202 HUME ix 



the end of the corporeal series, or goes on after 

 the existence of the body has ended. And, in 

 both cases, there arises the further question, 

 whether the excess of duration of the mental 

 series over that of the body, is finite or in- 

 finite. 



Hume has discussed some of these questions in 

 the remarkable essay " On the Immortality of the 

 Soul," which was not published till after his death, 

 and which seems long to have remained but little 

 known. Nevertheless, indeed, possibly, for that 

 reason, its influence has been manifested in un- 

 expected quarters, and its main arguments have 

 been adduced by archiepiscopal and episcopal 

 authority in evidence of the value of revelation. 

 Dr. Whately,* sometime Archbishop of Dublin, 

 paraphrases Hume, though he forgets to cite him; 

 and Bishop Courtenay's elaborate work,f dedicat- 

 ed to the Archbishop, is a development of that 

 prelate's version of Hume's essay. 



This little piece occupies only some ten pages, 

 but it is not wonderful that it attracted an acute 

 logician like Whately, for it is a model of clear 

 and vigorous statement. The argument hardly 



* Essays on Some of the Peculiarities of the Christian 

 Religion, (Essay I. Revelation of a Future State), by Rich- 

 ard Whately, D. D., Archbishop of Dublin. Fifth Edition, 

 revised, 1846. 



f The Future States : their Evidences and Nature ; con- 

 sidered on Principles Physical. Moral, and Scriptural, 

 with the Design of showing the Value of the Gospel Revela- 

 tion, by the Right Rev. Reginald Courtenay, D. D., Lord 

 Bishop of Kingston (Jamaica), 1857. 



