No More Learning

In 1790 came travel in Holland, Belgium, England,
and France, an experience which first suggested further travels in
far-lying tropic lands; then came more study at a trades-school in
Hamburg and at the well-known Mining School at Freiburg. His
work won for him in 1792 the position of mining engineer; and tours
in Switzerland and the Tyrol gave him material for several volumes in
geological or chemical fields. The year 1799 marked a turning-point
in his career; for he resigned his post in order to give himself unre-
servedly to the study of science. Some months were spent in Jena,
where he enjoyed the society of Goethe and Schiller; starting in 1797,
in company with Bonpland, the distinguished French botanist, upon
a series of wanderings in Spain, Switzerland, Italy, and France. In
1799, still with his fellow scientist, he set out for South America, and
spent five years in that country and in Mexico, engaged in various
investigations; his adventures including the climbing of Chimborazo
to an altitude higher than had hitherto been attained. Except for
occasional visits to Berlin and other cities, he resided by permission
of the German king in Paris, pursuing his researches, writing and
preparing for the press his many treatises: but finally came back to
Berlin for good and all in 1827, to begin his famous lectures at the
University upon physical geography; holding too the position of court.
chamberlain, like his father before him. His natal city was his home
until his death more than thirty years later.


## p. 7769 (#587) ###########################################

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
7769
In 1829, at the instigation of the Russian Emperor Nicholas, he
undertook with other scientists a journey to Siberia and the Caspian
Sea. During the next decade he executed several government mis-
sions in Paris; was instrumental in organizing observation stations,
which led to the fine system of meteorological stations now obtain-
ing in Germany; and completed the editing of one of his greatest
works, the 'Critical Examination of the History of Geography of the
New Continent,' written in the French tongue. With the exception
of brief journeys to England and Denmark in 1841 and 1845, Hum-
boldt remained in Germany, and with the zeal and enthusiasm of
a young man carried on his labors as teacher and scholar in Berlin;
the richest fruits of which are seen in his master work 'Cosmos: A
Sketch of a Physical Cosmography (1845-1858). This comprehensive
study of the physical universe exhibits the rare union of qualities
which makes Humboldt truly a genius in science. Of encyclopædic
knowledge, a specialist pursuing technical analyses to their minutest
details, the founder of meteorology and physical geography, a discov-
erer on the subjects of sea and plant life, a thinker who did original
work in geology, astronomy, zoölogy, botany, and mineralogy,― he
yet had the synthetic grasp, the insatiable desire for an all-embracing
conception of the world of matter. He used his wonderful acquire-
ments as a foundation upon which to rear a lofty structure whence
all nature might be viewed and a sense of her as a living whole be
gained. The 'Cosmos,' because of this broad outlook and nobility of
spirit, is a unique work in scientific literature. Its general scheme
embraces a fine introduction,- from which the selections below are
chosen, in which the author's views on Nature as a vast organic
unity are set forth with eloquence; a grand review of natural phe-
nomena, sidereal and terrestrial, and including the study of man as
an inhabitant of the planet; followed by a consideration of the incite-
ments to nature's study found in the literature of many lands; and
concluded by a sweeping survey of the progress among mankind of
natural conceptions with regard to the universe. There is nothing
dry or repellently technical about the treatment, which is broad, pro-
foundly ethical, and aglow with elevated feeling.
Humboldt, moreover, showed himself be a man of wide human
sympathy by presenting his theories and discoveries in lectures and
popular articles, simply and plainly, so that those who ran could
read and understand. It was natural that one who had this catholic
sympathy, this feeling for the ideal significance of the natural world,
this wish to put it before his fellow-men in the way of literature
rather than of science, should have done writing of artistic worth.
A list of Humboldt's works would be very long, and is necessa-
rily omitted. He died May 6th, 1859, at the great age of ninety. He


## p. 7770 (#588) ###########################################

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
7770
was, as a German critic remarks, the Nestor of scientific investigators
in his own land, and indeed in Europe. As his statue is one of
the proud ornaments of the stately entrance of Berlin University, so
he himself is one of the proud intellectual adornments of his race,
a race conspicuous in the accomplishments of learning and genius.
THE BEAUTY AND UNITY OF NATURE
From 'Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe'
-
IN
N ATTEMPTING, after a long absence from my native country,
to develop the physical phenomena of the globe and the
simultaneous action of the forces that pervade the regions
of space, I experience a twofold cause of anxiety. The subject
before me is so inexhaustible and so varied, that I fear either
to fall into the superficiality of the encyclopædist, or to weary
the mind of my reader by aphorisms consisting of mere gener
alities clothed in dry and dogmatical forms. Undue conciseness
often checks the flow of expression, whilst diffuseness is detri-
mental to a clear and precise exposition of our ideas. Nature is
a free domain; and the profound conceptions and enjoyments
she awakens within us can only be vividly delineated by thought
clothed in exalted forms of speech, worthy of bearing witness to
the majesty and greatness of the creation.
In considering the study of physical phenomena, not merely
in its bearings on the material wants of life, but in its general
influence on the intellectual advancement of mankind, we find its
noblest and most important result to be a knowledge of the chain
of connection by which all natural forces are linked together and
made mutually dependent upon each other; and it is the per-
ception of these relations that exalts our views and ennobles our
enjoyments. Such a result, however, can only be reaped as the
fruit of observation and intellect, combined with the spirit of
the age, in which are reflected all the varied phases of thought.
He who can trace, through bygone times, the stream of our
knowledge to its primitive source, will learn from history how for
thousands of years man has labored, amid the ever recurring
changes of form, to recognize the invariability of natural laws,
and has thus by the force of mind gradually subdued a great
portion of the physical world to his dominion. In interrogating
the history of the past, we trace the mysterious course of ideas


