186 



I shall al present conclude the subject with the sentiments of 

 the late earl of Charlemonl: this illustrious nobleman preserved a 

 lasting friendship with Hume, without the slightest deviation from 

 those religious principles which he had the happiness early to 

 imbibe. 



" The celebrated David Hume, whose character is so deserv- 

 edly high in the literary world, was secretary to the British pleni- 

 potentiary to his Sardinian majesty, when I was at the academy at 

 Turin in 174.9- He had then lately published those philosophical 

 essays which have done so much mischief to mankind, by contri- 

 buting to loosen the sacred bonds by which alone man can be 

 restrained from rushing to his own destruction; and which are so 

 intimately necessary to our nature, that a propensity to be bound 

 by them was apparently instilled into the human mind by the all- 

 wise Creator, as a balance against those passions, which, though 

 perhaps necessary as incitements to activity, must, without such 

 control, inevitably have hurried us to our ruin. The world, how- 

 ever, unconscious of its danger, greedily swallowed the bait. The 

 essays were received with applause, read with delight, and their 

 admired author was already, by public opinion, placed at the head 

 of the dangerous school of sceptic philosophy." 



From this digression I return to the oriental entertainments, 

 which, if properly attended to, illustrate many passages in the sa- 

 cred volume, not generally understood in Europe. The profusion 

 at these feasts is very great. In the patriarchal age, Benjamin, as 

 a mark of superior favour and distinction, had five times the quan- 

 tity of food set before him that was allotted to his brethren, and 

 more changes of raiment ; so it is at this day, in the quality as well 



