From thinkers they became free-thinkers: from philosophers they
became infidels, and some of them atheists. This was the age which
produced "the triumvirate of British historians who," in the words of
Montgomery, "exemplified in their very dissimilar styles the triple
contrast of simplicity, elegance, and splendor."
Imbued with this spirit of the time, Hume undertook to write a _History of
England_, which, with all its errors and faults, still ranks among the
best efforts of English historians. Like the French philosophers, Hume was
an infidel, and his scepticism appears in his writings; but, unlike
them--for they were stanch reformers in government as well as infidels in
faith--he who was an infidel was also an aristocrat in sentiment, and a
consistent Tory his life long. In his history, with all the artifices of a
philosopher, he takes the Jacobite side in the civil war.
HUME.--David Hume was born in Edinburgh on the 26th of April (O.S.), 1711.
His life was without many vicissitudes of interest, but his efforts to
achieve an enduring reputation on the most solid grounds, mark him as a
notable example of patient industry, study, and economy.
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