I’ve just read about a set of David Hume’s letters being auctioned, and I have to say that were I ridiculously wealthy, I would absolutely spend all my money making sure things like this were safely archived in museums where people could see them, and where they would be protected from the elements and ravages of time.
He was such an extraordinary writer, his snide turns of phrase, his elegant dismissal of the external divine, his belief that humanity was humanity’s greatest hope and enemy. These were letters to a friend, and they stayed in that family from the 1700s until now. I hope the purchaser puts, at the very least, archival copies of the letters online, so we can read them.
#hume #philosophy #empiricism #skeptics #enlightenment
https://www.bonhams.com/auction/29882/lot/9/hume-david-series-of-six-autograph-letters-to-his-friend-william-mure-of-caldwell-1718-1776-and-one-contemporary-copy-7/
A primer on Hume: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hume