SOURCE: “Women, Religion, and Zeal: Hume's Rhetoric in the History of England,” in Compendious Conversations: The Method of Dialogue in the Early Enlightenment, edited by Kevin L. Cope, Peter Lang, 1992, pp. 279-89.

In the essay that follows, Kennelly criticizes Hume's History of England, which she believes is “sadly lacking in gender sensitivity and respect for religion and zealous believers (in any cause).”

It has been said that David Hume's History of England (1754-1762) represented a “last ditch attempt to make himself heard.”¹ If so, it seems to have been a successful attempt. While the sales of Essays, Moral and Political (in the 1740s) did not enable him to live as a man of letters, the sales of his History and the reputation it brought him, did. What Hume seems most to have wanted his readers to “hear” was an impartial account of the religious/political situation surrounding the...