various pamphlets, the firft of which was publifhed at Edinburgh under the title of A Letter occafioned by the Effays on Morality and Natural Religion. In December 1756, appeared Objections against the Effays on Morality and Natural Religion examined; and in May 1758, Remarks on the Effays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion in a Letter to a Minifter of the Church of Scotland, by Mr. J. Edwards, Prefident of the College of New Jerfey. Some other tracts in anfwer to his Lordship will be afterwards mentioned.

:

But the moft zealous, and certainly the most dangerous of all his affailants, was Mr. George Anderfon, a probationer of the church of Scotland, who wrote an octavo volume on the subject, and gave it the name of An Estimate of the Profit and Lofs of Religion, perfonally and publicly stated: illuftrated with References to Effays on Morality and Natural Religion. It was publifhed at Edinburgh in November 1753. In the month of March that year, Mr. Hume's tenets had been attacked by an anonymous writer, in a fmall volume, intitled, A Delineation of the Nature and Obligations of Morality with Reflections on Mr. Hume's Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals. Of this work a fecond edition appeared in February 1763, with an Appendix concerning the Office of Reafon in Morals, and the Superiority of that Principle to Sentiment. It was the production of Mr. James Balfour, a Scottish barrister.

On

t

On the publication of the laft mentioned tract, which was the only answer Mr. Hume condefcended to notice, he wrote the following letter, addreffed "To the Author of the Delineation of the Nature and Obligations of Morality," and left it with the bookfeller.

“SIR,

"When I write you, I know not to whom I am addreffing myfelf: I only know he is one who has done me a great deal of honour, and to whose civilities I am obliged. If we be ftrangers, I beg we may be acquainted, as foon as you think proper to discover yourself: if we be acquainted already, I beg we may be friends: if friends, I beg we may be more fo. Our connection with each other as men of letters, is greater than our difference as adhering to different fects or fyftems. Let us revive the happy times, when Atticus and Caffius the epicureans, Cicero the academic, and Brutus the ftoic, could all of them live in unreferved friendship together, and were infenfible to all thofe diftinctions, except fo far as they furnished agreeable matter to difcourfe and converfation. Perhaps you are a young man, and being full of those fublime ideas, which you have fo well expreffed, think there can be no virtue upon a more confined fyftem. I am not an old one; but, being of a cool temperament, have always found, that more fimple views were fufficient to make me

act

act in a reasonable manner; vns, xxs pespernσo aTISTEIV 3 in this faith have I lived, and hope to die.

"Your civilities to me fo much over-balance your severities, that I fhould be ungrateful to take notice of fome expreffions which, in the heat of compofition, have dropped from your pen. I muft only complain of you a little for afcribing to me the fentiments, which I have put into the mouth of the Sceptic in the Dialogue. I have furely endeavoured to refute the fceptic, with all the force of which I am mafter; and my refutation must be allowed fincere, because drawn from the capital principles of my fyftem. But you impute to me both the fentiments of the fceptic, and the fentiments of his antagonist, which I can never admit of. In every dialogue no more than one perfon can be fuppofed to reprefent the author.

"Your feverity on one head, that of chastity, is fo great, and I am fo little conscious of having given any juft occafion to it, that it has afforded me a hint to form a conjecture, perhaps ill-grounded, concerning your perfon.

"I hope to fteal a little leifure from my other occupations, in order to defend my philofophy against your attacks. If I have occafion to give a new edition of the work, which you have honoured with an anfwer, I fhall make great advantage of your remarks, and hope to obviate fome of your criticisms.

"Your ftile is elegant, and full of agreeable imagery. In fome few places it does not fully come up to my ideas of purity and correctneís. I fuppofe mine falls ftill further fhort of your ideas. In this refpect, we may certainly be of use to each other. With regard to our philofophical fyftems, I fuppofe we are both fo fixed, that there is no hope of any converfions betwixt us; and for my part, I doubt not but we fhall both do as well to remain as we are.

"Edinburgh, March 15, 1753."

"I am, &c.

The office of librarian to the Faculty of Advocates becoming vacant by the refignation of the learned Ruddiman, Mr. Hume, in January 1752, was chofen to fill it; a station from which he derived little emolument, but which compenfated this want by placing an extenfive library at his command. In the fame month his friend Henry Home was appointed one of the lords of feffion by the title of Lord Kames; and his illuftrious antagonist, Dr. Reid, was tranflated from the paftoral charge of the parifh of New Machar to a profefforfhip of philofophy in King's College, Aberdeen. Adam Smith had been made profeffor of logic at Glafgow in January 1751; and, in April 1752, he fucceeded Mr. Thomas Craigie, as profeffor of philofophy at the fame univerfity. The vacant chair of logic became the fubject of competition. The candidates were Mr. James Clough,

and

and the celebrated Edmund Burke; and the former gained no vulgar laurel, when he beheld his rival retiring discomfited from the contest.

Gerard, another opponent of our author, was, in the month of July of this year, appointed a profeffor of philofophy in the Marifchal College, Aberdeen. Blair was, at this time, one of the minifters of the Canongate of Edinburgh; but it was not until the year 1756, that Robertson received a paftoral charge in the capital. It is impoffible to contemplate fo bright a conftellation of talents with indifference; and while we yield to an impulfe of generous feeling, let us endeavour to imprefs on the remembrance of the prefent race of Scottish literati, that to preferve the reputation, which their country has already attained, is no easy task. But it is the part of pofterity not merely to emulate, but to excel their predeceffors, elfe fcience must become ftationary. We enjoy the benefit of the learned labours of the laft generation; and vaft as thefe were, let us confole ourselves with reflecting, that a well-directed industry will ftill carry us beyond them. Formidable, therefore, as the lift of diftinguifhed Scotfmen was at the period to which we allude, to outdo them is worthy of the noble daring of liberal minds.

So vaft a range of literature, as the library of the Faculty of Advocates prefented to Mr. Hume, feems to have emboldened his induftry; for he

immedi.