532 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxxiii 



I am picking at Hume at odd times. It seems to me that I 

 had better make an analysis and criticism of the " Inquiry," the 

 backbone of the essay — as it touches all the problems which 

 interest us most just now. I have already sketched out a chap- 

 ter on Miracles, which will, I hope, be very edifying in conse- 

 quence of its entire agreement with the orthodox arguments 

 against Hume's a priori reasonings against miracles. 



Hume wasn't half a sceptic after all. And so long as he got 

 deep enough to worry Orthodoxy, he did not care to go to the 

 bottom of things. 



He failed to see the importance of suggestions already made 

 both by Locke and Berkeley. — Ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. Huxley. 



Sept. 30, 1878. 



My dear Morley — Praise me ! I have been hard at work at 

 Hume at Penmaenmawr, and I have got the hard part of the 

 business — the account of his philosophy — blocked out in the 

 bodily shape of about 180 pages foolscap MS. 



But I find the job as tough as it is interesting. Hume's 

 diamonds, before the public can see them properly, want a 

 proper setting in a methodical and consistent shape — and that 

 iinplies writing a small psychological treatise of one's own, and 

 then cutting it down into as unobtrusive a form as possible. 



So I am working away at my draught — from the point of 

 view of an aesthetic jeweller. 



As soon as I get it into such a condition as will need only 

 verbal trimming, I should like to have it set up in type. For it 

 is a defect of mine that I can never judge properly of any com- 

 position of my own in manuscript. 



Moreover (don't swear at this wish) I should very much 

 like to send it to you in that shape for criticism. 



The Life will be an easy business.. I should like to get the 

 book out of hand before Christmas, and will do so if possible. 

 But my lectures begin on Tuesday, and I cannot promise. — ^Ever 

 yours very faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



Oct. 21, 1878. 



My dear Morley — I have received slips up to chap. ix. 

 of Hume, and so far I do not think (saving your critical pre- 

 sence) that there will be much need of much modification or in- 

 terpolation. 



I have made all my citations from a 4-vol. edition of Hume, 



