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Unit 19: David Hume-of Essay Writing: Introduction and Detailed Study

Conversation. Even Philosophy went to Wrack by this moaping recluse Method of Study, and Notes
became as chimerical in her Conclusions as she was unintelligible in her Stile and Manner of
Delivery. And indeed, what cou’d be expected from Men who never consulted Experience in any
of their Reasonings, or who never search’d for that Experience, where alone it is to be found, in
common Life and Conversation?
’Tis with great Pleasure I observe, That Men of Letters, in this Age, have lost, in a great Measure,
that Shyness and Bashfulness of Temper, which kept them at a Distance from Mankind; and, at the
same Time, That Men of the World are proud of borrowing from Books their most agreeable
Topics of Conversation. ’Tis to be hop’d, that this League betwixt the learned and conversible
Worlds, which is so happily begun, will be still farther improv’d to their mutual Advantage; and
to that End, I know nothing more advantageous than such Essays as these with which I endeavour
to entertain the Public. In this View, I cannot but consider myself as a Kind of Resident or
Ambassador from the Dominions of Learning to those of Conversation; and shall think it my
constant Duty to promote a good Correspondence betwixt these two States, which have so great a
Dependence on each other. I shall give Intelligence to the Learned of whatever passes in Company,
and shall endeavour to import into Company whatever Commodities I find in my native Country
proper for their Use and Entertainment. The Balance of Trade we need not be jealous of, nor will
there be any Difficulty to preserve it on both Sides. The Materials of this Commerce must chiefly
be furnish’d by Conversation and common Life: The manufacturing of them alone belongs to
Learning.
As ‘twou’d be an unpardonable Negligence in an Ambassador not to pay his Respects to the
Sovereign of the State where he is commission’d to reside; so it wou’d be altogether inexcusable in
me not to address myself, with a particular Respect, to the Fair Sex, who are the Sovereigns of the
Empire of Conversation. I approach them with Reverence; and were not my Countrymen, the
Learned, a stubborn independent Race of Mortals, extremely jealous of their Liberty, and
unaccustom’d to Subjection, I shou’d resign into their fair Hands the sovereign Authority over the
Republic of Letters. As the Case stands, my Commission extends no farther, than to desire a
League, offensive and defensive, against our common Enemies, against the Enemies of Reason
and Beauty, People of dull Heads and cold Hearts. From this Moment let us pursue them with the
severest Vengeance: Let no Quarter be given, but to those of sound Understandings and delicate
Affections; and these Characters, ’tis to be presum’d, we shall always find inseparable.
To be serious, and to quit the Allusion before it be worn thread-bare, I am of Opinion, that
Women, that is, Women of Sense and Education (for to such alone I address myself) are much
better Judges of all polite Writing than Men of the same Degree of Understanding; and that ’tis a
vain Pannic, if they be so far terrify’d with the common Ridicule that is levell’d against learned
Ladies, as utterly to abandon every Kind of Books and Study to our Sex. Let the Dread of that
Ridicule have no other Effect, than to make them conceal their Knowledge before Fools, who are
not worthy of it, nor of them. Such will still presume upon the vain Title of the Male Sex to affect
a Superiority above them: But my fair Readers may be assur’d, that all Men of Sense, who know
the World, have a great Deference for their Judgment of such Books as ly within the Compass of
their Knowledge, and repose more Confidence in the Delicacy of their Taste, tho’ unguided by
Rules, than in all the dull Labours of Pedants and Commentators. In a neighbouring Nation,
equally famous for good Taste, and for Gallantry, the Ladies are, in a Manner, the Sovereigns of
the learned World, as well as of the conversible; and no polite Writer pretends to venture upon the
Public, without the Approbation of some celebrated Judges of that Sex. Their Verdict is, indeed,
sometimes complain’d of; and, in particular, I find, that the Admirers of Corneille, to save that
great Poet’s Honour upon the Ascendant that Racine began to take over him, always said, That it
was not to be expected, that so old a Man could dispute the Prize, before such Judges, with so
young a Man as his Rival. But this Observation has been found unjust, since Posterity seems to

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