Hume, David (1711-1776)

The Stoic [from Essays Moral and Political]

1742

"What satisfaction, when he looks within, to find the most turbulent passions tuned to just harmony and concord, and every jarring sound banished from this enchanting music!"

In the true sage and patriot are united whatever can distinguish human nature, or elevate mortal man to a resemblance with the divinity. The softest benevolence, the most undaunted resolution, the tenderest sentiments, the most sublime love of virtue, all these animate successively his transported bosom. What satisfaction, when he looks within, to find the most turbulent passions tuned to just harmony and concord, and every jarring sound banished from this enchanting music! If the contemplation, even of inanimate beauty, is so delightful; if it ravishes the senses, even when the fair form is foreign to us: What must be the effects of moral beauty? And what influence must it have, when it embellishes our own mind, and is the result of our own reflection and industry?
(p. 153)

Music::Tuning

Reading

At least 15 entries in ESTC (1742, 1748, 1753, 1757, 1758, 1760, 1764, 1768, 1770, 1777, 1779, 1780, 1784, 1793, 1800).

First published in Essays, Moral and Political. Volume II. (Edinburgh: Printed for A. Kincaid, near the Cross, by R. Fleming and A. Alison, 1742). <Link to ESTC>

Text from Past Masters and Online Library of Liberty. Reading Essays, Moral, Political and Literary, rev. ed. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987). The Liberty Fund editor, Eugene F. Miller, takes the 1777 edition of Hume's essays as his copy text.

02/20/2011