## p. 7771 (#589) ###########################################

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
7771
yielding the first glimmering perception of the same image of a
Cosmos, or harmoniously ordered whole, which, dimly shadowed
forth to the human mind in the primitive ages of the world, is
now fully revealed to the maturer intellect of mankind as the
result of long and laborious observation.
Each of those epochs of the contemplation of the external
world - the earliest dawn of thought, and the advanced stage of
civilization has its own source of enjoyment. In the former,
this enjoyment, in accordance with the simplicity of the primi-
tive ages, flowed from an intuitive feeling of the order that was
proclaimed by the invariable and successive reappearance of the
heavenly bodies, and by the progressive development of organized
beings; whilst in the latter, this sense of enjoyment springs from
a definite knowledge of the phenomena of nature. When man
began to interrogate nature, and not content with observing,
learnt to evoke phenomena under definite conditions; when once.
he sought to collect and record facts, in order that the fruit of
his labors might aid investigation after his own brief existence.
had passed away,-the philosophy of Nature cast aside the vague
and poetic garb in which she had been enveloped from her ori-
gin; and having assumed a severer aspect, she now weighs the
value of observations, and substitutes induction and reasoning for
conjecture and assumption. The dogmas of former ages survive
now only in the superstitions of the people and the prejudices of
the ignorant, or are perpetuated in a few systems, which, con-
scious of their weakness, shroud themselves in a veil of mystery.
We may also trace the same primitive intuitions in languages
exuberant in figurative expressions; and a few of the best chosen
symbols engendered by the happy inspiration of the earliest ages,
having by degrees lost their vagueness through a better mode of
interpretation, are still preserved amongst our scientific terms.
Nature considered rationally-that is to say, submitted to
the process of thought-is a unity in diversity of phenomena;
a harmony, blending together all created things, however dis-
similar in form and attributes; one great whole (rò a) animated
by the breath of life. The most important result of a rational
inquiry into nature is therefore to establish the unity and har-
mony of this stupendous mass of force and matter, to determine
with impartial justice what is due to the discoveries of the past
and to those of the present, and to analyze the individual parts
of natural phenomena without succumbing beneath the weight of
-


## p. 7772 (#590) ###########################################

7772
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
the whole. Thus, and thus alone, is it permitted to man, while
mindful of the high destiny of his race, to comprehend nature,
to lift the veil that shrouds her phenomena, and as it were, sub-
mit the results of observation to the test of reason and intellect.
In reflecting upon the different degrees of enjoyment presented
to us in the contemplation of nature, we find that the first place
must be assigned to a sensation which is wholly independent
of an intimate acquaintance with the physical phenomena pre-
sented to our view, or of the peculiar character of the region
surrounding us. In the uniform plain bounded only by a distant
horizon, where the lowly heather, the cistus, or waving grasses
deck the soil; on the ocean shore, where the waves softly rip-
pling over the beach leave a track green with the weeds of the
sea: everywhere the mind is penetrated by the same sense of
the grandeur and vast expanse of nature, revealing to the soul
by a mysterious inspiration the existence of laws that regulate
the forces of the universe. Mere communion with nature, mere
contact with the free air, exercises a soothing yet strengthening
influence on the wearied spirit, calms the storm of passion, and
softens the heart when shaken by sorrow to its inmost depths.
Everywhere, in every region of the globe, in every stage of intel-
lectual culture, the same sources of enjoyment are alike vouch-
safed to man. The earnest and solemn thoughts awakened by
a communion with nature intuitively arise from a presentiment
of the order and harmony pervading the whole universe, and
from the contrast we draw between the narrow limits of our
own existence and the image of infinity revealed on every side;
whether we look upwards to the starry vault of heaven, scan the
far-stretching plain before us, or seek to trace the dim horizon
across the vast expanse of ocean.
The contemplation of the individual characteristics of the
landscape, and of the conformation of the land in any definite
region of the earth, gives rise to a different source of enjoyment,
awakening impressions that are more vivid, better defined, and
more congenial to certain phases of the mind than those of which
we have already spoken. At one time the heart is stirred by a
sense of the grandeur of the face of nature, by the strife of the
elements, or as in Northern Asia, by the aspect of the dreary
barrenness of the far-stretching steppes; at another time softer
emotions are excited by the contemplation of rich harvest wrested
by the hand of man from the wild fertility of nature, or by the


## p. 7773 (#591) ###########################################

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
7773
sight of human habitations raised beside some wild and foaming
torrent. Here I regard less the degree of intensity, than the dif-
ference existing in the various sensations that derive their charm.
and permanence from the peculiar character of the scene.
If I might be allowed to abandon myself to the recollections
of my own distant travels, I would instance among the most
striking scenes of nature the calm sublimity of a tropical night,
when the stars, not sparkling as in our northern skies, shed
their soft and planetary light over the gently heaving ocean; or I
would recall the deep valleys of the Cordilleras, where the tall
and slender palms pierce the leafy veil around them, and waving
on high their feathery and arrow-like branches, form, as it were,
«< a forest above a forest"; or I would describe the summit of the
Peak of Teneriffe, when a horizontal layer of clouds, dazzling
in whiteness, has separated the cone of cinders from the plain
below, and suddenly the ascending current pierces the cloudy
veil, so that the eye of the traveler may range from the brink
of the crater, along the vine-clad slopes of Orotava, to the orange
gardens and banana groves that skirt the shore. In scenes like
these, it is not the peaceful charm uniformly spread over the
face of nature that moves the heart, but rather the peculiar
physiognomy and conformation of the land, the features of the
landscape, the ever-varying outline of the clouds, and their blend-
ing with the horizon of the sea, whether it lies spread before us
like a smooth and shining mirror, or is dimly seen through the
morning mist. All that the senses can but imperfectly compre-
hend, all that is most awful in such romantic scenes of nature,
may become a source of enjoyment to man by opening a wide
field to the creative powers of his imagination. Impressions
change with the varying movements of the mind, and we are led
by a happy illusion to believe that we receive from the external
world that with which we have ourselves invested it.
*
When, far from our native country, after a long voyage, we
tread for the first time the soil of a tropical land, we experi-
ence a certain feeling of surprise and gratification in recognizing
in the rocks that surround us the same inclined schistose strata,
and the same columnar basalt covered with cellular amygdaloids,
that we had left in Europe, and whose identity of character in
latitudes so widely different reminds us that the solidification of
the earth's crust is altogether independent of climatic influences.
But these rocky masses of schist and of basalt are covered with


## p. 7774 (#592) ###########################################

7774
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
vegetation of a character with which we are unacquainted, and of
a physiognomy wholly unknown to us; and it is then, amid the
colossal and majestic forms of an exotic flora, that we feel how
wonderfully the flexibility of our nature fits us to receive new
impressions, linked together by a certain secret analogy. We
so readily perceive the affinity existing amongst all the forms
of organic life, that although the sight of a vegetation similar
to that of our native country might at first be most welcome to
the eye, as the sweet familiar sounds of our mother tongue are
to the ear, we nevertheless, by degrees and almost imperceptibly,
become familiarized with a new home and a new climate. As a
true citizen of the world, man everywhere habituates himself to
that which surrounds him: yet, fearful as it were of breaking
the links of association that bind him to the home of his child-
hood, the colonist applies to some few plants in a far distant
clime the names he had been familiar with in his native land;
and by the mysterious relations existing amongst all types of
organization, the forms of exotic vegetation present themselves
to his mind as nobler and more perfect developments of those he
had loved in earlier days. Thus do the spontaneous impressions
of the untutored mind lead, like the laborious deductions of cul-
tivated intellect, to the same intimate persuasion that one sole
and indissoluble chain binds together all nature.
THE STUDY OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES
From Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe'
N EQUAL appreciation of all branches of the mathematical,
A physical, and natural sciences is a special requirement of
the present age, in which the material wealth and the
growing prosperity of nations are principally based upon a more
enlightened employment of the products and forces of nature.
The most superficial glance at the present condition of Europe
shows that a diminution, or even a total annihilation, of national
prosperity, must be the award of those States which shrink with
slothful indifference from the great struggle of rival nations in
the career of the industrial arts. It is with nations as with
nature, which, in the happy expression of Goethe, "knows no pause
in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all in-
action. " The propagation of an earnest and sound knowledge of


