David Hume letters criticising 'empty, conceited' school teacher raise £100,000 at auction
Letters written by philosopher David Hume criticising a headteacher who taught a friend’s son have gone under the hammer for over £100,000.
The letters, sold by Bonhams auction house, are from Mr Hume and one of his closest friends, William Mure of Caldwell, MP for Renfrewshire, baron of the Scottish exchequer and rector of Glasgow University.
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Hide AdThe correspondence, written between 1763 and 1770, describe the “empty, conceited” teacher known only as Graffigni, who reportedly taught Mr Mure’s son at a London school.
They also give an insight into Mr Hume’s own views on education.
In the letters, Mr Hume, who was born in Edinburgh in 1711, wrote of the teacher: “He is an empty, conceited Fellow, full of Chimeras and Pretensions; and I think you are at no great Loss for parting with him.”
Another went on to criticise the way Latin was taught in the school.
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Hide AdHe wrote: “[I am] unimpressed with the progress of "...your young Folks..." in Greek and Latin as they are not taught Grammar but are "...only instructed in the Sense of single detach'd Words... I doubt a dead Language can never be learnt in this manner... “
However, in a separate letter, he reported after a visit that Mr Mure’s sons were doing well at school.
He wrote: "They are really well in every thing that concerns Health and Exercise... improving in English and also in French and will now go on in Latin... Graffigni's Conceits, tho' they appear to me nonsensical can do them no hurt..."
The rediscovered collection of six letters were bought by an unknown collector for £102,000 at Bonhams auctioneers in London.
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Hide AdMatthew Haley, managing director of Bonhams Knightsbridge, said: “Hume took a very keen interest in education and, in particular, the education of his close friend William Mure’s sons.
“In these letters Hume reports back about how Mure’s sons are doing. He is doing his best to maintain the standards of education and he clearly doesn’t approve of the way the boys are being taught.
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“He writes a character assassination of the boys’ tutor and expresses his own ideas on the teaching of subjects like French and Latin.
“He comes up with ideas like ‘the French language is very useful, and if not acquired when young, never is thoroughly learned’.”
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Hide AdIn 2020, a well-known Edinburgh University building named after David Hume was renamed over the philosopher's "comments on matters of race".
An online petition claiming David Hume "wrote racist epithets" and calling for the David Hume Tower to be renamed was signed more than 1,700 times, resulting in a decision from the university to rename it as 40 George Square.
The move came after a protestor drew attention to the philosopher’s 1753 essay, Of National Characters, in which he voiced his suspicion that “negroes” are “naturally inferior to the whites”.
The university said Hume's comments on race, "though not uncommon at the time, rightly cause distress today."
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