Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary - Faculty of Social Sciences

HISTORY OF THE E1)ITIOSS.is literally true. Millar had printed off, some months ago, anew edition of certain philosophical essays, but he tells inevery gravely that he has delayed publishing because of theearthquakes.' In his Autobiography, lie says further :' Meanwhile,my bookseller, A. Millar, informed me that my forlnerpublications (all but the unfortunate Treatise) were beginningto be the subject of conversation ; that the sale of themwas graduaUy increasing, and that new editions were demanded.Answers by Reverends and Right Reverends, cameout two or three in a year ; and I found, by Dr. Warburton'srailing, that the books were beginning to be esteemed ingood company.' A specimen of ' Dr. Warburton's railing' isgiven by Bishop Hurd : ' In a letter of September 28, ofthat year (1749), to a friend at Cambridge, he says, I amtempted to have a stroke at Hume in parting. He is theauthor of a little book called Philosophical Essays: In onepart of which he argues against the being of a GOD, and inanother (very needlessly, you will say) against the possibilityof miracles. He has crowned the liberty of the press. Andyet he has a considerable post under tlie government. I havea great mind to do justice on his arguments against iniracles,which I think might be done in few words. But doeshe deserve this notice? Is he known amongst you? Pray,answer me these questions. For if his own weight keepsl~ini down, I: should be sorry to contribute to his advancementto any place, but the pillory." No encouraging answer,I suppose, was returned to this letter ; and so the author ofthe Essays escaped for this time.'A few words' from the ' arguments against miracles' appearamong Warburton's Unfinished Papers, p. 311.The Essay on Miracles has a history of its own. In aletter to Principal Campbell, dated February 7, 1762, Hulnegives an account of the circumstances which first led him tothat train of thought.'It may perhays amuse you to learn the first hint, whichsuggested to me that argument which you have so strenuouslyattacked. I was walking in the cloisters of the Jesuits'College of La Fl&che, a town in which I passed two ye:?rs ofmy ~outh, and engaged in a conversation with a Jesuit ofsome parts and learning, who was 1.elating to me, and urgingsome nonsensical miracle yerforinecl lately in their con vent,when I was tempted to dispute against lliill; and as my lieaclLifr, rol. i. p. 3 0~. JIi~rci's Ltfe Jr7fir/,~trIc,?l.was full of the topics of my Treatise of Huinan Nature,which I was at that time composing, this arguinent immediatelyoccurred to me, and I thought it very much gravelledmy companion ; but at last he observed to me, that it wasimpossible for that argument to have any solidity, because itoperated equally against the Gospel as the Catholic miracles ;-which observation I thought proper to admit as a su%cientanswer. I believe you will allow, that the freedom at leastof this reasoning ~nakes it solnewhat extraordinary to havebeen the produce of a convent of Jesuits, though perhapsyou may think the sophistry of it savours plainly of theplace of its birth.' *Again in the letter to H. Home of December 2,1737, fromwhich an extract has already been given,2 he says further :' Having a franked letter, I was resolved to make use of~t ; and accordiiigly enclose some '' Reasonings conceruingJliracles," which I once thought of publishing with the rest,but which I am afraid-will give too much offence, even as theworld is disposed at present. There is something in the turnof thought, and a good deal in the turn of expression, whichwill not perhaps appear so proper, for want of knowing thecontext : but the force of the argument you'll be judge of, asit stands. Tell me your thoughts of it. Is not the style toodiffuse? though, as that was a popular argument, I havespread it out much more than the other parts of the work.1 beg of you to show it to nobody, except to Mr. Hamilton,if he pleases ; and let me know at your leisure that you havereceived it, read it, and burnt it.'3The second edition of the Pl~ilosopliical Essays, which hadbeen delayed by the earthquakes, appeared in 1751, and borethe author's name on the title-page. Few changes weremade. Section xi. now received the heading Of a ParticularProvidence and of a Future State, having previouslybeen called Of the Practical Consequences of Natural Religion.These two editions contain tlie unguarded statement,' upon the whole, then, it appears, that no testimony for anykind of miracle can evev amou?lt to a probability, much lessto a proof.' For the words in italics he subsequently wrote,has ever amounted.'In the December of the same year he published an En-Life, rol. i. p. 57. Il)i(l. p. 1s. Ibid. p. 63.