Historical footnote: It once sucked to be David Hume

George W. Bush sustains himself with the knowledge that many men, who once it sucked to be, are now favored by history. I love this, by David Hume, April, 1776.

"I was, I own, sanguine in my expectations of the success of this work. I thought that I was the only historian, that had at once neglected present power, interest and authority, and the cry of popular prejudices; and as the subject was suited to every capacity, I expected proportional applause.

But miserable was my disappointment: I was assailed by one cry of reproach, disapprobation, and even detestation: English, Scotch, and Irish, Whig and Tory, churchman and sectary, freethinker and religionist, patriot and courtier, united in their rage against the man, who had presumed to shed a generous tear for Charles 1 and the Earl of Strafford; and after the first ebullitions of their fury were over, what was still more mortifying, the book seemed to sink into oblivion. Mr. Miller told me, that in a twelvemonth he sold only forty-five copies of it. I scarcely, indeed, heard of one man in the three kingdoms, considerable for rank or letters, that could endure the book."
From "My Own Life" by David Hume, April 18, 1776

But for the breakout of war between France and England, Hume notes, "I had certainly retired to some provincial town of the former kingdom, have changed my name, and never more have returned to my native country."

But, like Bush, Hume was congenitally inclined to optimism in times when it sucked to be he, so he didn't retire and we now have his delightful Essays. Let's hope something just a fraction as good survives to cast a better light on this administration.