiques, des operas, des comedies, &c."

With Madame du Deffand's circle Hume's relations became those of active hostility-the hostility being all on the lady's side-in consequence of her quarrel with Mademoiselle De L'Espinasse. Mademoiselle was young, and was a sort of companion, it would seem, to Madame, who was blind, and read with her young friend's eyes. The young friend soon discovered she had a soul of her own, and Madame du Deffand's guests came an hour earlier than the time fixed for her parties, to enjoy the society of Mademoiselle, who was exceedingly lively; a good deal pockmarked, however; and whose charms were most successful in the twilight. At six o'clock in the evening, madame entered her apartments one day, and found that mademoiselle had been all the time engaged in conversation, high and deep, with D'Alembert and others of the philosophersthis was treason, and Mademoiselle was banished.

Her exile was a triumph. Mademoiselle set up for herself-won philosophers, and

interest was solicited in the disposal of church patronage. He is requested by Madame Helvetius, to procure an abbaye for her friend M. Macdonalt," of an illustrious Irish family;" and is told by another lady, making a similar request, that the clergy will feel more pleasure in obliging him, than in performing the duties of their office. Lord Charlemont again met Hume on this visit to Paris-and again gives us an account of him. The passage is well worth looking at by those who have an opportunity, in Hardy's "Life of Lord Charlemont." Its substance is, we believe, given by Mr. Burton, but broken into such fractions, as best fit it with the respective parts of his work. Its effect is in this way lessened-Lord

artists, and poets, as many as she could, away from their allegiance to that elder throne. Her friends supplied her with a house and appurtenances of all kinds, and a pension from the king was obtained for her. D'Alembert visited her-the blind old lady soon learned the astounding fact, and the philosopher had to choose between madame and mademoiselle. He paid the compliment to youth, if not to beauty, and he had his reward. Not long after his secession, he became dangerously ill, and mademoiselle nursed him. D'Alembert was removed to her house, and whatever was her love for the philosopher, her peace of mind was disturbed by the jealousies of some for whom she was supposed to entertain feelings of a warmer nature. She Charlemont's narrative was written a condied early; and vexation occasioned by his siderable time after this meeting with Hume connexion with her, broke the spirit and in Paris; and he speaks also of intercourse probably hastened the death of D'Alem- with him in London. On the whole, his bert. With D'Alembert and with Turgot, recollections are favorable to Hume. Hume Hume had relations of more intimate was, it would appear, in the habit of showfriendship than with any others of the dis- ing him his essays, as he was preparing tinguished natives of France, in whose them for the press, and was asked by Lord company he then lived. D'Alembert is Charlemont whether he did not think the mentioned with kindliness in his will. We have mentioned that Hume's opin-ligio nwould not diminish the happiness of ions on the mechanism of the human mind, mankind, and whether he did not think the and of the evidence of our individual con- curb of religion a necessary restraint. sciousness being insufficient to prove the Hume's answer was- "The objections are actual existence of an external world-did not without weight, but error can never not affect his habitual belief or conduct. produce good, and truth ought to take place He was in every thing favorably distinguish- of all considerations." ed from the philosophical society, among

diffusion of his views on the subject of re

whom he found himself in Paris. Romilly "One day," says Charlemont, "that he vishas preserved a conversation of Diderot's, ited me in London, he came into my room who said to him-" Je vous dirai un trait laughing. What has put you into this good de Hume, mais il vous sera un peu scanda-humor, Hume? Why, man, I have just heard the best thing said to me I ever heard. leux peut etre car vous Anglais vous croyez I was complaining that I had written many un peu en Dieu; pour nous autres nous n'y volumes throughout which there were but few croyons gueres. Hume dina avec une pages that contained any reprehensible matgrande compagnie chez le Baron d'Hol-ter, and yet, for those few pages, I was abused bach. Il etait assis a coté du Baron; on and torn to pieces. You put me in mind,' parla de la religion naturelle. Pour les said an honest fellow in the company, whose Athées, disait Hume, je ne crois pas qu'il having been condemned to be hanged for name I do not know, 'of a notary public, who, en existe; je n'en ai jamais vu. Vous avez forgery, lamented the hardship of his case, été un peu malheureux repondit l'autre, that having written many thousand inoffensive vous voici á table avec dix-sept pour la pre-sheets, he should be hanged for one line."" miere fois."

