i EARLY LIFE 13 



of ray ' Philosophy,' which is but indifferent, if I may judge 

 by the sale of the book, and if I may believe my bookseller." 



This, however, indicates a very different recep- 

 tion from that which Hume, looking through the 

 inverted telescope of old age, ascribes to the 

 " Treatise " in " My Own Life." 



" Never literary attempt was more unfortunate than my 

 * Treatise of Human Nature.' It fell deadborn from the 

 press without reaching such a distinction as even to excite 

 a murmur among the zealots." 



As a matter of fact, it was fully, and, on the 

 whole, respectfully and appreciatively, reviewed in 

 the " History of the Works of the Learned " for 

 November, 1739.* Whoever the reviewer may 

 have been, he was a man of discernment, for he 

 says that the work bears " incontestable marks of 

 a great capacity, of a soaring genius, but young, 

 and not yet thoroughly practised;" and he adds, 

 that we shall probably have reason to consider 

 " this, compared with the later productions, in the 

 same light as we view the juvenile works of a 

 Milton, or the first manner of a Raphael or other 

 celebrated painter." In a letter to Hutcheson, 

 Hume merely speaks of this article as " somewhat 

 abusive; " so that his vanity, being young and 

 callow, seems to have been correspondingly wide- 

 mouthed and hard to satiate. 



It must be confessed that, on this occasion, no 

 less than on that of his other publications, Hume 



* Burton, Life, vol. i. p. 109. 



