Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary

FOREWORD

Essay i-lii.indd 11 12/27/11 7:34 PM FOREWORD DAVID HUME'S greatness was recognized in his own time, as it is today, but the writings that made Hume famous are not, by and large, the same ones that support his reputation now. Leaving aside his Enquiries, 1 which were widely read then as now, Hume is known today chiefly through his Treatise of Human Nature2 and his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. 3 1An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding appeared for the first time under this title in the 1758 edition of Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects . Earlier it had been published several times, beginning in 1748, under the title Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles ofMorals was first published in 1751. I have drawn this and other information about the various editions of Hume's writings from two sources: T. E. Jessop, A Bibliography ofDavid Hume and ofScottish Philosophy (New York: Russell and Russell, 1966), and William B. Todd, "David Hume. A Preliminary Bibliography," in Todd, ed., Humeand the Enlightenment (Edinburgh and Austin: Edinburgh University Press and the Humanities Research Center, Austin, Texas, 1974), pp. 189-205. 2Books I and II of the Treatise were published in 1739; Book III , in 1740. 3Hume wrote the Dialogues about 1750 but decided to withhold publication Essay i-lii.indd 12 12/27/11 7:34 PM XII FOREWORD The Treatise was scarcely read at all during Hume's lifetime, however, and the Dialogues was not published until after his death. Conversely, most readers today pay little attention to Hume's various books of essays and to his History ofEngland, 4 but these are the works that were read avidly by his contemporaries . If one is to get a balanced view of Hume's thought, it is necessary to study both groups of writings. If we should neglect the essays or the History, then our view of Hume's aims and achievements is likely to be as incomplete as that of his contemporaries who failed to read the Treatise or the Dialogues. The preparation and revision of his essays occupied Hume throughout his adult life. In his late twenties, after completing three books of the Treatise, Hume began to publish essays on moral and political themes. His Essays, Moral and Political was brought out late in 1741 by Alexander Kincaid, Edinburgh's leading publisher.5 A second volume of essays appeared under during his lifetime. When Adam Smith proved unwilling to take responsibility for the posthumous publication of the Dialogues, Hume entrusted it to his own publisher, William Strahan, with the provision that the work would be committed to Hume's nephew David if Strahan failed to publish it within two and one-half years of Hume's death. When Strahan declined to act, the nephew made arrangements for the publication of the Dialogues in 1779. 4Hume's History was published between 1754 and 1762 in six volumes, beginning with the Stuart reigns, then working back to the Tudor and pre-Tudor epochs. A "New Edition, Corrected," with the six volumes arranged in chronological order, appeared in 1762 under the title The History of England, From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to The Revolution in 1688. 5This edition contained the following essays: (I) "Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion"; (2) "Of the Liberty of the Press"; (3) "Of Impudence and Modesty"; (4) "That Politicks may be reduc'd to a Science"; (S) "Of the First Principles of Government"; (6) "Of Love and Marriage" ; (7) "Of the Study of History"; (8) "Of the Independency of Parliament"; (9) "Whether the British Government inclines more to Absolute Monarchy, or to a Republick"; (10) "Of Parties in General"; (11) "Of the Parties of Essay i-lii.indd 13 12/27/11 7:34 PM Xttl FOREWORD the same title early in 1742/' and later that year, a "Second Edition, Corrected" of the first volume was issued. In 1748, three additional essays appeared in a small volume published in Edinburgh and London. 7 That volume is noteworthy as the first of Hume's works to bear his name and also as the beginning of his association with Andrew Millar as his chief London publisher. These three essays were incorporated into the "Third Edition, Corrected" of Essays, Moral and Political, which Millar and Kincaid published in the same year. In 1752, Hume issued a large number of new...