## p. 7775 (#593) ###########################################

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
7775
science can therefore alone avert the dangers of which I have
spoken. Man cannot act upon nature, or appropriate her forces
to his own use, without comprehending their full extent and
having an intimate acquaintance with the laws of the physical
world. Bacon has said that in human societies, knowledge is
power. Both must sink and rise together. But the knowledge
that results from the free action of thought is at once the delight
and the indestructible prerogative of man; and in forming part
of the wealth of mankind, it not infrequently serves as a substi-
tute for the natural riches which are but sparingly scattered over
the earth. Those States which take no active part in the general
industrial movement, in the choice and preparation of natural
substances, or in the application of mechanics and chemistry, and
among whom this activity is not appreciated by all classes of
society, will infallibly see their prosperity diminish in proportion
as neighboring countries become strengthened and invigorated
under the genial influence of arts and sciences.
As in nobler spheres of thought and sentiment—in philoso-
phy, poetry, and the fine arts- the object at which we aim ought
to be an inward one, an ennoblement of the intellect, so ought
we likewise, in our pursuit of science, to strive after a knowledge
of the laws and the principles of unity that pervade the vital
forces of the universe; and it is by such a course that physical
studies may be made subservient to the progress of industry,
which is a conquest of mind over matter. By a happy connec-
tion of causes and effects, we often see the useful linked to the
beautiful and the exalted. The improvement of agriculture in the
hands of freemen and on properties of a moderate extent, the
flourishing state of the mechanical arts when freed from the tram-
mels of municipal restrictions, the increased impetus imparted to
commerce by the multiplied means of contact of nations with
each other, are all brilliant results of the intellectual progress of
mankind, and of the amelioration of political institutions in which
this progress is reflected. The picture presented by modern his-
tory ought to convince those who are tardy in awakening to the
truth of the lesson it teaches.
Nor let it be feared that the marked predilection for the study
of nature, and for industrial progress, which is so characteristic
of the present age, should necessarily have a tendency to retard
the noble exertions of the intellect in the domains of philosophy,
classical history, and antiquity; or to deprive the arts by which


## p. 7776 (#594) ###########################################

7776
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
life is embellished of the vivifying breath of imagination. Where
all the germs of civilization are developed beneath the ægis of
free institutions and wise legislation, there is no cause for appre-
hending that any one branch of knowledge should be cultivated
to the prejudice of others. All afford the State precious fruits,
whether they yield nourishment to man and constitute his physi-
cal wealth, or whether, more permanent in their nature, they
transmit in the works of mind the glory of nations to remotest
posterity. The Spartans, notwithstanding their Doric austerity,
prayed the gods to grant them "the beautiful with the good. "
I will no longer dwell upon the considerations of the influ-
ence exercised by the mathematical and physical sciences on all
that appertains to the material wants of social life; for the vast
extent of the course on which I am entering forbids me to insist
further upon the utility of these applications. Accustomed to
distant excursions, I may perhaps have erred in describing the
path before us as more smooth and pleasant than it really is, for
such is wont to be the practice of those who delight in guiding
others to the summits of lofty mountains: they praise the view
even when a great part of the distant plains lie hidden by clouds,
knowing that this half-transparent vapory veil imparts to the scene
a certain charm from the power exercised by the imagination over
the domain of the senses. In like manner, from the height occu-
pied by the physical history of the world, all parts of the horizon
will not appear equally clear and well defined. This indistinct-
ness will not, however, be wholly owing to the present imperfect
state of some of the sciences, but in part likewise to the unskill-
fulness of the guide who has imprudently ventured to ascend these
lofty summits.


## p. 7776 (#595) ###########################################



## p. 7776 (#596) ###########################################


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## p. 7776 (#597) ###########################################

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## p. 7776 (#598) ###########################################

EX
DAVID HUM-


## p. 7777 (#599) ###########################################

7777
-
XIII-487
DAVID HUME
(1711-1776)
D
SAVID HUME not only founded the literary school of English his-
torical writing, and originated some of the more important
doctrines of modern political economy, but also exercised
a paramount influence on the philosophic thought of the eighteenth
century.
He was the younger son of Joseph Hume, laird of Ninewells in
Berwickshire; and was born at Edinburgh April 26th (O. S. ), 1711.
He appears to have entered the University of Edinburgh at the age
of twelve, and to have left at fourteen or fifteen without taking a
degree. He began the study of law, but abandoned it in order to
devote himself to the "pursuits of philosophy and learning. " His
first work, the Treatise of Human Nature,' was published partly in
1739 and partly in 1740; the books entitled 'Of the Understanding'
and 'Of the Passions' appearing in the former, and that entitled 'Of
Morals in the latter year.
The Treatise of Human Nature' is the final and most complete
exposition of the fundamental principles of the old school of empirical
philosophy, the school to which belonged Bacon, Locke, and Berke-
ley. According to Hume, the contents of the mind are embraced
in the term "perceptions. " Perceptions consist of sensuous impres-
sions and ideas. Ideas are merely images of sensuous impressions.
Knowledge is the cognition of the relation between two perceptions.
There is no necessary connection between cause and effect. The
idea of cause depends on the habit of the mind which expects the
event that usually follows another. Mind is but a series or succession
of isolated impressions and ideas. As knowledge is dependent on
experience derived through the senses, and as the senses frequently
deceive, one can have no absolute knowledge of things, but only of
one's impression of them. Hence, to give the conclusion later arrived
at in the famous 'Essay on Miracles,' a miracle even genuine is
incapable of proof.
The Treatise of Human Nature' is clear, forcible, and untech-
nical. Its most striking characteristics are its spontaneity and indi-
viduality. Hume owed little to academic training, and wrote his
BY M. A. MIKKELSEN


