In his "Natural History of Religion," published in 1757, he used the same offensive expressions, and spoke of the ceremonies and essential doctrines of the church of Rome, in a tone which no sincere member of that church can encounter without painful feelings. In this respect he certainly did not act up to the character of a true philosopher, though his expressions are no doubt in harmony with the general tone of his mind. He certainly had no wish to insult any man's creed, but he never dreamed that, among his readers, there might be some who sympathized deeply with the catholic spirit of the gothic ages, or with the independent temper of the covenanters. One whose mind re

volted so nervously against whatever was not stamped with the character of profound philosophy, or of brilliant intellect, could see nothing to admire in the adaptation of the catholic system to the dark ages in which it flourished; and would have little respect for such achievements as it gained in the war with barbarous minds and brutal passions.1

In Scotland, the Episcopal Church was at that time barely tolerated; and many an outcry against

has not treated the Roman Catholic religion with sufficient severity, and to supply this defect in his History. In a few remarks at the end, however, Dr. Macqueen had the merit of suggesting many of the constitutional criticisms on Hume, which were afterwards followed out.

1 A sketch of Hume's character and habits, in The Edinburgh Magazine for 1802, professing to be by one who was personally acquainted with him, is discredited, by its containing a statement that he had joined the Roman Catholic Church when he was in France. The reader will remember that, almost from the moment of his setting foot on foreign soil, he censures the Roman Catholics, in his letters to his friends; and nothing could be mentioned more ́at variance with a known character, than this writer's assertion, which seems to rest on some imaginative parallel between the personal history of Hume and that of Gibbon. As the reader may

this toleration, as one of the sins of the time, made its adherents daily fear that their freedom of conscience

desire to read the sketch thus condemned, and to judge for himself of its applicability to Hume, it is here given.

"David Hume was a man of parts, natural and acquired, far superior to most of mankind; of a benevolent heart, a friendly, kind disposition, and a real affection for all his connexions. No man is without his failings; and his great views of being singular, and a vanity to show himself superior to most people, led him to advance many axioms that were dissonant to the opinions of others, and led him into sceptical doctrines only to show how minute and puzzling they were to other folk; in so far, that I have often seen him (in various companies, according as he saw some enthusiastic person there) combat either their religious or political principles; nay, after he had struck them dumb, take up the argument on their side with equal good humour, wit, and jocoseness, all to show his preeminency. For the justness of these observations, I appeal to his life, wrote by himself, and published by his friend and admirer, Adam Smith, where you see he was so chagrined at no notice of, or answer being made to, his Essays, and was so disappointed, that he proposed to retire to Saumure, or some other part of France, to be lost to the unheeding world; and, in short, be a perfect hermit. But, on being answered by a bishop, on some of his dogmas, and other favourable circumstances flattering him that he would at last be conspicuous, he gave up the project, and was first a companion, for some time, to the Marquis of Annandale; then librarian to the Advocates here; after that, secretary to General Sinclair at Turin (who was, under pretence of an ambassador to his Sardinian Majesty, a spy, as his conduct was dubious to the allies, against Louis XV.;) afterwards, by General Conway's interest, secretary to Lord Hertford at Paris; left there chargé d'affairs; and, finally, one of the under secretaries of state for about half a year. After which he settled in Edinburgh for life, and made all his friends and connexions happy by the possession of so worthy a man. Thus far I have given my real sentiments of the man, and can only now regret that he was so weak as to write his life in the style he did.

"I must add, that he was a cheerful and most agreeable companion, well informed, and who accommodated himself to the company; and, for all his abstruse learning, was never happier than in a select

might be made still more narrow. For the Roman Catholics there was no toleration in the proper acceptation of the term. Had their priesthood company of ladies and friends, and fond to engage in a party at whist, of which game he was a complete adept, and, of consequence, successful. He never played deep; never above a shilling, one, two, or three; and I have known him come into Edinburgh for some weeks, pay his residence there, and get a recruit of clothes and necessaries out of his gains; nay, sometimes to have a pound or two to give in assistance to a necessitous relation; and carry back to his brother's house, at Ninewells, the cash he brought with him from that place, in order to defray the expenses of his visit to the metropolis. General Scott of Balcomie, who was a good judge in these matters, was so convinced of his superior skill at whist, that I was assured he offered David his purse to gamble at London; and that he would give him £1000 a-year if he would communicate his winnings. This he refused with disdain, saying, he played for his amusement; and though General Scott would give him ten times more per annum, he would be accessary to no such fraudulent doings.

