David Hume - The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6

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David Hume, The History of England, vol. 1 [1778]

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Online Library of Liberty: The History of England, vol. 1

Edition Used:

The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688, Foreword by William B. Todd, 6 vols. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1983). Vol. 1.

Author: David Hume

Foreword: William B. Todd

About This Title:

Volume 1 of Humes great History of England the theme of which is liberty, above all English constitutional development from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Revolution of 1688. This Liberty Fund edition is based on the edition of 1778, the last to contain corrections by Hume.

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Online Library of Liberty: The History of England, vol. 1

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.

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Online Library of Liberty: The History of England, vol. 1

Table Of Contents

This portrait of the author is provided in all the earliest editions of his History. Thereversal of letters in the word philosophy remains uncorrected throughout.

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Online Library of Liberty: The History of England, vol. 1

[Back to Table of Contents]

FOREWORD

When david hume began his History of England the undertaking came, not from any sudden resolve nor as an entirely new enterprise, but as one possibly contemplated thirteen years before, in 1739, probably attempted several times thereafter, and certainly considered, at least as a corollary discipline, in a philosophical discourse published in 1748. Even so, any concerted effort long sustained necessarily awaited appropriate conditions: all happily combining for Hume upon his election, January, 1752, as Keeper of the Advocates Library in Edinburgh. With this appointment the author finally had a genteel-office, ready access to a collection of some thirty thousand volumes, and, no less desirable, leisure indefinitely extended to pursue his research. Heretofore, by mere exertion of his own commanding intellect, philosopher Hume had more than once set forth what he perceived to be the constant and universal principles of human nature. Now, as a philosophical historian, he could ascertain from dreary chronicles all the aberrations of human behavior as there exhibited in wars, intrigues, factions, and revolutions. These and other vagaries, previously recorded simply as odd phenomena, in Humes more coherent view constituted a varied range of materials documenting the science of man.

Once intent upon a history so formulated, the immediate question for this author was where to begin. In his own Life (an essay prefixed to the first, 1778, posthumous edition of the History and so reprinted here), Hume ingenuously speaks of being

frightened away from the very startthat is, from the time of Caesars invasionand so at once passing over seventeen hundred years to the accession of the House of Stuart [1603], an epoch when, I thought, the misrepresentations of faction began chiefly to take place. Indeed this was Humes final decision, though he earlier admitted in a letter to Adam Smith, 24 September 1752, some inclination to commence with the preceding Tudor epoch [1485].

I confess, I was once of the same Opinion with you, & thought that the best Period to begin an English History was about Henry the 7th. But you will please to observe, that the Change, which then happend in public Affairs, was very insensible, and did not display its Influence till many Years afterwards. Twas under James that the House of Commons began first to raise their Head, & then the Quarrel betwixt Privilege & Prerogative commencd. The Government, no longer opprest by the enormous Authority of the Crown, displayd its Genius; and the Factions, which then arose, having an Influence on our present Affairs, form the most curious, interesting, & instructive Part of our History.... I confess, that the Subject appears to me very fine;

& I enter upon it with great Ardour & Pleasure. You need not doubt of my Perseverance.

For a historian tracing, in one period or another, the progress or decline of human welfare, the influence twice mentioned in the letter to Smith eventually required a

backward narrative: from present effects to earlier precedents and then to causes earlier yet. Thus over the ensuing years Hume proceeded retrogressively, representing first the Stuart reigns (now volumes VVI in this reprint), then the Tudors (IIIIV), PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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Online Library of Liberty: The History of England, vol. 1