## p. 7778 (#600) ###########################################

7778
DAVID HUME
earlier works at a distance from centres of learning, without access
to large libraries. The literary beauties of the Treatise,' however,
are marred by its structural defects. It is a series of brilliant frag-
ments rather than a well-rounded whole, and is concerned more with
criticism of metaphysical opinions from the point of view of Hume's
theory of knowledge than with the construction of a complete system
of philosophy.
(
In 1741 appeared the first volume of the Essays, Moral and Polit-
ical,' the second volume coming out in the following year. These
essays, with some additions and omissions, were republished in 1748
under the expanded title, Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary,'
which has been retained in the many subsequent editions. Hume's
essays are models of their kind, full of sparkle, interest, and anima-
tion.
As an essayist he has not been surpassed in purity of diction,
and no English writer except Addison equals him in the sense of
harmony. His essays are characterized by intellectual impartiality,
and by a philosophical breadth of view coupled with critical acute-
ness in matters of detail. His Political Discourses,' which were
written in the same vein as the Essays, appeared in 1752.
The Essays' and the 'Political Discourses' achieved great popu
larity both in England and on the Continent. Since the publication
of Montesquieu's 'Spirit of Laws' no other work on politics had
attracted so much attention as the 'Political Discourses. ' In France
particularly it was read by all classes, and was an important intel-
lectual factor in the political agitation which preceded the French
Revolution. In England Hume's views on money, trade, and govern-
ment were generally accepted; and if the French Revolution had not
occasioned a conservative reaction, free trade and electoral reform
would probably have been adopted by Parliament in the eighteenth
instead of in the nineteenth century.
The 'Political Discourses' has been called "the cradle of political
economy. »
It advanced original views on the subject of commerce,
on money, on interest, and on the balance of trade; views which
were afterwards adopted by Hume's close friend, Adam Smith. Hume
refutes the mercantilist error which confounded money with wealth.
"Men and commodities," he says, "are the real strength of any
community.
In the national stock of labor consists all real
power and riches. " He exposes the error of the theory that the rate
of interest depends on the quantity of money in a country, and
shows that the reduction of it must be the result of "the increase of
industry and frugality, of arts and commerce. " He condemns the
«< numberless bars, obstructions, and imposts which all nations of
Europe, and none more than England, have put upon trade," and
points out the international character of commerce. "Not only as a


## p. 7779 (#601) ###########################################

DAVID HUME
7779
man, but as a British subject," he says, "I pray for the flourishing
commerce of Germany, Spain, Italy, and even of France itself. "
Till the age of forty, Hume's life was spent chiefly in the seclus-
ion of Ninewells, the family estate; interrupted by a sojourn of three
years in France from 1734 to 1737, by a few months' absence as com-
panion to the Marquis of Annandale in 1745 and 1746, and by a short
period of service as secretary to General St. Clair, whom he accom-
panied on the expedition against Port L'Orient in 1746 and on a mili-
tary embassy to Vienna and Turin. In 1751 he removed to Edinburgh,
where in the following year he was appointed keeper of the library
of the Faculty of Advocates, a post which he occupied until 1757.
The library of the Faculty was the largest in Scotland, and afforded
him an opportunity, long desired, of turning his attention to historical
studies. In 1754 he published a volume on the reigns of James I.
and Charles I. ; followed in 1756 by a volume on the period from the
execution of Charles to the Revolution of 1688, in 1759 by two vol-
umes on the house of Tudor, and in 1761 by two more on the period
from Julius Cæsar to Henry VII. Thus in the short space of ten
years he wrote and published his famous 'History of Great Britain,'
covering the entire period from the Roman conquest to the Revolution
of 1688.
ture.
Until the advent of Hume as a historian, history cannot be said
to have been cultivated in Great Britain as a branch of polite litera-
His predecessors were laborious compilers of dates and facts,
having no appreciation of the aesthetic possibilities of historical com-
position. Hume brought to his task consummate literary skill, and a
mind stored with the results of philosophical study and of economic
and political investigations. He was the first Englishman to see that
history is not merely a record of war and court intrigue, but that it
is concerned also with the literature, the manners, and the conditions
of life of the people. His profound psychological analysis of char-
acter, his insight into the complex social forces of history, and the
grace and charm of his style, won the admiration of his contempo-
raries; and the 'History of Great Britain' has furnished a method
to all subsequent English historical writers. In spite of a general air
of impartiality, however, Hume's history is as much a Tory as Mac-
aulay's is a Whig "pamphlet. " Thus, for instance, he draws a very
favorable picture of Charles I. and depreciates Cromwell. The expla-
nation is to be sought in the facts that he had no sympathy with
the religious enthusiasm of the Roundhead sectaries, and that he
conceived all intellectual culture and refinement to have been the
property of the court and the cavaliers. Recent investigations have
shown also that he used his authorities in an extremely careless man-
ner, and that he neglected documentary evidence at his command.


## p. 7780 (#602) ###########################################

7780
DAVID HUME
Since the rise of the modern critical school of history his work has
in fact been largely superseded. Nevertheless, it stood for generations
without a rival, and is even now almost unrivaled as a piece of
literary composition.
In 1763 he accepted the post of secretary to Lord Hertford, then
ambassador to France. In France Hume's reputation stood even
higher than in Britain, and he immediately became a social lion in
the Parisian world of fashion. Great nobles fêted him, and gather-
ings at noted salons were incomplete without his presence. He left
France in 1766, and after a short term as Under-Secretary of State
(1767-69) returned to Edinburgh, where he died August 25th, 1776.
Among his works of importance not hitherto mentioned are
Philosophical Essays concerning Human Understanding'; 'An En-
quiry concerning the Principles of Morals'; and 'Dialogues concern-
ing Natural Religion. '
(
Hume's personal character was thus described by himself in his
Autobiography, written four months before his death:-“I am . .
a man of mild disposition, of command of temper, of an open, social,
and cheerful humor, capable of attachment but little susceptible of
enmity, and of great moderation in all my passions. " The accuracy
of this description is confirmed by the testimony of his contemporaries
and the tone of his private correspondence.
It was not until he had
reached middle age that he was able to gratify his taste for intel-
lectual society by removing from the country to the town, "the true
scene for a man of letters. " In his correspondence of 1751, the year
in which he settled in Edinburgh, appeared a characteristic bit of
domestic economy. "I might perhaps pretend as well as others to
complain of fortune," he wrote to Michael Ramsay; "but I do not,
and would condemn myself as unreasonable if I did. While interest
remains as at present, I have £50 a year, £100 worth of books, . . .
and near £100 in my pocket, along with order, frugality, a strong
spirit of independency, good health, a contented humor, and an un-
abated love of study. In these circumstances I must esteem myself
one of the happy and fortunate. " His reason for taking a house in
Edinburgh was that he might enjoy the companionship of his sister,
who like himself was unmarried. "And as my sister can join £30 a
year to my stock, and brings an equal love of order and frugality,
we doubt not to make our revenues answer. " It is pleasant to read
in his Autobiography that later his income rose to £1,000, and that
"the copy-money given me by the booksellers much exceeded any-
thing formerly known in England. " Slender as were his resources
during his first years in the Scottish capital, he turned his salary
as keeper of the Advocates' Library - £40 a year-over to the blind
poet Blacklock. He afterwards befriended Rousseau, when the latter


