viii THEISM; EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY 173 



discoveries of the nature, attributes, and operations of the 

 Divine object of our faith." *(!!. pp. 547-8.) 



Such being the sum total of Hume's conclu- 

 sions it cannot be said that his theological burden 

 is a heavy one. But, if we turn from the " Natural 

 History of Keligion," to the "Treatise," the 

 " Inquiry," and the " Dialogues," the story of what 

 happened to the ass laden with salt, who took to 

 the water, irresistibly suggests itself. Hume's 

 theism, such as it is, dissolves away in the dialectic 

 river, until nothing is left but the verbal sack in 

 which it was contained. 



Of the two theistic propositions to which Hume 

 is committed, the first is the affirmation of the 

 existence of a God, supported by the argument 

 from the nature of causation. In the " Dia- 

 logues," Philo, while pushing scepticism to its 

 utmost limit, is nevertheless made to say that 



" . . . . where reasonable men treat these subjects, the 

 question can never be concerning the Being, but only the 

 Nature of the Deity. The former truth, as you will ob- 

 serve, is unquestionable and self-evident. Nothing exists 



* It is needless to quote the rest of the passage, though 

 I cannot refrain from observing that the recommendation 

 which it contains that a " man of letters " should become a 

 philosophical sceptic as " the first and most essential step 

 towards being a sound believing Christian," though 

 adopted and largely acted upon by many a champion of 

 orthodoxy in these days, is questionable in taste, if it be 

 meant as a jest, and more than questionable in morality, 

 if it is to be taken in earnest. To pretend that you be- 

 lieve any doctrine for no better reason than that you 

 doubt everything else, would be dishonest, if it were not 

 preposterous. 



