188 HUME vin 



persons who are certainly not of Hume's way of 

 thinking, and, probably, so far from having read 

 him, would shudder to open any book bearing 

 his name, except the " History of England," that 

 is it surprising to trace the theory of their practice 

 to such a source. 



But on thinking the matter over, this theory 

 seems so consonant with reason, that one feels 

 ashamed of having suspected many excellent 

 persons of being moved by mere malice and 

 viciousness of temper to call other folks atheists, 

 when, after all, they have been obeying a purely 

 intellectual sense of fitness. As Hume says, truly 

 enough, it is a mere fallacy, because two people 

 use the same names for things, the ideas of which 

 are mutually exclusive, to rank such opposite 

 opinions under the same denomination. If the 

 Jew says, that the Deity is absolute unity, and 

 that it is sheer blasphemy to say that He ever 

 became incarnate in the person of a man; and, if 

 the Trinitarian says, that the Deity is numerically 

 three as well as numerically one, and that it is 

 sheer blasphemy to say that He did not so become 

 incarnate, it is obvious enough that each must be 

 logically held to deny the existence of the other's 

 Deity. Therefore; that each has a scientific right 

 to call the other an atheist; and that, if he re- 

 frains, it is only on the ground of decency and 

 good manners, which should restrain an honour- 

 able man from employing even scientifically 