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DAVID HUME
7781
sought refuge in England from persecution. On this occasion, how-
ever, his kind offices plunged him into a disagreeable literary quarrel
with the morbid and perhaps mentally irresponsible beneficiary.
Absence of jealousy was a noticeable trait in Hume's character.
He gave assistance and encouragement to several of the younger
generation of Scottish writers; and his magnanimity is further illus-
trated by the helpful letter to his chief adversary, Thomas Reid,
which he wrote on returning the manuscript of the 'Enquiry into the
Human Mind,' submitted by the younger philosopher for the elder's
criticism. Hume was the first Scotsman to devote himself exclus-
ively, and with conspicuous success, to literatúre. During the closing
years of his life he had the satisfaction of seeing himself surrounded
at Edinburgh by a brilliant company of men of letters,- Adam Smith,
Ferguson, Blair, Gilbert Elliot, Lord Kames, Mackenzie, and others,—
who, whether accepting his philosophical opinions or not, derived
inspiration from his genial companionship.
M. A. Mikkelsen.
OF REFINEMENT IN THE ARTS
L
UXURY is a word of an uncertain signification, and may be
taken in a good as well as in a bad sense. In general it
means great refinement in the gratification of the senses;
and any degree of it may be innocent or blamable, according
to the age or country or condition of the person. The bounds
between the virtue and the vice cannot here be exactly fixed,
more than in other moral subjects. To imagine that the grati-
fying of any sense, or the indulging of any delicacy in meat,
drink, or apparel, is of itself a vice, can never enter into a head
that is not disordered by the frenzies of enthusiasm. I have
indeed heard of a monk abroad, who, because the windows of his
cell opened upon a noble prospect, made a covenant with his
eyes never to turn that way, or receive so sensual a gratification.
And such is the crime of drinking champagne or Burgundy,
preferable to small-beer or porter. These indulgences are only
vices when they are pursued at the expense of some virtue, as
liberality or charity; in like manner as they are follies when for
them a man ruins his fortune, and reduces himself to want and
beggary. Where they intrench upon no virtue, but leave ample
subject whence to provide for friends, family, and every proper


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7782
DAVID HUME
object of generosity or compassion, they are entirely innocent,
and have in every age been acknowledged such by almost all
moralists. To be entirely occupied with the luxury of the table,
for instance, without any relish for the pleasures of ambition,
study, or conversation, is a mark of stupidity, and is incompatible
with any vigor of temper or genius. To confine one's expense
entirely to such a gratification, without regard to friends or fam-
ily, is an indication of a heart destitute of humanity or benevo-
lence. But if a man reserves time sufficient for all laudable
pursuits, and money sufficient for all generous purposes, he is
free from every shadow of blame or reproach.
Since luxury may be considered either as innocent or blam-
able, one may be surprised at those preposterous opinions which
have been entertained concerning it: while men of libertine prin-
ciples bestow praises even on vicious luxury, and represent it as
highly advantageous to society; and on the other hand, men of
severe morals blame even the most innocent luxury, and repre-
sent it as the source of all corruptions, disorders, and factions
incident to civil government. We shall here endeavor to correct
both these extremes, by proving, first, that the ages of refine-
ment are both the happiest and most virtuous; secondly, that
wherever luxury ceases to be innocent it also ceases to be bene-
ficial; and when carried a degree too far, is a quality pernicious,
though perhaps not the most pernicious, to political society.
To prove the first point, we need but consider the effects of
refinement both on private and on public life. Human happiness,
according to the most received notions, seems to consist in three
ingredients, action, pleasure, and indolence; and though these
ingredients ought to be mixed in different proportions, according
to the particular disposition of the person, yet no one ingredient
can be entirely wanting, without destroying in some measure the
relish of the whole composition. Indolence or repose, indeed,
seems not of itself to contribute much to our enjoyment; but like
sleep, is requisite as an indulgence to the weakness of human
nature, which cannot support an uninterrupted course of business
or pleasure. That quick march of the spirits which takes a
man from himself, and chiefly gives satisfaction, does in the end
exhaust the mind, and requires some intervals of repose, which
though agreeable for a moment, yet if prolonged beget a languor
and lethargy that destroy all enjoyment. Education, custom, and
example have a mighty influence in turning the mind to any of
-


## p. 7783 (#605) ###########################################

DAVID HUME
7783
these pursuits; and it must be owned that where they promote a
relish for action and pleasure, they are so far favorable to human
happiness. In times when industry and the arts flourish, men
are kept in perpetual occupation, and enjoy as their reward the
occupation itself, as well as those pleasures which are the fruit of
their labor. The mind acquires new vigor; enlarges its powers
and faculties; and by an assiduity in honest industry, both satis-
fies its natural appetites and prevents the growth of unnatural
ones, which commonly spring up when nourished by ease and
idleness. Banish those arts from society, you deprive men both
of action and of pleasure; and leaving nothing but indolence in
their place, you even destroy the relish of indolence, which never
is agreeable but when it succeeds to labor, and recruits the spirits
exhausted by too much application and fatigue.
Another advantage of industry and of refinements in the me-
chanical arts is, that they commonly produce some refinements in
the liberal; nor can one be carried to perfection without being
accompanied in some degree with the other. The same age
which produces great philosophers and politicians, renowned gen-
erals and poets, usually abounds with skillful weavers and ship
carpenters. We cannot reasonably expect that a piece of woolen
cloth will be brought to perfection in a nation which is ignorant
of astronomy, or where ethics are neglected. The spirit of the
age affects all the arts; and the minds of men, being once roused
from their lethargy and put into a fermentation, turn themselves
on all sides and carry improvements into every art and science.
Profound ignorance is totally banished, and men enjoy the privi-
lege of rational creatures, to think as well as to act, to cultivate
the pleasures of the mind as well as those of the body.
The more these refined arts advance, the more sociable men
become. Nor is it possible that when enriched with science, and
possessed of a fund of conversation, they should be contented to
remain in solitude, or live with their fellow-citizens in that dis-
tant manner which is peculiar to ignorant and barbarous nations.
They flock into cities; love to receive and communicate knowl-
edge, to show their wit or their breeding, their taste in conversa-
tion or living, in clothes or furniture. Curiosity allures the wise,
vanity the foolish, and pleasure both. Particular clubs and soci
eties are everywhere formed. Both sexes meet in an easy and
sociable manner; and the tempers of men as well as their be-
havior refine apace. So that beside the improvements which they


