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

G 2 HISTORY OF TIIE EDITIONS. HIRTOEY OF 'I'HE EDITIONS. 63' In this interval, I published at London my NaturalHistory of Religion, along with some other small pieces : itspublic entry was rather obscure, except only that Dr. Hurdwrote a pamphlet against it, with all the illiberal petulance,arrogance, and scurrility, which distinguish the Warburtonianschool. This pamphlet gave me some consolation forthe otherwise indifferent reception of my performance.'The pamphlet in question, which was anonymous anddedicated to Warburton, was the joint product of Warburtonand Hurd. The latter tells the narrative of their piousfraud with great simplicity :' This book came out early in 1757, and falling into thehands of Dr. Warburton, provoked him, by its uncommonlicentiousness, to enter on the margin, as he went along,such remarks as occurred to him ; and when that was toonarrow to contain them all, he put down the rest on loosescraps of paper, wllicli he stuck between the leaves. In thisstate the book was shown to me (as I chanced at that time tobe in Lolidoil with the author) merely as matter of curiosity,and to give me an idea of the contents, how mischievous andextravagant they were. He had then written remarks onabout two-thirds of the volume : And I liked thew so well,that I advised him, b~ all means, to carry them on through theremaining parts of it, and then to fit, them up, in what wayhe thought best, for public use, which I told hiin they verywell deserved. He put by this proposal slightly; but, whenI pressed him again on this head, some time &fter, in aletter from Cambridge, he wrote me the following answer:" As to Hume, I hr,d laid it aside ever since you were here.I will now, however, finish my skeleton. It will be hardLythat. If then you think anything can be made of it, andwill give yourself the trouble, we nlay perhaps between usdo a little good, which I dare say, we shall both think willbe worth a little pains. If I have any force in the first rudebeating out the mass, you are best able to give it the eleganceof form and splendour of polish. This will answermy purpose, to labour together in a joint work to do a littlegood. I will tell you fairly, it is no more the thing it shouldbe, than the Dantzick iron at the forge is the gilt and paintedware at Birmingham. It will make no more than a pamphlet;but you shall take your own time, and make it yoni*summer's amuse~nent, if you will. I propose ,it bear some-thing like this title-' Rt~marks on Mr. Hunle's late Essay,called, The Natu?.al IIistory of Religion, by a, Gentlemanof Canibridge, in a Letter to the Rev. Dr. Warburton.'-Ipropose the address shoultl be with the dryness and reserveof a stranger, who likes the metliod of the Letters on Bolingbroke'sphilosophy, and follows it here, against the samesort of writer, inculcating the same impiety, Naturalism,and employing the same kind of arg~ulnents. The addresswill remove it from me; the author, a Geiitlemnn ofCambridge, from you ; and the secrecy of printing, from usboth." I saw by this letter, he was not disposed to takemuch trouble about the thing. Accordingly his papers w3resoon after sent down to me at Cambridge, pretty muchin the state I had seen them in at London, so far as theythen went, only with additional entries in the latter part ofthe book. However, in this careless detached fornl, Ithought his observations too good to be lost. And the hintof the Address suggested the means of preserving thein,without any injury to his reputation, and indeed withoutmuch labour to myself. Having, therefore, transcribed theRemarks, with little alteration, I only wrote a short iiitroductionand condusion, merely to colour the proposdfiction, and in this form, sent them to the press. WhenDr. Warburton saw the pamphlet, he said, I should havedone much more, and worked up his hasty remarks in myown way. He doubted, also, whether the contrivance, as Ihad managed it, trould not be seen through. But in thishe was mistaken; for the disguise, as thin as it was, answeredits purpose in keeping the real author out of sight.Mr. Hulne in particular (understanding, I suppose, from hisbookseller, w b was also mine, that the manuscript camefrom me) was the first to fall into the trap. He was ~liuchhurt, and no wonder, by so lively an attack upon hini, andcould not help confessing it in what he calls his own L-fe ;in which he has thought fit to honour me with greatermarlcs of his resentment, than any other of the writersagainst him : nay the spiteful man goes so far as to upbraic!me with being a folloziqer (indeed, a closer, in this in~tanct,than he apprehended) of the Jl7c~~burto~ziu~~ school. This idlestory would not have been worth the telling, but for thereason already given, Tliat I could not, in justice to theauthor, the the inerit of so fine a work to myself. And jet