166 HUME VIII 



" I am the better pleased with the method of reasoning here 

 delivered, as I think it may serve to confound those dangerous 

 friends and disguised enemies to the Christian Religion who 

 have undertaken to defend it by the principles of human reason. 

 Our most holy religion is founded on Faith, not on reason, and 

 it is a sure method of exposing it to put it to such a trial as it is 

 by no means fitted to endure. . . . the Christian religion not 

 only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day 

 cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one. 

 Mere reason is insufficient to convince us of its veracity : And 

 whoever is moved by Faith to assent to it, is conscious of a 

 continual miracle in his own person, which subverts all the 

 principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination 

 to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience." 

 (IV. pp. 153, 154.) 



It is obvious that, here and elsewhere, Hume, 

 adopting a popular confusion of ideas, uses religion 

 as the equivalent of dogmatic theology ; and, 

 therefore, he says, with perfect justice, that 

 " religion is nothing but a species of philosophy " 

 (iv. p 171). Here no doubt lies the root of his 

 antagonism. The quarrels of theologians and 

 philosophers have not been about religion, but 

 about philosophy ; and philosophers not unfre- 

 quently seem to entertain the same feeling 

 towards theologians that sportsmen cherish 

 towards poachers. " There cannot be two passions 

 more nearly resembling each other than hunting 

 and philosophy," says Hume. And philosophic 

 hunters are given to think, that, while they pursue 

 truth for its own sake, out of pure love for the 

 chase (perhaps mingled with a little human weak- 



