Five-minute digest
Essays, Moral and Political (selection)
Summary
David Hume's Essays, Moral and Political first appeared anonymously in Edinburgh in two volumes in 1741 and 1742, after his Treatise of Human Nature had, in his own phrase, fallen dead-born from the press. Written in the manner of Addison's Spectator for a polite reading public, they brought the philosophy of the Treatise to bear on British politics, religion, taste and manners. Hume revised and expanded them in many later editions, joined them to the Political Discourses of 1752, and added new essays until his death. The library text is not the complete collection but a selection of thirteen essays published in London by John Long in the early 20th century, with a biographical introduction by Hannaford Bennett drawing on Hume's autobiography, My Own Life. The selection opens with Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion, which advises readers to cultivate a refined taste in the arts as a remedy for an excessive sensitivity to good and bad fortune. Of the Liberty of the Press explains why Britain alone enjoys a free press: its mixed government, with a strong republican element, makes the people jealous of the crown, and a free press keeps that jealousy awake. That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science argues that forms of government matter more than the characters of rulers, so that general maxims about constitutions can be drawn almost with mathematical certainty. Of the First Principles of Government finds that the many obey the few because government rests on opinion, both opinion of public interest and opinion of right to power and property. Of the Origin of Government, added in the posthumous edition of 1777, traces political society to the need to administer justice. Of the Independency of Parliament defends the crown's influence in the Commons as a needed balance, beginning from the maxim that in designing a constitution every man should be supposed a knave. In Whether the British Government Inclines More to Absolute Monarchy or to a Republic, Hume weighs the drift of the constitution and concludes that a peaceful absolute monarchy would be a gentler end than a republic reached through civil war. Of Parties in General honours lawgivers and blames the founders of factions, distinguishing factions of interest, principle and affection, and Of the Parties of Great Britain analyses Whigs and Tories, Court and Country. Of Superstition and Enthusiasm traces two corruptions of religion to opposite states of mind: superstition to weakness, fear and melancholy, enthusiasm to presumption and strong spirits. Hume argues that superstition favours priestly power while enthusiasm, after its first fury, becomes mild and friendly to liberty. Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature argues against the selfish theory of morals. Of Civil Liberty compares free governments and civilized monarchies in their effect on commerce and the arts, and Of Eloquence asks why modern oratory falls short of Demosthenes and Cicero.
Top Lessons
All government rests on opinion
Hume notices that the governed always have more force than their rulers, so obedience must rest on what people believe: that a government serves the common interest and that it holds power and property by right. Even despots must lead their guards by opinion. This makes custom, history and belief central to politics.
Design institutions for knaves
In Of the Independency of Parliament Hume repeats the maxim that a constitution should assume every man is a knave governed by private interest, and then use that interest to serve the public good. Good institutions do not rely on good men, though Hume adds that the maxim is true in politics even if false in fact of individuals.
Faction is the enemy of law
Hume honours lawgivers as the greatest of men and blames founders of factions, whose quarrels set fellow citizens against each other. He finds factions based on speculative principles, especially religious ones, the most violent, since each side cannot bear to see others think differently.
Temper shapes belief and happiness
Two essays trace beliefs and moods to the condition of the mind: superstition to fear and melancholy, enthusiasm to bold and elevated spirits, and unhappiness to an uncontrolled delicacy of passion. Hume's remedy in each case is a calmer, cultivated temper.
Verified Quotes
“as Force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is, therefore, on opinion only that government is founded”
“So great is the force of laws, and of particular forms of government, and so little dependence have they on the humours and tempers of men, that consequences almost as general and certain may sometimes be deduced from them, as any which the mathematical sciences afford us.”
“It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.”
“We are, therefore, to look upon all the vast apparatus of our government, as having ultimately no other object or purpose but the distribution of justice, or, in other words, the support of the twelve judges.”
“Factions subvert government, render laws impotent, and beget the fiercest animosities among men of the same nation, who ought to give mutual assistance and protection to each other.”
“Weakness, fear, melancholy, together with ignorance, are, therefore, the true sources of Superstition.”
Medical Lens
Hume had personal experience of what his age called the disease of the learned: from about 1729 to 1734 he suffered low spirits, loss of appetite and other symptoms, consulted physicians, and described the illness in a long letter of 1734 to an unnamed physician (often thought to be George Cheyne). The essays reflect the 18th-century medicine of temperament. Of Superstition and Enthusiasm explains two religious dispositions by mood: weakness, fear and melancholy breed superstition, while luxuriant health, strong spirits and a bold temper breed enthusiasm, the claim to direct inspiration that physicians and divines of the period often treated as close to madness. Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion describes an over-sensitive temper and proposes a cultivated taste as a kind of regimen for it. In Whether the British Government Inclines More to Absolute Monarchy or to a Republic, Hume uses the word euthanasia in its older sense of an easy death, calling absolute monarchy the easiest death of the British constitution. Any modern clinical reading of these passages is interpretation.
- Of Superstition and Enthusiasm
Superstition traced to weakness, fear and melancholy; enthusiasm to presumption, luxuriant health and strong spirits.
- Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion
An excessive sensibility to fortune, with its piercing griefs, and the cultivation of taste as its remedy.
- Whether the British Government Inclines More to Absolute Monarchy or to a Republic
Absolute monarchy called the easiest death, the euthanasia, of the British constitution.
- Whether the British Government Inclines More to Absolute Monarchy or to a Republic
A physician will not venture to predict a patient's condition a month ahead; still less can a politician foretell public affairs, as Harrington's failed prophecy shows.