Lord Charlemont accounts for Hume's

Mr. Burton gives us one or two of the letters of invitation to Hume, to French reception in Paris, by the fact, that freeparties-one is amusing:-" M. L'Abbe thinking and English frocks were then the Georgel fait un million de compliments à fashion, and the Anglomanie was the ton du M. Hume. He makes great account of pais. Lord Holland, though less in fashion his works-admires her wit, and loves her than Hume, had his share of admiration. He used to doze after dinner, and at a great person." We fancy it would take some time to persuade Monsieur L'Abbé, that entertainment fell asleep. this was not very good English. Hume's

"Le voilà!' says a marquis, 'Le voilà, qui

Eh

pense!' 'No lady's toilet was complete with- fjamais autre chose à leur dire que: out Hume's attendance. At the opera his bien! mes demoiselles...Eh bien! vous voilà broad unmeaning face was usually seen entre donc... Eh bien! vous voilà...vous voilà ici?' deus jolis minois. The ladies in France give Cette phrase dura un quart d'heure, sans qu'il the ton, and the ton was deism; a species of pût en sortir, une d'elles se leva d' impatience: philosophy ill suited to the softer sex, in whose Ah! dit elle, je m'en étois bien doutée, cet delicate frame weakness is interesting, and ti-homme n'est bon qu'à manger du veau! Demidity a charm. But the women in France puis ce temps il est relégué au rôle de spectawere deists, as with us they were charioteers. teur, et n'en est pas moins fêté et cajolé. C'est The tenets of the new philosophy were à en vérité une chose plaisante que le rôle qu'il portée de tout le monde, and the perusal of a joue ici; malheureusement pour lui ou plutôt wanton novel, such, for example, as Therese pour la dignité philosophique, car, pour lui, il Philosophe, was amply sufficient to render any paroît s'accommoder fort de ce train de vie ; îl fine gentleman or any fine lady, an accomplish- n'y avoit aucune manie dominante dans ce ed, nay, a learned deist. How my friend Hume pays lorsqu'il y est arrivé; on l'a regardé was able to endure the encounter of these comme une trouvaille dans cette circonstance, French female Titans I know not. In England, et l'effervescence de nos jeunes têtes s'est either his philosophic pride, or his conviction tourné de son côté. Toutes les jolies femmes that infidelity was ill-suited to women, made s'en sont emparées; il est de tous les soupers him perfectly averse from the initiation of la-fins, et il n'est point de bonne fête sans lui." dies into the mysteries of his doctrine. I never Memoires et Correspondance de Madame saw him so much displeased, or so much dis- D'Epinay, Vol. iii. p. 284." concerted, as by the petulance of Mrs. Mallet,

the conceited wife of Bolingbroke's editor. Hume's popularity was such as to have This lady, who was not acquainted with Hume, provoked Walpole into more than his usual meeting him one night at an assembly, bold-waspishness. In one letter he describes ly accosted him in these words: Mr. Hume, him as treated "with public veneration." give me leave to introduce myself to you; we In another, he speaks of the tone of condeists ought to know each other.' 'Madame,' replied he, I am no deist. I do not style myself so, neither do I desire to be known by that appellation."-Hardy's Life of Charlemont. Vol I. p. 235.

versation in Paris, as "solemn, pedantic, and seldom animated but by a dispute. Mr. Hume, who very gratefully admires the tone of Paris, having never known any other tone, said, with great surprise-'Why,

Grimm's account is more lively; but the what do you like, if you hate both disputes statement is in substance the same:

Ce qu'il y a encore de plaisant, c'est que toutes les jolies femmes se le sont arraché, et que le gros philosophe Ecossais s'est plu dans leur société. C'est un excellent homme, que David Hume; il est naturellement serein, il entend finement, il dit quelquefois avac sel, quoiqu'il parle peu; mais il est lourd, il n'a ni chaleur, ni grâce, ni agrément dans l'esprit, ni rien qui soit propre à s'allier au ramage de ces charmantes petites machines qu'on appelle jolies femmes. O que nous sommes un drôle de peuple!"

he says

and whist?'" To another correspondent, that "laughing is out of fashion at Paris. They have no time to laugh.— There is God and the king to be pulled down first, and men and women, one and all, are devoutly employed in demolition. . . Mr. Hume is the only thing in the world which they believe implicitly, which they must do, for I defy them to understand any language that he speaks."

This was in 1765.-In the next year marvellous was the change in Horace's tone. Rousseau, the vainest and the madMadame D'Epinay is still more amus-dest of men, every now and then appeared ing:

in the salons of Paris, in his Armenian "Le célèbre David Hume, grand et gros was in that early stage of insanity in which dress, complaining of kings and people. He historiographe d'Angleterre, connu et estimé the sufferer, viewing every thing around par ses écrits, n'a pas autant de talens pour ce genre d'amusemens auquel toutes nos jolies him in reference, to himself alone, weaves femmes l'avoient décidé propre. Il fit son dé- all into evidence of conspiracy. The but chez Madame de T--; on lui avoit des- case is so common that we believe it is one tiné le rôle d'un Sultan assis entre deux es-of the most ordinary incidents of insanity; claves, employant toute son éloquence pour s'en faire aimer; les trouvant inexorables, il devoit chercher le sujet de leurs peines, et de leur résistance: on le place sur un sopha entre les deux plus jolies femmes de Paris, il les regarde attentivement, il se frappe le ventre et les genoux à plusieurs reprises, et ne trouve

in fact a regular stage in the disease. This small wit was directed against the savage was the hour for Walpole, and a play of philosopher. A letter with the name of the King of Prussia, inviting the persecuted Jean Jacques to his court, to live as a bro

