Hume did so much towards the completion of that circle of knowledge with which the historian has to deal, that he was the first to add to a mere narrative of events, an inquiry into the progress of the people, and of their arts, literature, manners, and general social condition. This attempt was so original, that, as it embodied in some measure the theory developed in Voltaire's "Essai sur les Moeurs," first published in 1756, when the first volume of the "History of the Stuarts" had been two years before the public, it was supposed that Hume might have borrowed the idea from some fragments of that work which had been surreptitiously printed with the title "Abrégé de l'Histoire Universelle." There seems to be no room, however, for such a supposition. Hume's own "Political Discourses" are as close an approach to this method of inquiry as the work of Voltaire; and if we look for such productions of other writers as may have led him into this train of thought, it would be more just to name Bacon and Montesquieu.[129:1] The works of such authors as Guizot and Hallam may teach us that much had to be added to Hume's system of historical composition, to render it perfect; but they do so in the same manner as the last steam engine shows us how many improvements have been made on the inventions of Watt. * * * * * We now resume the correspondence with Millar. The letter immediately following, puts beyond a doubt, what had only been partially believed, that Hume had, at one time, expressed an intention of writing an ecclesiastical history. Of the manner in which he would have executed such a task, opinions will widely vary. HUME _to_ ANDREW MILLAR. "_Edinburgh, 15th March, 1762._ "DEAR SIR,--I am very glad that you are in so good a way, and that you think so soon of making a new edition. I am running over both the ancient history and the Tudors, and shall send you them up by the wagon as soon as they are corrected. Please tell Mr. Strahan, to keep carefully this copy I send up, as well as that which I left of the Stuarts; for if you intend to print an octavo edition next summer, it will be better to do it from these copies which are corrected, than from the new edition, where there will necessarily be some errors of the press. "I give you full authority to contradict the report, that I am writing or intend to write an ecclesiastical history; I have no such intention; and I believe never shall. I am beginning to love peace very much, and resolve to be more cautious than formerly in creating myself enemies. But in contradicting this report, you will be so good as not to impeach Mr. Mallet's veracity; for 'tis certain I said to Lord Chesterfield (from whom Mr. Mallet first had it) that I had entertained such a thought; but my saying so proceeded less from any serious purpose, than from a view of trying how far such an idea would be relished by his lordship.