Humbert, a French theologian, was bom at Gcn- drex, near Paris, about the midille of the 13th century. In July, 1296, he was elected abbe of Prulli, in the dio- cese of Sens, and he died there March 14, 1298. He wrote several theological and philosophical works, all of which remain unprinted. His most important work is Sententim super libros Metaphysicce. A ristotelis, a com- mentary on Aristotle's metaphysics. — Hoefer, Nouveau Biog. Generale, xxv, 485 ; Hist. Litt. de la France, xxi, 86.
Humble Access, Prayer of, is a phrase in some churches for a divine supplication made by the priest luieeling at the altar before the consecration.
Hume, David, the most notable man of letters and speculation in Scotland during the last centuiy. He was almost equally eminent as a metaphysician, a his- torian, and a political essayist. He was born at Edin-' burgh AprU 26 (O. S.), 1711. On his father's side he
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was velatcd to the earls of Tlome or Hume, and through his motlier he was the grandson of Sir David Falconer, lord president of the court of justice. His father was not rich, but he was an independent proprietor, owning the estate of Ninewells, in Berwickshire. Eut Uavitl was the younger son, and was entitled to only a small share of his father's substance. He was left an orphan in his infancy, and, with his brother and one sister, de- pended on the sole care of his excellent mother. He passed without special note through the University, and was designed for the Scotch bar, but he had no taste for the profession -, and having spent seven years at home at Ninewells, after leaving college, ostensibly engaged in studying the sages of the law, he visited Bristol in 1733 with some mercantile aspirations. Thence, after a few months of disgust, he passed over into France, and took up his abode first at Kheinis, and afterwards at La Flechi. Here he devoted himself to philosophy for life, and composed his Treatise of Human Nature. It was in a discussion with one of the Jesuit fathers of La Flechi that the celebrated argument against miracles flashed upon his mind. The Treatise of Human Nature was published in 1737, after his return to England. He says himself of it, " It fell dead-born from the press." The family home at Ninewells was again his shelter, and here he renewed his studies and extended his spec- ulations. In 1742 he published the first part of his Es- says, Mural and Political, which, in his opinion, met witii cdHsidirable favor. Still, he had obtained no as- sured provision in life. He was disappointed in an ap- plication for a professorship in the University of Edin- bur'!;h, and in 1745 he accepted the charge of the mar- quis of Annandale. With him he resided twelve im- pleasant months, but he derived some emolument from the association. In 174G he became secretary to gen- eral St. Clair, whom in 1747 he attended on his military embassy to Vienna and Turin. The Inquiry conceTning the Human Undeistanding — a recast of the first part of his first treatise — was published while he was at Turin. In 1749 he resought his old refuge at NmeweUs, and oc- cupied himself with the composition of his Political Discourses, and his Inquiry into the 2)rinciples of Mor- als. The former constituted the second part of his es- says; the latter was a revision and modification of the second part of his Treatise of Human Nature, which has always been better known in Germany than in England. In 1751, on the marriage of his brother, he abandoned the famih' seat, and, in company with his sister, made a new home in Edinburgh. He applied for a chair in the University of Glasgow, but again failed. In 1752 he accepted the post of librarian to the Advocates' Li- brary in Edinbiugh, but transferred nearly all his small salary to the blind poet, Blacklock. He now engaged in the composition of his History of England, which had attracted his regards some years before. The partisan temper in which it is designed is revealed by the period which he first took up. He plunged in medias res, or, rather, he commenced nearly at the end, and worked backwards. From -its publication Hume experienced such hostility and disappointment that he would have changed his name and retired to the Continent if he had not been prevented by the occurrence of the Seven Years' War. The first volume of the History of Eng- /anc/ appeared in 1754 ; the second in 1756 or 1757. Be- tween the two was published the Natural History of Religion (8vo), which was answered by bishop Hurd. The History of the House of Tudor came out in two vol- umes in 1759 ; and in 1761, two volumes, containing the early history of England, completed the work, which, be- fore its conclusion, was recognised as an English classic, and still is justly so regarded. If the work encountered various and violent opposition, it gradually achieved eminent popularity, and rendered the author " not only independent, but opulent." Being now '• turned of fifty," he resolved to spend the remainder of his life in philosophical dignity and comfortable retirement. The resolve was of no long duration. The marquis of Hert- TV— C c
ford invited Hume, with whom he was personally un- acquainted, to become his secretary of legation at the French court. The distinguished philosopher and his- torian was received with marked attentions and flatter- ies by the eminent persons assembled at Paris. It was the period when the union of infidel sentiments with literary renown had become the rage in the most bril- liant salons. After two years lord Hertford was recall- ed, but Hume remained as charge d'affaires till 17GG, and received a pension of ,£400 for his diplomatic ser- vices. The " canny Scot" had become a rich old bach- elor, and was able to extend his patronage and aid to Rousseau on his arrival in England, and even to procure for him the offer of a pension from the crown. These favors ended in a quarrel between the protected and the protector, of which an account was given by the latter in a pamphlet. About this time Hume became under- secretary of state, and held the office for two years, re- turning to Edinburgh in 1769. Here he passed the re- maining j-ears of his life, with the exception of a brief visit to Harrowgate and Bath, and it was shortly before setting out on this journey, imdertaken for the restora- tion of his decUning health, that he wrote his Autobiog- raphy. He had been attacked with diarrhcea in the spring of 1775, and succumbed to the disease on Sun- day, Aug. 25, 1776. He was serene in life, he was ecjual- ly serene in death. If Christianity had no consolations fcr an expiring foe, the grave presented no terrors to the man who had cavilled about all religion. Yet few persons will assent to the unmeasured eulogy of Adam Smith, who " considered him, both in his life, and since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a per- fectly wise and virtuous man as perhaps the nature cf human frailty will permit." But Smith, notwithstand- ing this testimony, refused to publish the Dialogues on Natural Religion, though a special legacy of £200 was attached to such publication. They were not given to the world until 1779, and then by the agency of Hume's nephew. His Life, icritten by himself, with a Letter from Adam Smith giving an Account of his Death, appeared in 1777 (Lond. 8vo). A better view of the life and the character of Hume than this edition of his autobiogra- phy is given in the A utoUography of A lexander Carlyle (Edinb. and N. Y. 1860).