j OBJECT AND SCOPE OF PHILOSOPHY 63 



must be conducted upon the same principles as a 

 physical investigation, if what he calls the " moral 

 philosopher" would attain results of as firm and 

 definite a character as those which reward the 

 " natural philosopher/' * The title of his first 

 work, a " Treatise of Human Nature, being an 

 Attempt to introduce the Experimental method 

 of Reasoning into Moral Subjects," sufficiently in- 

 dicates the point of view from which Hume 

 regarded philosophical problems; and he tells us 

 in the preface, that his object has been to promote 

 the construction of a " science of man." 



"Tis evident that all the sciences have a relation, 

 greater or less, to human nature ; and that, however wide 

 any of them may seem to run from it, they still return back 

 by one passage or another. Even Mathematics, Natural 

 Philosophy, and Natural Religion are in some measure 

 dependent on the science of MAN ; since they lie under the 

 cognizance of men, and are judged of by their powers and 

 qualities. 'Tis impossible to tell what changes and im- 

 provements we might make in these sciences were we thor- 

 oughly acquainted with the extent and force of human 

 understanding, and could explain the nature of the ideas 

 we employ and of the operations we perform in our reason- 

 ings .... To me it seems evident that the essence of mind 

 being equally unknown to us with that of external bodies, 



* In a letter to Hutcheson (September 17th, 1739) Hume 

 remarks: "There are different ways of examining the 

 mind as well as the body. One may consider it either as 

 an anatomist or as a painter : either to discover its most 

 secret springs and principles, or to describe the grace and 

 beauty of its actions:" and he proceeds to justify his own 

 mode of looking at the moral sentiments from the anato- 

 mist's point of view. 



