364 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



53. 



Hume on 

 Religion. 



predated only in the light of subsequent develop- 

 ments, we may probably exhaust what is important 

 in British contributions to our subject by referring to 

 three or four names in the course of the last one 

 hundred and fifty years. There are, first and foremost 

 and by no means out of date Hume's writings, which 

 deal sceptically from various points of view with the 

 religious problem. In addition to the ' Essay on 

 Miracles ' already referred to, we have repeated treat- 

 ment of the subject: in the 'Inquiry' (1748, section 

 xi.) ; in the ' Natural History of Eeligion ' (1757) ; and, 

 lastly, in the ' Dialogues concerning Natural Eeligion ' 

 (posthumously published 1779, but written before 

 1751). The subject was no doubt of great interest to 

 Hume, as is testified not only by these writings but also 

 by his private correspondence ; the latter also shows that 

 the author was as much aware of the inconclusiveness of 

 his arguments as his biographers and numerous critics 

 have been, who have found it difficult to decide what 

 definite position, if any, Hume really arrived at. 1 Per- 

 haps he did not feel as keenly as thinkers since his 



1 The best account of Hume's 

 pertinent speculations is to be 

 found in Huxley's volume, ' Hume ' 

 (John Morley's ' English Men of 

 Letters,' 1902). Fully one-third 

 of the little volume is devoted to 

 the religious and ethical problems, 

 and of this a very large portion 

 consists merely of extracts from 

 Hume's works, very judiciously 

 selected and commentated. Huxley 

 seems to endorse in general what 

 Hume said of the two opposing 

 '' hypotheses " Spinozism and 

 Orthodoxy. " I am deafened with 



the noise of a hundred voices that 

 treat the first hypothesis with 

 detestation and scorn, and the 

 second with applause and venera- 

 tion. I turn my attention to these 

 hypotheses to see what may be the 

 reason of so great a partiality, and 

 find that they have the same fault 

 of being unintelligible, and that, as 

 far as we can understand them, 

 they are so much alike that 'tis im- 

 possible to discover any absurdity 

 in one which is not common to 

 both of them." (Hume's Works, 

 'Treatise of Human Nature.') 



