He had, however, little faith in the king's measures . " His Majesty's businesses, " he writes in 1641, " run in their wonted channel subtle designs of gaining the popular opinion and weak executions for the up-holding of monarchy . " His fidelity to Charles was of a personal, not of a political nature . " My duty and loyalty have taught me to follow my king, " he declares, " and by the grace of God nothing shall divert me from it . " This devotion to the king, the fact that he was the agent and " prot�g?" of Buckingham, and that his wife Olivia, daughter of John Boteler, 1st Baron Boteler of Bramfield, and niece of Buckingham, was a zealous Roman Catholic, drew upon him the hostility of the opposite faction.
22.
Perhaps most notable is Hume's revelation of his own retrospective judgment that his philosophical debut's apparent failure " had proceeded more from the manner than the matter . " Hume thus suggests that " I had been guilty of a very usual indiscretion, in going to the press too early . " Hume provides an unambiguous self-assessment of the relative value of his works : " my Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals; which, in my own opinion ( who ought not to judge on that subject ) is of all my writings, historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best . " Hume also makes a number of self-assessments in the essay, writing of his social relations that " My company was not unacceptable to the young and careless, as well as to the studious and literary ", noting of his complex relation to religion, as well as the state, that " though I wantonly exposed myself to the rage of both civil and religious factions, they seemed to be disarmed in my behalf of their wonted fury ", and professing of his character that " My friends never had occasion to vindicate any one circumstance of my character and conduct . " Hume concludes the essay with the frank admission : " I cannot say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not a misplaced one; and this is a matter of fact which is easily cleared and ascertained ."
