Sir William Temple, “the Hume of the Seventeenth Century”

This essay attempts to resituate and revaluate the writings of William Temple (1628-1699) as a major English writer of the late seventeenth century. Although Temple was widely read in his time and throughout the eighteenth century, he has been largely forgotten in recent literary history. This essay, which is intended to serve as a preamble to a separate study of Temple's essays, focuses on Temple's political writings and aims to correct the nineteenth-century dismissal of Temple-in particular, Macaulay's judgment that "He was no profound thinker." In order properly to recover Temple's significance in English history, it is important to attend to his role in the seventeenth-century Anglo-Dutch Wars and Anglo-Dutch relations. Another important context is the history of English political thought. Although Temple was not a political philosopher, he was a significant interlocutor with David Hume. This essay examines the relation between Temple and Hume, tracing Hume's published commentaries on Temple's works as well as points of convergence in their political writings. It also tests C. B. Macpherson's statement that Temple was "the Hume of the seventeenth century" by noting their differences in writing style and theoretical orientation. Rather than propounding a theory of direct influence, this essay thus attempts to foreground a relationship of intellectual sympathy between the two thinkers that can help us recognize Temple's lasting contribution to English politics and literature.