victions of truth. How was it with Hume? He was pleased to be known as the correspondent of distinguished divines. In a letter from Dr. Blair it appears that the subject of his infidelity had been introduced, and we would hope with becoming pro testations against it. In his reply he says "I have long since done with inquiries on these subjects and am become incapable of instruction. I beg that in time to come they may be forborne between us.” And yet, anxious as he was to exclude these subjects from his thoughts, at, times they forced themselves upon him, and compelled him to acknowledge his conviction of their importance. I do not now refer to the evidence of it seen in his uneasy and confused expression of countenance, indicating something more than mortified vanity, whenever he heard the names of such men as Campbell and Beattie, Warburton and Hurd, who had exposed his sophistries and castigated his impieties. But I

quote confessions which came from his own lips.

Sorrow, especially at the death of friends and near relatives will often, at least for the time, so drive vanity and pride from the heart, that it will speak out its real feelings with sincerity. Con

science then gains a sway which it may not have possessed in the hour of gladness and self-con

fidence. Hume so felt it notwithstanding his wellknown ambition to be the stoical philosopher. When the news of his mother's death reached him, whether owing to compunction for efforts he had made to deprive her of her faith in the Gospel, or to some other cause, he was plunged into the deepest affliction. The friend who witnessed it, and who wished both to console and benefit him, took occasion to say "You owe this uncommon grief to your having thrown off the principles of religion: for if you had not, you would have been consoled by the firm belief that the good lady, who was not only the best of mothers, but the most pious of Christians, is happy in the realm of the just." To which the sorrowing infidel replied, "Though I throw out my speculations to entertain the learned and metaphysical world, yet in other things I do not think so differently from the rest of mankind as you imagine." By his own showing then, Hume's hypocrisy was as reckless as it was deliberate and profane; and the confession which grief wrung from him, leaves his name without the slightest claim to

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respect from any man who values truth and sincerity in things that are sacred. "As a madman who casteth fire-brands, arrows and death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbor, and saith, Am 'not I in sport?" The incident is perhaps the more impressive, as it has been carefully spread before the public by one of his relatives in order to save his name from a still worse imputation.

As another evidence of the moral turpitude to which he had reduced himself when treating the subject of religion, we may refer to an event which many of his admirers have admitted to be a cause of embarrassment and shame. The mind of a young clergyman, Mr. V-, belonging to the church of England, had become perverted by a perusal of Hume's writings. He felt that having lost his belief in the truth of Christianity, he could not, as a man of candor and truth, continue to preach its doctrines. In this dilemma he applied to one of Hume's friends, who referred the case to Hume himself, saying "You are somewhat bound to give him your best advice. Vis a very good-natured, honest, sensible fellow, without any fortune. He seems rather inclined not to be a clergyman; but you know

as well and better than I do how difficult it is to get any tolerable civil employment. If you should determine on his being a clergyman, throw in something consolatory on his being obliged to renounce white stockings the rest of his life."

Hume replied "Let Mr V, adhere to the ec2 clesiastical profession; for civil employment for men of letters can scarcely be found." And he adds, as his reason for giving this advice, "It is putting too great a respect on the vulgar, and on their superstitions, to pique one's self on sincerity with regard to them. Did ever one make it a point of honor to speak truth to children or madmen? If the thing were worthy being treated gravely, I should tell him, that the Pythian oracle, with the approbation of Xenophon, advised every one to worship the Gods-voμw rows. I wish it were still in my power to be a hypocrite in this particular. The common duties of society usually require it; and the ecclesiastical profession only adds a little more to an innocent dissimulation, or rather simulation, without which it is impossible to pass through the world."

We are not told whether the young man follow

ed the iniquitous advice to spend a life-time of de ception as a minister in the church of God. But we would fondly hope that, however unscrupulous may have been the master who gave it, it involved too gross a violation of truth and of fidelity to his own conscience for the disciple to follow it...!

If this was the fit place for the demonstration, we might go on and spread before you convincing proofs of Hume's dishonesty in his far-famed "History of England." Hostility to religion, admiration of royal prerogative, and opposition to the rights of the people, were predominant feelings with him when he prepared that able and insidious work; and under the searching investigations of Brodie and others, he stands convicted of having wilfully garbled and mutilated facts of essential importance in order to answer his unworthy ends.

From this painful exhibition of insincerity and dishonesty in one whom many have long de lighted to honor, let us turn to another and a very different man, though both noted for their Infidelity. Let us hear the voluntary and deliberate confession. of Rousseau, respecting whom we are told by a poet too nearly allied to him in spirit: