Published by Good Press, 2020

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Table of Contents

       INTRODUCTION.

       MY OWN LIFE.

       ADAM SMITH’S CELEBRATED ACCOUNT OF HUME’S DEATH.

       NOTES, INTRODUCTION.

       OF COMMERCE.

       NOTES, OF COMMERCE.

       OF REFINEMENT IN THE ARTS.

       NOTES, OF REFINEMENT IN THE ARTS.

       OF MONEY.

       NOTES, OF MONEY.

       OF INTEREST.

       NOTE, OF INTEREST.

       OF THE BALANCE OF TRADE.

       NOTES, OF THE BALANCE OF TRADE.

       OF THE JEALOUSY OF TRADE.

       OF THE BALANCE OF POWER.

       NOTES, OF THE BALANCE OF POWER.

       OF TAXES.

       NOTE, OF TAXES.

       OF PUBLIC CREDIT.

       NOTES, OF PUBLIC CREDIT.

       OF SOME REMARKABLE CUSTOMS.

       NOTES, OF SOME REMARKABLE CUSTOMS.

       OF THE POPULOUSNESS OF ANCIENT NATIONS.​ [39]

       NOTES, OF THE POPULOUSNESS OF ANCIENT NATIONS.

       OF THE ORIGINAL CONTRACT.

       NOTES, OF THE ORIGINAL CONTRACT.

       OF PASSIVE OBEDIENCE.

       OF THE COALITION OF PARTIES.

       NOTE, OF THE COALITION OF PARTIES.

       OF THE PROTESTANT SUCCESSION.

       NOTES, OF THE PROTESTANT SUCCESSION.

       IDEA OF A PERFECT COMMONWEALTH.

       THAT POLITICS MAY BE REDUCED TO A SCIENCE.

       NOTES, POLITICS REDUCED TO A SCIENCE.

       OF THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT.

       OF POLITICAL SOCIETY.

       NOTE, OF POLITICAL SOCIETY.

       ALPHABETICAL ARRANGEMENT OF AUTHORITIES CITED BY HUME.

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INTRODUCTION.

       Table of Contents

Regretting the meagre records of the life of Adam Smith, the Right Hon. R. B. Haldane, M.P.,​[1] remarks:—“We think of him, in the main, and we think of him rightly, as the bosom friend of David Hume” (b. 1711, d. 1777). Naturally, incidents in the life of a philosopher are neither numerous nor stirring. It is unreasonable to expect them, and such stories as are handed down regarding great thinkers are best not to be accepted unreservedly. I leave Hume, therefore, to present his own picture as drawn in My own Life—the picture he wished posterity to have—which consequently follows this introduction, and is itself followed by Adam Smith’s celebrated letter to Mr. Strahan, Hume’s publisher, giving an account of Hume’s death.

      It is chiefly as a political economist that Hume concerns us here, as it is in the Political Discourses, first published in 1752, his economic principles are set forth. What the reader may expect to find in these Discourses I prefer to let writers of renown tell. Thus Lord Brougham—

      “Of the Political Discourses it would be difficult to speak in terms of too great commendation. They combine almost every {p-viii} excellence which can belong to such a performance. The reasoning is clear, and un­en­cum­bered with more words or more illus­tra­tions than are necessary for bringing out the doctrines. The learning is extensive, accurate, and profound, not only as to systems of philosophy, but as to history, whether modern or ancient. … The great merit, however, of these Discourses is their originality, and the new system of politics and political economy which they unfold. Mr. Hume is, beyond all doubt, the author of the modern doctrines which now rule the world of science, which are