"--(III. 135.)
And it is perhaps as surprising to be told, by a man of Hume's literary
power, that the first polite prose in the English language was written
by Swift. Locke and Temple (with whom Sprat is astoundingly conjoined)
"knew too little of the rules of art to be esteemed elegant writers,"
and the prose of Bacon, Harrington, and Milton is "altogether stiff and
pedantic." Hobbes, who whether he should be called a "polite" writer or
not, is a master of vigorous English; Clarendon, Addison, and Steele
(the last two, surely, were "polite" writers in all conscience) are not
mentioned.
On the subject of _National Character_, about which more nonsense, and
often very mischievous nonsense, has been and is talked than upon any
other topic, Hume's observations are full of sense and shrewdness. He
distinguishes between the _moral_ and the _physical_ causes of national
character, enumerating under the former--
"The nature of the government, the revolutions of public affairs,
the plenty or penury in which people live, the situation of the
nation with regard to its neighbours, and such like
circumstances."--(III. 225.)
and under the latter:--
"Those qualities of the air and climate, which are supposed to work
insensibly on the temper, by altering the tone and habit of the
body, and giving a particular complexion, which, though reflexion
and reason may sometimes overcome it, will yet prevail among the
generality of mankind, and have an influence on their
manners.
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