David Hume

Epistula historico Eduardo Gibbon missa

in Latinum a viro docto Cantabrigiensi Jacobo S. Reid anno 1895 conversa

Dionysius Silvanus Humberto, Victorio, cuncto Gregi plurimam salutem.

Victorius scripserat:

Atque tam opportune nos de illo loco Gibboniano Latine reddito certiores fecisti, Dionysi optime, ut, nisi molestus tibi viderer, ex commodo tuo alios historici illius locos nobis mittas Latine translatos te non sine maximis gratiis apertius orarem.

Dionysius repondet:

Cum plura eiusdem generis petas, mi Victori optime, strenam tibi sodalibusque nostris nunc do: epistulam philosophi David Hume historico Eduardo Gibbon missam et in Latinum a viro docto Cantabrigiensi Jacobo S. Reid anno 1895 conversam.

 

Cum libros tuos historiarum acerrimo studio et mira legendi aviditate evoluerim, non possum quin nunc etiam eiusdem aviditatis non nihil prae me feram, dum pro acceptissimo isto munere gratias tibi refero, et quantum ex tuo opere voluptatis perceperim demonstro. Sive enim orationis tuae gravitatem, sive rerum ipsarum maiestatem respicio, sive amplissimos istos doctrinarum thesauros, omnibus nominibus laudandum opus agnosco; atque idem confiteor me, nisi iam antea fortuna dedisset ut tua ipsius familiaritate uterer, admirationis aliquid suscepturum fuisse, quod civis vester, his praesertim temporibus, litteras tam praeclaras conscripsisset. Forsitan hoc sentiendo risum tibi commoverim; quod tamen mihi videbantur cives tui hos viginti annos prope continuos immanibus atque ineptis rei publicae contentionibus sese dedisse, et studia humanitatis ac litterarum prorsus abiecisse, idcirco nihil eos sperabam posse utile in medium proferre. Illud autem certo scio tibi fore pergratum, quod mihi fuit, doctos urbis nostrae homines omnis uno consensu laudes maximas tuis libris tribuere et ut plura scribas cupidissimis votis exoptare. [tr. James S. Reid]

["As I ran through your volume of history with great avidity and impatience, I cannot forbear discovering somewhat of the same impatience in returning you thanks for your agreeable present, and expressing the satisfaction which the performance has given me. Whether I consider the dignity of your style, the depth of your matter, or the extensiveness of your learning, I must regard the work as equally the object of esteem; and I own that if I had not previously had the happiness of your personal acquaintance, such a performance from an Englishman in our age would have given me some surprise. You may smile at this sentiment; but as it seems to me that your countrymen, for almost a whole generation, have given themselves up to barbarous and absurd faction, and have totally neglected all polite letters, I no longer expected any valuable production to come from them. I know it will give you pleasure, as it did me, to find that all the men of letters in this place concur in their admiration of your work, and in their anxious desire of your continuing it." - Hume to Gibbon]

 

Vale et valete quam optime.

Datae Kal. Ian. a.s.n. MMI e Britannia.