HUME. 199 



" I found, by Dr. Wai-burton's railing, that they are 

 beginning to be esteemed in good company." Return- 

 ing to Scotland, he again resided with his brother, 

 and wrote his ' Political Discourses/ which were 

 published in 1752, and immediately excited much 

 attention. " The work was/' he says, " well received 

 both at home and abroad." But he published, the 

 same year, the ' Inquiry concerning the Principles of 

 Morals/ which " came/' he says, " unnoticed and unob- 

 served into the world ;" though he adds, that " in his 

 own opinion it is incomparably the best of all his 

 writings, historical, philosophical, or literary." It is 

 plain, then, that neither in their original forms of trea- 

 tises, forms three times varied, nor when broken down 

 into separate essays, did his metaphysical and theo- 

 logical speculations succeed so far as even to obtain 

 any attention. This is the more surprising, that 

 beside the great ingenuity and novelty of some 

 theories which they contain, they are tinged through- 

 out with an excessive scepticism upon all subjects of a 

 religious nature, and upon some with an openly pro- 

 fessed unbelief, which might have been expected to ex- 

 cite indignation, and so rescue the writings from 

 neglect. The ' Essays, Moral and Metaphysical/ are 

 the form in which we now read these speculations, 

 and a life of Hume which should not speak of their 

 merits would be imperfect, as they certainly have 

 long obtained the full share of celebrity which was at 

 first denied them. 



To refuse these well-known Essays the praise of 

 great subtilty, much clever argument, some successful 

 sarcasm, and very considerable originality, is impos- 



