202 HUME. 



now alive, and even of his own senses, the phenomenon 

 being visible daily, or he must have admitted the miracle 

 of creation ; that is, the interposition of a being powerful to 

 suspend the existing order of things, and make a new one. 

 It is by no means correct to affirm, as some do, and 

 Mr. Hume himself among the number, that his writ- 

 ings are only sceptical. Many of them amount merely 

 to doubts ; but some, under the mask of doubts, are 

 essentially dogmatical. Indeed, some of his specula- 

 tions are upon subjects which cannot be treated scepti- 

 cally ; for the question in these cases being whether 

 we have evidence or not of the position, whoever 

 maintains the negative denies the position. Thus, to 

 take the most important example of all, the argument 

 upon Providence and a Future State is of this very 

 character. The question, and none other equal in im- 

 portance can exercise the human faculties, is, whether 

 we have or not, by the light of nature, sufficient evi- 

 dence to make us believe in a Deity and the Soul's 

 Immortality. His argument is, not that there is any 

 doubt on the subject, but that we have no such evi- 

 dence; consequently his position must be that there 

 is no ground for believing in a God or a Future State. 

 It is easy to say Mr. Hume was not an atheist ; and 

 that neither he nor any man can in one sense of the 

 word be an atheist is certain. If by denying a God we 

 mean believing that his non-existence is proved, there 

 neither is nor can be an atheist, because there cannot 

 possibly be conceived any demonstration of that nega- 

 tive proposition. To prove that a man asserted to be 

 in existence, exists not, we must either show that he 

 once existed, and has ceased to exist, or that he never 



