Hume, who had practically grown in the same soil as Voltaire, was only three years behind him in the historic field.

The _Age of Louis XIV._ was published in 1751, and the first volume of the _History of England_ in 1754.

Hume was no disciple of Voltaire; he simply wrote under the stimulus of the same order of ideas.

Robertson, who shortly followed him, no doubt drew direct inspiration from Voltaire, and his weightiest achievement, the View of the State of Europe, prefixed to his _History of Charles V._, was largely influenced, if it was not absolutely suggested, by the _Essay on Manners_.

But both Hume and Robertson surpassed their masters, if we allow, as seems right, that the French were their masters.