206 HUME- 



the various and extensive reading in which he 

 had indulged. Nor is it the least remarkable fea- 

 ture of the work, that though preferred by him 

 before all the other productions of his genius, it 

 contains nothing at all even bordering upon scep- 

 tical opinions. On the contrary, he reprobates the 

 selfish system of morals, and is a strenuous advocate of 

 that which recognises the benevolent feelings, and 

 traces human conduct to a desire of enjoying their 

 gratification. Of utility he largely states the importance, 

 but rather as one leading motive than as the sole source 

 of either our actions or our judgments upon them ; and 

 assuredly both in this and the other branches of the 

 argument a wider departure from the commonly 

 received standard of morals may be seen in the philo- 

 sophy of Paley than in that of the ' Inquiry.' 



In the same year that he published the ' Poli- 

 tical Essays,' 175*2, he was appointed their libra- 

 rian by the Faculty of Advocates. He obtained this 

 place after a very severe contest, in which the ut- 

 most force of the party opposed to his known opinions 

 was brought to bear in favour of his antagonist. The 

 emoluments of the office were not above fifty pounds 

 a-year ; but the violence of the parties was propor- 

 tioned to their zeal for and against the principles of 

 the candidates ; and I find in his unpublished letters 

 curious indications of his anxiety for success, and of his 

 delight at the victory which he gained, chiefly, he says, 

 through the assistance of the younger members of the 

 Scottish bar and of the ladies of Edinburgh. " There 

 is nothing," he says, in a letter to his intimate friend 

 Dr. Clephane, then a physician in London, " since the 