## p. 7784 (#606) ###########################################

7784
DAVID HUME
receive from knowledge and the liberal arts, it is impossible but
they must feel an increase of humanity from the very habit of
conversing together, and contributing to each other's pleasure and
entertainment. Thus industry, knowledge, and humanity are linked
together by an indissoluble chain; and are found, from experience
as well as reason, to be peculiar to the more polished and what
are commonly denominated the more luxurious ages.
Nor are these advantages attended with disadvantages that
bear any proportion to them. The more men refine upon pleas-
ure, the less will they indulge in excesses of any kind; because
nothing is more destructive to true pleasure than such excesses.
One may safely affirm that the Tartars are oftener guilty of
beastly gluttony, when they feast on their dead horses, than
European courtiers with all their refinements of cookery. And
if [libertinism] be more frequent in polite ages, when it is often
regarded only as a piece of gallantry, drunkenness on the other
hand is much less common.
But industry, knowledge, and humanity are not advantageous
in private life alone: they diffuse their beneficial influence on
the public, and render the government as great and flourishing as
they make individuals happy and prosperous. The increase and
consumption of all the commodities which serve to the ornament
and pleasure of life are advantages to society; because, at the
same time that they multiply those innocent gratifications to
individuals, they are a kind of storehouse of labor, which in the
exigencies of State may be turned to the public service.
nation where there is no demand for such superfluities, men sink
into indolence, lose all enjoyment of life, and are useless to the
public, which cannot maintain or support its fleets and armies
from the industry of such slothful members.
In a
The bounds of all the European kingdoms are at present
nearly the same as they were two hundred years ago. But what
a difference is there in the power and grandeur of those king-
doms! which can be ascribed to nothing but the increase of art
and industry. When Charles VIII. of France invaded Italy,
he carried with him about 20,000 men; yet this armament so
exhausted the nation, as we learn from Guicciardin, that for some
years it was not able to make so great an effort. The late King
of France in time of war kept in pay above 400,000 men; though
from Mazarine's death to his own he was engaged in a course of
wars that lasted near thirty years.


## p. 7785 (#607) ###########################################

DAVID HUME
7785
This industry is much promoted by the knowledge insepa-
rable from ages of art and refinement; as on the other hand this
knowledge enables the public to make the best advantage of the
industry of its subjects. Laws, order, police, discipline, - these
can never be carried to any degree of perfection before human
reason has refined itself by exercise, and by an application to the
more vulgar arts, at least, of commerce and manufacture. Can we
expect that a government will be well modeled by a people who
know not how to make a spinning-wheel, or to employ a loom to
advantage? Not to mention that all ignorant ages are infested
with superstition, which throws the government off its bias, and
disturbs men in the pursuit of their interest and happiness.
Knowledge in the arts of government naturally begets mild-
ness and moderation, by instructing men in the advantages of
humane maxims above rigor and severity, which drive subjects
into rebellion, and make the return to submission impracticable
by cutting off all hopes of pardon. When the tempers of men
are softened as well as their knowledge improved, this humanity
appears still more conspicuous, and is the chief characteristic
which distinguishes a civilized age from times of barbarity and
ignorance. Factions are then less inveterate, revolutions less
tragical, authority less severe, and seditions less frequent. Even
foreign wars abate of their cruelty; and after the field of battle,
where honor and interest steel men against compassion as well
as fear, the combatants divest themselves of the brute and re-
sume the man.
Nor need we fear that men, by losing their ferocity, will lose
their martial spirit, or become less undaunted and vigorous in
defense of their country or their liberty. The arts have no such
effect in enervating either the mind or body. On the contrary,
industry, their inseparable attendant, adds new force to both.
And if anger, which is said to be the whetstone of courage, loses
somewhat of its asperity by politeness and refinement,— a sense
of honor, which is a stronger, more constant, and more govern-
able principle, acquires fresh vigor by that elevation of genius
which arises from knowledge and a good education. Add to this
that courage can neither have any duration, nor be of any use,
when not accompanied with discipline and martial skill, which are
seldom found among a barbarous people. The ancients remarked
that Datames was the only barbarian that ever knew the art of
And Pyrrhus, seeing the Romans marshal their army with
war.


## p. 7786 (#608) ###########################################

7786
DAVID HUME
some art and skill, said with surprise, "These barbarians have
nothing barbarous in their discipline! " It is observable that as
the old Romans, by applying themselves solely to war, were
almost the only uncivilized people that ever possessed military
discipline, so the modern Italians are the only civilized people
among Europeans that ever wanted courage and a martial spirit.
Those who would ascribe this effeminacy of the Italians to their
luxury, or politeness, or application to the arts, need but con-
sider the French and English, whose bravery is as incontestable
as their love for the arts and their assiduity in commerce.
Italian historians give us a more satisfactory reason for this
degeneracy of their countrymen. They show us how the sword
was dropped at once by all the Italian sovereigns: while the
Venetian aristocracy was jealous of its subjects, the Florentine
democracy applied itself entirely to commerce, Rome was gov-
erned by priests and Naples by women. War then became the
business of soldiers of fortune, who spared one another, and to
the astonishment of the world, could engage a whole day in what
they called a battle and return at night to their camp without
the least bloodshed.
The
What has chiefly induced severe moralists to declaim against
refinement in the arts is the example of ancient Rome, which,
joining to its poverty and rusticity virtue and public spirit, rose
to such a surprising height of grandeur and liberty: but having
learned from its conquered provinces the Asiatic luxury, fell into
every kind of corruption; whence arose sedition and civil wars,
attended at last with the total loss of liberty. All the Latin
classics whom we peruse in our infancy are full of these senti-
ments, and universally ascribe the ruin of their State to the arts
and riches imported from the East; insomuch that Sallust repre-
sents a taste for painting as a vice, no less than lewdness and
drinking. And so popular were these sentiments during the lat-
ter ages of the republic, that this author abounds in praises of
the old rigid Roman virtue, though himself the most egregious
instance of modern luxury and corruption; speaks contemptuously
of the Grecian eloquence, though the most elegant writer in the
world; nay, employs preposterous digressions and declamations to
this purpose, though a model of taste and correctness.
But it would be easy to prove that these writers mistook
the cause of the disorders in the Roman State, and ascribed to
luxury and the arts what really proceeded from an ill-modeled


