SIR WILLIAM Hamilton's philosophy. 215 



pose of studying Berkeley's writings, that they had corresponded 

 with him in order to obtain further explanations regarding his 

 theovv, and that he had spoken of them as evincing a more intelli- 

 gent comprehension of his argument than he had met with anywhere 

 else.* The only person, whom Stewart mentions as having been a 

 member of the club, is the Rev. Dr. Wallace, viho is well-known as 

 one of the earliest writers on the theory of population, and is still re- 

 membered, in the church of his native country, for the wise applica- 

 tion of his economical studies in the origination of the Scottish Min- 

 isters' "Widows' and Orphans' Fund. While this was going on in the 

 capital, traces more distinct may be discovered of the influence which 

 the Irish bishop's writings were exerting in other parts of the coun- 

 try. 



Two or three years before Hutcheson had begun his career as pro- 

 fessor in Glasgow, a younger son in the family of the Humes (or 

 Homes), of Ninewells, in Berwickshire, though scarcely over sixteen 

 years of age.t was schooling himself into habits of speculative 

 thought, by which he was to create a new era in the philosophj^ of 

 Europe. After abandoning, from disinclination, the study of law, 

 and trying, for a few months, a mercantile life in Bristol, he ulti- 

 mately retired, for about three years, to Rheims, and afterwards to La 

 Fleche, in Anjou, with the view of devoting himself entirely to philo- 

 sophical and literary pursuits. While he was still but twenty-six 

 years of age, he returned to London, with the Treatise of Human 

 Nature ready to be put into the printer's hands. Though the doc- 

 trines of the Treatise were afterwards recast and its author objects to 

 their being judged in their earlier form,;;!^ ttiere can be no doubt it is 

 in this form that they have acquired historical importance and are, 

 therefore, to be considered at present. Moreover, I know none who 

 have not felt disappointment on turning from the Treatise to its re- 

 vision — none who have not found in the former, rather than in the 

 latt»r, the power which has revolutionised the speculative opinions of 

 modern Europe. 



Hume starts with the same question, with which Locke's Essay is 

 mainly occupied, " What is the origin of ideas ? " § Hume's answer 



* Stewart's Dhsertation, pp. 350-1 (Hamilton's edition). 



t See the Le'ter to Michael Ramsay, iu Burton's Life and Correspondence of 

 D. Hume, Vol. I., pp. 12-16. 



X See Advertisement to his Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding. 

 § See the Treatise, Book I., Chap. I., Sect. 1.; and the Inquiry, Sect. 2. 



