HUME. 247 



deservedly as inferior to nobody in capacity and learning. 

 Hamilton and Balfour have offered him a very unusual price, 

 no less than five hundred pounds for an edition of two thou- 

 sand ; but I own that I should be better pleased to see him in 

 your hands. I only inform you of the fact, that you may see 

 .how high the general expectations are of Mr. Robertson's 

 performance. It will have a quick sale in this country, from 

 the character of the author ; and in England, from the merit 

 of the work, as soon as it is known. 



" Some part of the subject is common with mine ; but as his 

 work is a History of Scotland, mine of England, we do not 

 interfere ; and it will rather be an amusement to the reader 

 to compare our method of treating the same subject. I give 

 you thanks, however, for your attention in asking my 

 opinion." 



It is not without some reluctance that I add the following 

 letter, because it is likely to give an unfavourable and also an 

 unfair impression of the writer's principles. But let it be re- 

 membered that he sincerely believed in the unhappy dogmas 

 of infidelity, and consequently held the whole subject of reli- 

 gious opinions cheap. To have done so in public would 

 have been exceedingly blameable ; in private, it seemed to his 

 mind a necessary consequence of his indifference or contempt, 

 that he should fall into the lax morality of the ancients on 

 this point, and give an exoterical conformity to what he eso- 

 terically disbelieved. In my very clear opinion this course 

 is wholly repugnant to sound morals ; and is to be reprobated, 

 whether in the excess to which Mr. Hume carried it, or in 

 the lesser degree to which such reasoners as Dr. Paley have 

 adopted it. The suppression of such a letter would have ap- 

 peared inconsistent with the plan of writing Mr. Hume's life" 

 historically, and not merely composing a panegyric upon 

 him. 



To COLONEL EDMONSTONE. 

 " DEAR EDMONSTONE, Not dated, but supposed, 1764. 



" I was just projecting to write a long letter to you, and 

 another to Mr. V., when your last obliging epistle came to 



