Description:

Hume David

David Hume extremely rare signed note to his dear friend William Mure


Autographed signed note on laid paper, signed and dated by David Hume as "12th Sept 1754/David Hume", 7.25" x 2". Presented floated, matted, framed, and glazed with a 3.75" x 4.75" reproduction painting. Fully framed measuring 14.75" x 17". Faint creasing, with very light soiling, else near fine.


A stunning presentation of a scarce signed autographed note by David Hume, written to his close personal friend and correspondent, William Mure, a Scottish lawyer and politician. Hume was a frequent visitor at Mure’s home Abby Hill near Holyrood. In this note, he laments being unable to visit as shown below in full:


"I am sorry to be obliged to excuse myself to Mrs. Mure & you. The present Emptiness of the Town gives me the finest opportunity for Study; and not with standing all my purposes of seeing you, I am afraid I must delay it till another Season. Why are you not nearer the Town. To go backwards & forwards would almost consume a Week.


I am Dear Sir Yours sincerely


…12th Sept 1754 David Hume"


Hume's philosophical beliefs are rooted in empiricism, skepticism and naturalism. He strove to create a total naturalistic science of man that stressed first, the psychological basis of human nature, and second, that passion rather than reason governs human behavior. Hume argued against the existence of innate ideas, positing that all human knowledge is ultimately founded solely in experience, and thus believed that genuine knowledge must either be directly traceable to objects perceived in experience, or result from abstract reasoning about relations between ideas which are derived from experience. Abstract reasoning about relations between ideas derived from experience was given the name Hume's fork.


At the time of this letter, Hume was in the midst of writing and publishing his six volume The History of England (between 1754 and 1762), and with its publication, Hume finally achieved the fame that he coveted.


This letter does not appear in the most up-to-date conspectus of extant Hume letters (Waldman, Further Letters of David Hume, Edinburgh, 2014). A delightful note between close friends, with a wonderful association. There may be text not present, but the content is complete in and of itself. The last of the very few Hume letters to appear at auction fetched $16,000 and a simple signature over $6,000.


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