"they be not esteemed too subtile and abstruse.'

In the following year (1748), he thus writes to his friend Mr Home, from London, when preparing to set out for the Continent with General Sinclair, whom he attended as Secretary, in his embassy to the Courts of Vienna and Turin :

"DEAR SIR,

London, Feb. 9. 1748.

"The doubt and ambiguity with which I came hither was soon removed. General Sinclair positively refused to accept of a Secretary from the Ministry; and I go along with him in the same station as before. Every body congratulates me upon the pleasure I am to reap from this jaunt : and really I have little to oppose to this prepossesion, except an inward reluctance to leave my books, and leisure and retreat. However, I am glad to find this passion still so fresh and entire; and am sure, by its means, to pass my latter days happily and cheerfully, whatever fortune may attend me.

CHAP.

IV.

BOOK I. "I leave here two works going on, a new edition of my Essays, all of which you have seen, except one, of the Protestant Succession, where I treat that subject as coolly and indifferently, as I would the dispute betwixt Cæsar and Pompey. The conclusion shows me a Whig, but a very sceptical one. Some people would frighten me with the consequences that may attend this candour, considering my present station; but I own I cannot apprehend any thing.

"The other work is the Philosophical Essays, which you dissuaded me from printing. I wont justify the prudence of this step, any other way than by expressing my indifference about all the consequences that may follow. I will expect to hear from you; as you may from me. Remember me to Mrs Home, and believe me to be yours most sincerely.

DAVID HUME."

"P. S.-We set out on Friday next for Harwich."

CHAPTER V.

Mr Home's metaphysical writings.-Essays on Morality and Natural Religion.—Object and general scope of that work.-David Hume's System of Utility as the Foundation of Morals.- His opinions concerning Cause and Effect.-Objections to Mr Home's system.-His frequent reference to Final Causes.-His doctrines keenly attacked.-Illiberal attempts to subject him to public censure.—The subject brought before the General Assembly.And Presbytery of Edinburgh.—It is finally quashed.-Mr Home retracts some opinions as er

roneous.

AMIDST all the pressure of Mr Home's professional employment, when now at the head of the bar, he still found leisure for those metaphysical speculations to which his mind was peculiarly turned. In the attentive examination which his regard for their author led him to bestow on the writings of

CHAP.
V.

Mr Home's

metaphysi

cal writ

ings.

Essays on

Morality

and Natu

ral Reli

gion.

BOOK I.

agency of

man,

David Hume, he perceived a train of con-
clusions drawn by that acute metaphysician,
which deeply affected the great interests of
society, and seemed to shake the founda-
tion of the moral
and con-
sequently both of his right conduct in the
present life, and of his best grounded hopes
of futurity. We see from a passage in the
foregoing correspondence, that he had en-
deavoured to dissuade his friend from pu-
blishing those Philosophical Essays, in which
the principal doctrines of the Treatise on
Human Nature are clothed in a more orna-
mented dress, and their perusal thus ren-
dered more likely to be generally extended;
and as his endeavours had been unsuccess-
ful for the suppression of those opinions, it
now became his earnest concern to counter-
act their pernicious influence, by exposing
the error and sophistry of the reasonings on
which they are founded. This seems to
have been the main scope and purpose of a
work which he published in the year 1751,
entitled, Essays on the Principles of Mora-
lity and Natural Religion.

The object of this work, which though in the form of detached disquisitions, has sufficient unity of design, is to prove, that the great laws of morality, which influence the conduct of man as a social being, have their foundation in the human constitution; and are as certain and immutable as those physical laws which regulate the whole system of nature: Hence he argues, that as a just survey of the natural world, and an examination of the moral constitution of man, furnish alike the most pregnant and convincing evidence of order, harmony and beauty, which evince the utmost skill, combined with the most benevolent design, we are thus irresistibly led to the perception of a FIRST CAUSE, unbounded in power, intelligence and goodness.

A work of this kind, involving a connected chain of argument on topics of the most abstruse nature, is no proper subject for analysis or abstract. Yet, it is not difficult to unfold in a few words the leading train of thought which runs through these Essays,

СНАР.

V.

Object and

general that work.

scope of