"It was very remarkable, that, though from study and reading the purest authors in the English language he learnt to write in a correct and elegant style, yet, in conversing, he spoke with the tone, idiom, and vulgar voice of the commonalty in the Merse or Berwickshire. This, I presume, arose from his having been greatly, in his early years, about his brother's house, conversing with servants, &c.; and having no ear (though a foreign or even a dead language, which he acquired by grammar and rules, he wrote pointedly,) it was impossible for him to attain, in speaking, any other dialect of the Scots than that he caught in his childhood: besides, he had but a creeping voice, rather effeminate than manly.

"I could give you several anecdotes with regard to him; I shall content myself with one. One day when he was advancing some irreligious maxims in a sarcastical style, I said to him, 'L-, David, ye are much altered in your sentiments since you professed yourself a sincere Roman Catholic, confessed yourself to the priests, declared yourself a sincere penitent, got absolution, and even extreme unction.' He was much offended at this, as he believed none knew, in this country, that all this had happened to him at Nice. He answered in a huff, 'I was in a high fever then, and did not know what I said, or they did with me.' I replied, 'You put me in mind of Patie Birnie's answer to the minister of King

mingled in the ordinary society of Edinburgh, and had Hume become acquainted with them as he afterwards was with the clergy of France, he would perhaps have blushed to write as he did, of the creed of learned and accomplished men. In his subsequent editions, he carefully cleansed his History of these offensive expressions, substituting in general the word "creed" or "religion," instead of superstition.

The coincidence of his metaphysical opinions, with those of a considerable portion of the Presbyterians, has already been noticed; and his desire to strip religion of all forms and symbols, would seem to point out the Presbyterian system as that with which he should naturally have had the greatest sympathy. But he disliked enthusiasm or zeal, whatever were the opinions of the zealots; and therefore he invariably marks with censure the extreme views of that religious party. In the English church, on the other hand, he met with a larger proportion of learned, accomplished, and gentlemanlike men. Among persons, too, many of whom were tempted to assume the sacerdotal character by its emoluments, not by its duties, he found a tolerable portion of that philosophical indifference, which it is to be feared he looked upon as no blemish in a clergyman's character. In the Church of England, his sympathies were thus with the insincere.1 Where

horn, who, stumbling o'er him in a passage dead drunk, said, “ Ah ! Patie, is this your promise that you would never be fu' again, if the Lord spared you?' "Wow,' quo' Pate, I wonder to hear ane of your honour's sense mind what ony body says in a red raving fever; I kent naithing of what was ga'en.' David and I, for years after, were tolerable good friends, but never so cordial as before. G. N.” [These initials are supposed to be those of George Nichol, M. P.]

Hume was inclined to admire the polity of the Church of England, on grounds peculiar to himself. The tendency of his remarks on the wealth and dignity of that establishment, is to hold

there was sincere belief, but not to the extent of enthusiasm, the clergy of the Church of Scotland would have the largest share of his confidence. Accordingly, we find that he had formed a warm intimacy with many of the members of the "moderate" party in that church. His own good taste and sense of colloquial politeness, would suggest to him the propriety of avoiding, whether in correspondence or conversation, all forms of expression or enunciations of opinion, such as it would be unbecoming in a clergyman to hear without reproving. On the other hand, his correspondence with the clergy bears traces of his having made it part of the understanding on which their intercourse was to be based, that they were not to make him a subject for the exercise of their calling; and that they were to abstain from all efforts of conversion, and all discussion of religious subjects. Hence, although there are many observations on church politics in his correspondence with his reverend friends, religion is a matter never mentioned.

Before he published his second volume, Hume felt conscious of the impropriety of the tone he had adopted in the first, towards religious creeds. In a letter to Dr. Clephane, he says,-"I am convinced that whatever I have said of religion should have received some more softenings. There is no passage in the History

that heaping riches and honours on a clergy, by occupying their minds in pomps and vanities, diverts a certain portion of the spirit of priestcraft from its natural propensity to subdue or annoy the rest of the community, and is on the whole a judicious investment of a considerable proportion of the wealth and honours which may happen to be at the command of a state. Adam Smith's opinion, on the other hand, was, that the people are best protected against the influence of priestcraft, by allowing no sect to have a superiority over others, and by leaving the clergy of different denominations to expend their zeal in fighting with each other.