ABSTRACT
David Hume has always proved an elusive figure in the history of eighteenth-century taste. E. C. Mossner’s summation is perhaps too sweeping -Hume’s “stated theory is of a broad classicicism; his implicit theory is of a broad Romanticism; while his applied criticism is of a narrow Classicism intolerantly interpreted” – but it does testify to the apparant confusion and the frustration of one highly sympathetic commentator. Many of Hume’s successors would have none of this backtracking, and were happy to name the classics as a dangerous influence. As Hume himself had shown in his essays, a clear-eyed view of political realities could both indicate potential strengths, and dispel that confusing whiggish haze of blowsy optimism and improbable models. Hume’s “narrow” classicism and even his strong Augustan preferences do not put him at odds with most of his contemporaries, even in the 1760’s, and the final conservativism of the History is fully consistent with his earlier assaults on political fantasy.