## p. 7787 (#609) ###########################################

DAVID HUME
7787
government, and the unlimited extent of conquests. Refinement
on the pleasures and conveniences of life has no natural tend-
ency to beget venality and corruption. The value which all men.
put upon any particular pleasure depends on comparison and expe-
rience; nor is a porter less greedy of money which he spends
on bacon and brandy, than a courtier who purchases champagne
and ortolans. Riches are valuable at all times and to all men,
because they always purchase pleasures such as men are accus-
tomed to and desire. Nor can anything restrain or regulate the
love of money but a sense of honor and virtue; which, if it be
not nearly equal at all times, will naturally abound most in ages
of knowledge and refinement.
Of all European kingdoms, Poland seems the most defective
in the arts of war as well as peace, mechanical as well as liberal;
yet it is there that venality and corruption do most prevail. The
nobles seem to have preserved their crown elective for no other
purpose than regularly to sell it to the highest bidder. This is
almost the only species of commerce with which that people are
acquainted.
The liberties of England, so far from decaying since the im-
provements in the arts, have never flourished so much as during
that period. And though corruption may seem to increase of late
years, this is chiefly to be ascribed to our established liberty,
when our princes have found the impossibility of governing with-
out Parliaments, or of terrifying Parliaments by the phantom of
prerogative. Not to mention that this corruption or venality
prevails much more among the electors than the elected, and
therefore cannot justly be ascribed to any refinements in luxury.
If we consider the matter in a proper light, we shall find that
a progress in the arts is rather favorable to liberty, and has a
natural tendency to preserve if not produce a free government.
In rude unpolished nations, where the arts are neglected, all
labor is bestowed on the cultivation of the ground; and the whole
society is divided into two classes,― proprietors of land, and their
vassals or tenants. The latter are necessarily dependent and
fitted for slavery and subjection, especially where they possess
no riches and are not valued for their knowledge in agriculture;
as must always be the case where the arts are neglected. The
former naturally erect themselves into petty tyrants; and must
either submit to an absolute master for the sake of peace and
order, or if they will preserve their independency, like the ancient


## p. 7788 (#610) ###########################################

7788
DAVID HUME
barons, they must fall into feuds and contests among themselves,
and throw the whole society into such confusion as is perhaps
worse than the most despotic government. But where luxury
nourisnes commerce and industry, the peasants, by a proper cul-
tivation of the land, become rich and independent; while the
tradesmen and merchants acquire a share of the property, and
draw authority and consideration to that middling rank of men
who are the best and firmest basis of public liberty. These sub-
mit not to slavery, like the peasants, from poverty and meanness
of spirit; and having no hopes of tyrannizing over others, like
the barons, they are not tempted for the sake of that gratifica-
tion to submit to the tyranny of their sovereign. They covet
equal laws, which may secure their property, and preserve them
from monarchical as well as aristocratical tyranny.
The lower House is the support of our popular government;
and all the world acknowledges that it owed its chief influence
and consideration to the increase of commerce, which threw such
a balance of property into the hands of the Commons. How
inconsistent then is it to blame so violently a refinement in the
arts, and to represent it as the bane of liberty and public spirit!
To declaim against present times, and magnify the virtue
of remote ancestors, is a propensity almost inherent in human
nature. And as the sentiments and opinions of civilized ages
alone are transmitted to posterity, hence it is that we meet with
so many severe judgments pronounced against luxury and even
science; and hence it is that at present we give so ready an
assent to them. But the fallacy is easily perceived by comparing
different nations that are contemporaries; where we both judge
more impartially, and can better set in opposition those manners
with which we are sufficiently acquainted. Treachery and cruelty,
the most pernicious and most odious of all vices, seem peculiar
to uncivilized ages; and by the refined Greeks and Romans were
ascribed to all the barbarous nations which surrounded them.
They might justly therefore have presumed that their own ances-
tors, so highly celebrated, possessed no greater virtue, and were
as much inferior to their posterity in honor and humanity as in
taste and science. An ancient Frank or Saxon may be highly
extolled. But I believe every man would think his life or for-
tune much less secure in the hands of a Moor or Tartar than
those of a French or English gentleman, the rank of men the
most civilized in the most civilized nations.


## p. 7789 (#611) ###########################################

DAVID HUME
7789
We come now to the second position which we proposed to
illustrate to wit, that as innocent luxury, or a refinement in the
arts and conveniences of life, is advantageous to the public, so
wherever luxury ceases to be innocent it also ceases to be bene-
ficial; and when carried a degree farther begins to be a quality
pernicious, though perhaps not the most pernicious, to political
society.
Let us consider what we call vicious luxury. No gratification,
however sensual, can of itself be esteemed vicious. A gratifi-
cation is only vicious when it engrosses all a man's expense, and
leaves no ability for such acts of duty and generosity as are
required by his situation and fortune. Suppose that he correct
the vice, and employ part of his expense in the education of his
children, in the support of his friends, and in relieving the poor,
would any prejudice result to society? On the contrary, the
same consumption would arise; and that labor which at present
is employed only in producing a slender gratification to one man,
would relieve the necessities and bestow satisfaction on hundreds.
The same care and toil that raise a dish of pease at Christmas
would give bread to a whole family during six months.
To say
that without a vicious luxury the labor would not have been
employed at all, is only to say that there is some other defect in
human nature, such as indolence, selfishness, inattention to others,
for which luxury in some measure provides a remedy; as one
poison may be an antidote for another. But virtue, like whole-
some food, is better than poisons however corrected.
Suppose the same number of men that are at present in Great
Britain, with the same soil and climate: I ask, is it not possible
for them to be happier, by the most perfect way of life that can
be imagined, and by the greatest reformation that Omnipotence
itself could work in their temper and disposition? To assert that
they cannot, appears evidently ridiculous. As the land is able to
maintain more than all its present inhabitants, they could never
in such a Utopian State feel any other ills than those which arise
from bodily sickness; and these are not the half of human miser-
ies. All other ills spring from some vice, either in ourselves or
others; and even many of our diseases proceed from the same
origin. Remove the vices, and the ills follow. You must only
take care to remove all the vices. If you remove part, you may
render the matter worse. By banishing vicious luxury, without
curing sloth and an indifference to others, you only diminish


## p. 7790 (#612) ###########################################

DAVID HUME
7790
industry in the State, and add nothing to men's charity or their
generosity. Let us therefore rest contented with asserting that
two opposite vices in a State may be more advantageous than
either of them alone; but let us never pronounce vice in itself
advantageous. Is it not very inconsistent for an author to assert
in one page that moral distinctions are inventions of politicians
for public interest, and in the next page maintain that vice is
advantageous to the public? And indeed it seems, upon any
system of morality, little less than a contradiction in terms to talk
of a vice which is in general beneficial to society.
I thought this reasoning necessary in order to give some light
to a philosophical question which has been much disputed in
England. I call it a philosophical question, not a political one.
For whatever may be the consequence of such a miraculous
transformation of mankind as would endow them with every
species of virtue and free them from every species of vice, this
concerns not the magistrate, who aims only at possibilities. He
cannot cure every vice by substituting a virtue in its place. Very
often he can only cure one vice by another; and in that case he
ought to prefer what is least pernicious to society. Luxury when
excessive is the source of many ills; but is in general preferable
to sloth and idleness, which would commonly succeed in its place,
and are more hurtful both to private persons and to the public.
When sloth reigns, a mean uncultivated way of life prevails
amongst individuals, without society, without enjoyment. And if
the sovereign, in such a situation, demands the service of his
subjects, the labor of the State suffices only to furnish the neces-
saries of life to the laborers, and can afford nothing to those who
are employed in the public service.


