I shall here infert, fubjoining a few remarks in justice to myself.

Moft of the principles and reafonings "contained in this volume were published "in a work in three volumes, intitled, A Treatife of Human Nature: a work, which "the author had projected before he left college, and which he wrote and published not long after. But not finding it fuc"cefsful, he was fenfible of his error in go"ing to the prefs too early, and he caft "the whole anew in the following pieces; "where fome negligences in his former rea

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foning, and more in the expreffion, are, "he hopes, corrected. Yet several writers, who have honoured the author's philofophy with anfwers, have taken care to di"rect all their batteries against that juvenile "work, which the author never acknow“ledged; and have affected to triumph in any advantages which, they imagined,

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they had obtained over it: a practice very contrary to all rules of candour and fair"dealing, and a ftrong inftance of those po"lemical artifices, which a bigotted zeal

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thinks itself authorised to employ. Hence"forth the author defires, that the following pieces may alone be regarded as containing his philofophical fentiments and prin"ciples." Thus far Mr Hume.

I do not think it was with an evil purpofe, that any of those who attacked this author's philofophy directed their batteries against

gainst the Treatise of Human Nature. In regard to myself, the cafe was briefly this.

Ever fince I began to attend to matters of this kind, I had heard Mr Hume's philofophy mentioned as a system very unfriendly to religion both revealed and natural, as well as to fcience; and its author spoken of as a teacher of fceptical and atheistical doctrines, and withal as a moft acute and ingenious writer. I had reafon to believe, that his arguments, and his influence as a great literary character, had done harm, by fubverting or weakening the good principles of fome, and countenancing the licentious opinions of others. Being honoured with the care of a part of the British youth; and confidering it as my indifpenfable duty (from which I trust I fhall never deviate) to guard their minds against impiety and error, 1 endeavoured, among other ftudies that belonged to my office, to form a right estimate of Mr Hume's philofophy, fo as not only to underftand his peculiar tenets, but also to perceive their connection and confequences.

In forming this eftimate, I thought it at once the fureft and the fairest method to begin with the Treatife of Human Nature, which was allowed, and is well known to be, the ground-work of the whole; and in which fome of the principles and reafonings are more fully profecuted, and their connection and confequences more clearly feen by an attentive reader, (notwithstanding fome in

feriority

feriority in point of style), than in those more elegant republications of the fyftem, that have appeared in the form of Essays. Every found argument that may have been urged against the paradoxes of the Treatise, particularly against its first principles, does, in my opinion, tend to difcredit the system; as every successful attempt to weaken the foundation of a building does in effect promote the downfal of the fuperftructure. Paradoxes there are in the Treatife, which are not in the Essays; and, in like manner, there are licentious doctrines in these, which are not in the other and therefore I have not directed all my batteries against the first. And if the plan I had in view when I publifhed this book, had been completed, the reader would have feen, that, though I began with the Treatife of Human Nature, it was never my intention to end with it. In fact, the Effay on Truth is only one part of what I had projected. Another part was then in fo great forwardness, that I thought its publication not very remote, and had even made proposals to a bookfeller concerning it: though afterwards, on enlarging the plan, I found I had not taken fo wide a view of the fubject as would be neceffary. In that part, my meaning was, to have applied the principles of this Book to the illustration of certain truths of morality and religion, to which the reafonings of Helvetius, of Mr Hume in his Elays, and of fome other modern philo

fophers,

That work,

fophers, seemed unfavourable. however, I have been obliged, on account of my health, to lay afide; and whether I fhall ever be in a condition to refume it, is at prefent very uncertain.

For these eighteen years past, (and before that period I knew nothing of this author's writings), I have always heard the Treatife of Human Nature spoken of as the work of Mr Hume. Till after publishing the Effay on Truth, I knew not that it had ever been said, or infinuated, or even fufpected, that he either did not acknowledge that Treatife, or wished it to be confidered as a work which he did not acknowledge. On the contrary, from his reprinting fo often, in Essays that bore his name, most of the principles and reasonings contained in it; and never, so far as I had heard, difavowing any part of it; I could not but think, that he fet a very high value upon it. By the literary people with whom I was then acquainted it had been much read; and by many people it was much admired. And, in general, it was confidered as the author's chief work in philofophy, and as one of the most curious fyftems of human nature that had ever appeared. Those who favoured his principles fpoke of it as an unanswerable performance. And whatever its fuccefs might have been as an article of fale, (a circumstance which I did not think it material to inquire into), I had reafon to believe, that as a fyftem of licentious doc

trine it had been but too fuccessful; and that to the author's reputation as a philofopher, and to his influence as a promoter of infidelity, it had contributed not a little.

Our author certainly merits praise, for thus publicly difowning, though late, his Treatife of Human Nature; though I am forry to obferve, from the tenor of his declaration, that he still seems inclined to adhere to "most " of the reasonings and principles contained "in that Treatife." But if he has now at last renounced any one of his errors, I congratulate him upon it with all my heart. He has many good as well as great qualities; and I rejoice in the hope, that he may yet be prevailed on to relinquifh totally a system, which I fhould think would be as uncom→ fortable to him, as it is unfatisfactory to others. In confequence of his Advertisement, I thought it right to mitigate in this Edition fome of the cenfures that more especially refer to the Treatife of Human Nature: but as that Treatise is still extant, and will probably be read as long at least as any thing I write, I did not think it expedient to make any material change in the reasoning or in the plan of this performance.

April 30. 1776. ·

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