12 HUME I 



twenty-one and composed before he had reached 

 the age of twenty-five. 1 



Under these circumstances, it is probably the 

 most remarkable philosophical work, both intrin- 

 sically and in its effects upon the course of 

 thought, that has ever been written. Berkeley, 

 indeed, published the "Essay Towards a New 

 Theory of Vision," the " Treatise Concerning the 

 Principles of Human Knowledge," and the " Three 

 Dialogues," between the ages of twenty-four and 

 twenty-eight ; and thus comes very near to Hume, 

 both in precocity and in influence ; but his inves- 

 tigations are more limited in their scope than 

 those of his Scottish contemporary. 



The first and second volumes of the " Treatise," 

 containing Book I., " Of the Understanding," and 

 Book II., " Of the Passions," were published in 

 January, 1739. The publisher gave fifty pounds 

 for the copyright; which is probably more than 

 an unknown writer of twenty-seven years of age 

 would get for a similar work, at the present time. 

 But, in other respects, its success fell far short of 

 Hume's expectations. In a letter dated the 1st of 

 June, 1739, he writes, 



" I am not much in the humour of such compositions at 

 present, having received news from London of the success of 



1 Letter to Gilbert Elliot of Minto, 1751. " So vast an 

 undertaking, planned before I was one-and-twenty, and com- 

 posed before twenty-five, must necessarily be very defective. I 

 have repented my haste a hundred and a hundred times." 



