HUME. 237 







passage above cited from his 'Life,' written a few weeks 

 before his death, makes a touching reference to the 

 prospects which then cheered him, but which he 

 knew were never, while he lived, to be realized. They 

 were the only prospects, unhappily for him, which 

 shed light around his dying couch ; yet such was the 

 truly admirable temper of his mind, that no believer 

 could possess his spirit in more tranquil peace, in con- 

 templation of the end which he saw fast approaching, 

 nor meet his last hour with more cheerful resignation. 

 It is to be observed that the charges made against 

 Mr. Hume for his sceptical writings, and for the irre- 

 ligious doctrines which he published to the world, are 

 in almost every respect ill-founded. He never had re- 

 course to ribaldry, hardly ever invoked the aid even of 

 wit to his argument. He had well examined the subject 

 of his inquiries. He had, with some bias in favour of the 

 singularity or the originality of the conclusions to which 

 they led, been conducted thither by reasoning, and 

 firmly believed all he wrote. It may be a question, 

 whether his duty required him to make public the re- 

 sults of his speculations, when these tended to unsettle 

 established faith, and might destroy one system of belief 

 without putting another in its place. Yet if we suppose 

 him to have been sincerely convinced that men were 

 living in error and in darkness, it is not very easy to deny 

 even the duty of endeavouring to enlighten them, and to 

 reclaim. But it is impossible to doubt that, with his 

 opinions, even if justified in suppressing them, he never 

 would have stood excused had he done anything to 

 countenance and uphold what he firmly believed to be 

 errors on the most important of all questions. Nor is 



