208 HUME ix 



The more one knows of the real conditions which 

 determine men's acts the less one finds either to 

 praise or blame. For kindly David Hume, " the 

 damnation of one man is an infinitely greater evil 

 in the universe than the subversion of a thousand 

 million of kingdoms/' And he would have felt 

 with his countryman Burns, that even " auld 

 Nickie Ben " should " hae a chance." 



As against those who reason for the necessity of 

 a future state, in order that the justice of the 

 Deity may be satisfied, Hume's argumentation 

 appears unanswerable. For if the justice of God 

 resembles what we mean by justice, the bestowal 

 of infinite happiness for finite well-doing and in- 

 finite misery for finite ill-doing, it is in no sense 

 just. And, if the justice of God does not resemble 

 what we mean by justice, it is an abuse of lan- 

 guage to employ the name of justice for the attri- 

 bute described by it. But, as against those who 

 choose to argue that there is nothing in what 

 is known to us of the attributes of the Deity in- 

 consistent with a future state of rewards and 

 punishments, Hume's pleadings have no force. 

 Bishop Butler's argument that, inasmuch as the 

 visitation of our acts by rewards and punishments 

 takes place in this life, rewards and punishments 

 must be consistent with the attributes of the 

 Deity, and therefore may go on as long as the 

 mind endures, is unanswerable. Whatever exists 

 is, by the hypothesis, existent by the will of God; 



