I OBJECT AND SCOPE OF PHILOSOPHY 63 



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." 1 The title of his first 

 work, a " Treatise of Human Nature, being an 

 Attempt to introduce the Experimental method 

 of Eeasoning 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 improvements we might make in these 

 sciences were we thoroughly 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 

 reasonings . . . . To me it seems evident that the essence 

 of mind being equally unknown to us with that of external 

 bodies, it must be equally impossible to form any notion of its 



1 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 anatomist's point of view. 