V

cordingly went with him in a travelling frock, where I saw a very fine lady reclining on a sofa, who made me speeches and compliments without bounds. The style of panegyric was then taken up by a fat gentleman, whom I cast my eyes upon, and observed him to wear a star of the richest diamonds;-it was the Duke of Orleans. The Duchess told me she was engaged to sup in President Henault's, but that

ther, was written by Walpole-was shown to Helvetius and the Duke of Nivernois. The French was doctored and cured, and the letter forwarded to Rousseau. That Rousseau should have believed a lie, seems a poor reason for France regarding the utterer of the falsehood with admiration.* But so it was, the copies of Walpole's letter in Frederick's name spread like wild-she would not part with me-I must go along fire, et me voici a la mode. I was sent for about like an African prince, or a learned canary bird."+

In a letter of Hume's (1765), are sentences we wish to transcribe :

"There is a very remarkable difference between London and Paris (of which I gave warning to Helvetius, when he went over lately to England, and of which he told me, on his return, he was fully sensible). If a man have the misfortune, in the former place, to attach himself to letters, even if he succeeds, I know not with whom he is to live, nor how he is to pass his time in a suitable society. The little company there that is worth conversing with, are cold and unsociable; or are warmed only by faction and cabal; so that a man who plays no part in public affairs becomes altogether insignificant; and, if he is not rich, he becomes even contemptible. Hence that nation are relapsing fast into the deepest stupidity and ignorance. But, in Paris, a man that distinguishes himself in letters, meets immediately with regard and attention. I found, immediately on my landing here, the effects of this disposition. Lord Beauchamp told me that I must go instantly with him to the Duchess de la Valliere's. When I excused myself on account of dress, he told me that he had her orders, though I were in boots. I ac

*We may as well print the letter:

with her. The good president received me with open arms; and told me, among other fine things, that, a few days before, the dauphin said to him, &c. &c. &c. Such instances of attention I found very frequent, and even daily."

Hume, soon after, was made secretary to the embassy. His appointments were £1,200 a-year, and £300 for his equipage, and three hundred ounces of plate for his table.-[Letter to his brother, 14th July, 1765.] On Lord Hertford's appointment as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Hume was thought of as secretary. The arrangement was understood to be fixed;—and among the manuscripts preserved among Baron Hume's papers are applications to David for church preferment. Mr. Burton quotes one from a general officer, supplicating a chaplaincy for a friend :

"The divine in question has a very good living, but in a quarter of the world where he has not a creature to converse with. If his excellency would enrol him among that million of the tribe of Levi that attend at the Castle of Dublin, who are called his chaplains, it would excuse his attendance at quarters, and his general (I mean his bishop) would be under the necessity of permitting him to be absent whilst he had the honor to be about the commander-in-chief at head quarters."

"MON CHER JEAN JACQUES, "Vous avez renoncé à Geneve, votre patrie. Vous vous etes fait chasser de la Suisse, pays tant vanté dans vos écrits; la France vous a décréte; Lord Hertford found the prejudice against venez donc chez moi. J'admire vos talens; je his bringing over a Scotchman too strong. m'amuse de vos rêveries qui (soit dit en passant) He obtained for Hume a pension of £400 yous occupent trop et trop longtemps. Il faut à la fin être sage et heureux ; vous avez fait assez par-a-year. "There was," says Hume, in a ler de vous, par des singularités peu convenables letter to his brother, "a kind of fray in à un véritable grand homme; démontrez à vos London on Lord Hertford's declaring his enemis que vous pouves avoir quelquefois le sens intentions in my favor. The princess Amelia said that she thought the affair might be easily accommodated. may not Lord Hertford give a bishopric to Mr. Hume?"

commun: cela les fàchera sans vous faire tort

Mes états vous offrent une retraite paisible: je vous veux du bien, et je vous en ferai, si vous le trouvez bon. Mais si vous vous obstinez à rejetter mon secours, attendez-vous que je ne le dirai à personne. Si vous persistez à vous creuser l'esprit pour trouver de nouveaux malheurs, choisissez-les tels que vous vondrez; je suis roi, je puis vous en procurer au gré de vos souhaits; et, ce qui sûrement ne vous arrivera pas vis-à-vis de vos ennemis, je cesserai de vous persécuter, quand vous cesserez de mettre votre gloire à l'être.

Votre bon ami,

t Walpole to Gray.

FREDERICK."

"Why

Rousseau now appears upon the stage. He had succeeded in attracting Madame de Boufflers and the Marischal Keith, and thus Hume was prepared to respond to the vow of eternal friendship which was tendered to him. At the close of the year 1765, he came to Paris, having, as he said, been