## p. 7791 (#613) ###########################################

7791
LEIGH HUNT
(1784-1859)
BY ERNEST RHYS
EIGH HUNT (whose two less distinctive first names, James and
Henry, his own pen has taught us to forget) was more
American than English by descent. His father, Rev. Isaac
Hunt, was a West-Indian, who received a large part of his education
at a college in Philadelphia; his mother, Mary Shewell, came of an
old Philadelphian Quaker family. His melancholy, which certainly
did not play a leading part in his temperament, Leigh Hunt always
declared came from his mother; his mirth from his father, who had
given up his charge in the West Indies
when the War of Independence threatened,
and sailed for England, where he lived a
rather improvident life. The boy Leigh,
who was by far the youngest of the family,
was born at Southgate, County Middlesex,
October 19th, 1784; then quite a country
village. At eight years old he was sent
to Christ's Hospital, some ten years after
Charles Lamb and Coleridge had passed
their memorable school days there. Eight
years of its strong discipline, and Leigh
Hunt emerged "with much classics and no
mathematics," such being then the tradition
of the school, to spend a couple of years
in writing verses and roaming London, under the easy-going rule of
the Rev. Isaac, who collected and published a first book of his boy's
poems as early as 1801. Its contents are curious, perhaps, but not
worth preserving.

LEIGH HUNT
Some intermittent experiences as a London clerk in the attorney's
office of his brother Stephen, and in the War Office, varied by his
first essays as a dramatic critic, bring us to the climacteric point
when he joined his brother John in sundry journalistic adventures.
These, after some failures, led to the successful commencement in
1808 of the now historical Examiner newspaper, whose future seemed
so secure in the second year that Leigh Hunt felt warranted in mar-
rying Marianne Kent, to whom he had been for long affianced.


## p. 7792 (#614) ###########################################

LEIGH HUNT
7792
It was not until 1812, in its issue of March 22d, that the Exam-
iner's growing independence led it to its well-timed attack on the
vicious Prince Regent, and brought down the law on its editors'
heads. The attack was made in an outspoken leading article (one of
a series of such social criticisms), entitled 'The Prince on St. Pat-
rick's Day. Some little delay occurred in the trial; and it was even
intimated that if the editors would refrain from free speech in the
future, their offense would be passed over: but with great courage
they refused to give any such undertaking. Eventually the trial
took place in the King's Bench, Westminster, on the 9th December,
1812; and Leigh Hunt and his brother, who were defended by Lord
Brougham, were condemned to two years' imprisonment in separate
prisons and a fine of £1,000. Of the two, Leigh Hunt was sent to
Horsemonger Lane Jail. There he went on directing and writing
for the Examiner with undiminished spirit. Two numbers of its issue
for February 1813 (No. 267 and No. 268, the only ones the present
writer has seen) bear traces, as one might expect, of his political
rather than his literary pen. The paper makes somewhat the effect
of a thinner and smaller Nation, its ink a little faded, its type older
fashioned. It is sub-titled 'A Sunday Paper on Politics, Domestic
Economy, and Theatricals,' and it bears a characteristic motto from
Swift: "Party is the madness of the Many for the gain of the Few. ”
In its pages, during the time of Leigh Hunt's imprisonment from
1813 to 1815, appeared several of his best sonnets, and notably those
addressed to his favorite Hampstead; one of which follows below.
His account of how he transformed his prison cell within, by a wall-
paper of trellised roses, a ceiling of blue sky and clouds, a piano,
books, and busts, while without he contrived a little flower garden,
added to the testimony of Charles Lamb and others, tends rather to
falsify the real effect his days in jail had upon him. In truth they
left him broken in health; and he was heavily embarrassed in for-
tune, moreover, by the heavy fine. And of the new friends that he
gained among those sympathizing with his misfortune, it cannot be
considered that he was altogether fortunate, for instance, in being
thrown into contact with Lord Byron. As for Shelley and Keats, the
two names that most naturally occur, and with the most ideal effect,
in the list of Hunt's friends,—their friendship dates from before his
imprisonment. His new intercourse with Byron under Shelley's aus-
pices led to the unlucky visit of the whole Hunt family to Italy, and
the still more unlucky founding of the Liberal. There is no more
entertaining chapter in all Leigh Hunt's delightful 'Autobiography'
than that so light-heartedly relating the story of the voyage to Italy
and its results. As for the fate of the Liberal, it only ran to four
numbers, issued during 1822-3; but it is a bibliophile's prize now,


## p. 7793 (#615) ###########################################

LEIGH HUNT
7793
whether in the original parts or in the two volumes in which these
were collected in 1823. Of Leigh Hunt's other journalistic doings,
Charles Lamb's couplet reminds us of one:—
"Wit, poet, prose-man, party-man, translator,-—
Hunt, thy best title yet is Indicator. "
The Indicator, issued weekly from 1819 to 1821; previously a quar-
terly, the Reflector, continuing from 1810 to 1812; and sequently
the Companion, a weekly similar to the Indicator,-- account for many
years of sheer hard writing in Leigh Hunt's life, which was never an
idle one.
But the hardest task of the kind he set himself was the
Talker, "A Daily Journal of Literature and the Stage," consisting of
four folio pages, written with very slight exception wholly and solely
by Hunt himself, from September 4th, 1830, to February 13th, 1832. It
proved, as might have been expected, with his other avocations to be
considered, too much for his health; and on giving it up he fell back
on his favorite belle-lettristic weekly publications, in his London Jour-
nal (1834-5), and again his Journal at the latter end of his career. If
so much is said of these papers, it is because so much of his most
characteristical writing first appeared in their pages; and we have
not yet nearly exhausted the list of the periodicals to which he was
an occasional contributor.
When we turn to his books, we find in his 'Autobiography' perhaps
the most complete and individual expression of the man: his charming
fancy, his high spirits, wit, gayety, and abiding good-nature. But the
same lightness and ease of style, the same kindliness and shrewdness
of thought and observation, are to be found in his essays, so often
written currente calamo for some one of his weekly periodicals. Such
are the papers on the 'Deaths of Little Children,' 'The Old Lady,'
'The Maid-Servant,' and 'Coaches. ' His contributions, whether as a
poet or as a critic and appreciator of poetry, are, it is said, not read
as much as they were ten, twenty years ago; but they make alone a
remarkable contribution to nineteenth-century literature. His favorite
Spenser owes a new laurel to his praise.