OF THE SOUL. 223 



crisis of thought had to be faced, which was marked by 

 the writings of David Hume. 1 Similar demands pre- 

 sented themselves when in Germany the original but 

 fragmentary ideas of Leibniz had to be worked into 

 a system which should form the basis of university 

 teaching. Again, the same practical problem had to be 

 solved when during the Eestoration in France the great 

 teachers of philosophy had to meet the demands made 

 upon them by the official system of higher instruction. 

 The way in which this practical problem was solved 

 differed in all the three cases according to the genius of 

 the nation, the prejudices, the exigencies, and the sur- 

 roundings of the age. There are two distinct ways in 

 which the teacher of any large subject can make up for 

 the deficiencies which his personal knowledge or that of 

 his age must necessarily contain. No doubt both ways 

 are generally resorted to. He can either appeal to 

 custom, and tradition, or he can extend the principles 

 and ideas which have proved fruitful in the treatment 

 of restricted fields to the whole of the region which he 

 desires to cultivate. In the degree in which he gives 

 more weight to the one or to the other of these methods, 

 his teaching will become practical or abstract, con- 

 ventional or revolutionary, satisfying on the one side 



1 We know that in 1744 David taught had he been elected Pro- 

 Hume was anxious " to be appointed fessor of Moral Philosophy in Edin- 

 Professor of Moral Philosophy in \ burgh. I believe he would have 

 the University of Edinburgh, but . expounded a utilitarian theory, 

 public sentiment could not bear : ending in the recommendation of 

 the idea of one so sceptical being the pleasant social virtues ; speak - 

 appointed a teacher of youth " ing always respectfully of the Di- 

 (M'Cosh, p. 124). vine Being, but leaving His exist- 



" People have often speculated ence an unsettled question " (ibid. , 



as to what Hume would have p. 153). 



