New-York tribune., 1874-07-04
ENGLISH LITERATU RE.
HrrME's PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS.

LONDON June 9.-The first two volumes of the
new edition of The Philosophical Works of David
Hume" long announced, have been published by
MessTs Longman. For many years the last, or at
anv rate the best edition. bearing date Edinburgh,
1924 vols, Svo has ranked among scarce and dear
books. The present will be completed IN four vol
umes. The two now issued contain. in addition to
the elaborate introductiOns the Treatise of Human
Nature" ' on is carolessy printed for of in the
titles and some other places, and the Dialogues
Concerning Natural Religion They are edited
with preliminary dissertations and notes by /. H.
Green Follow and Tutor of BalliO College, Oxford,
aud L. H. Grose. Fellow Gnd Tutor of Queens Col
lege in the same university. The editors state III
their Preface that they have sought to avoid the
inconveneaceS which aTe apt to attend conlhel1a-
ries on philosophical writers. by the plan OF putting
together in the form of continuous lntrodueuohS
such explanation and criticism rs theY nad 10 Oher'
and confning the foot notes almost entirely 10 rel
erenccs The general Introduction lby Mr. Greenl
fills 2Q9 rather closely-printcd pages. 1t Is an elabo-
rate examination of Hume's philosophy and OF his
place in the history of philosophy. Dsregardlng
Hume's own judgment on the relative merits OF the
"Treatise on Human Nature" and the Inquiries
Concerning the Human Understanding and tho
PRINCIPLES of Morals" Mr. Green takes the Treatise
as intrinsically the best representation of his pmi-
osophy THIS he justifes on the ground that he IS
not in this Introduction dealing with Hume as a
great literary character exhibiting the history OF
his individual mind. g Our concern" says the
Preface "has been with him as tho ex-
ponent of a philosophical system and there
fore specially with that statement OF his system
which alone purpOrts to be complete ana whlch was
written when philosophy was still his chief interest,
without alloy from the disappointment OF literary
ambition. Anv one who will be at the pains to read
the Inouires' alongside of the original Treatise,
will find that their only essential difference from 1t
j. in the way of omission. They consist in the main
of excerpts from the Treatise rewritten III
lighter style, and with the more difficult parts OF IL
left out 1t is not that the difficulties which log
icaly arise out of Humes system are met, but that
the passages which most obviously suggest them
have disappeared without anything TO take their
place. Thus in the Inquiry Concerning the
Human UNDERSTANDING there is nothing whatever
corresponding to Parts H. and " of the First BOOK
of the Treatise The effect of this omission on
haSty reader is no doubt, feeling OF great rehei'
Common sense is no longer actively repeled by
doctrine which seems to undermine the real world
and can more easily put a construction on the ac-
count of the law of causaton, which remains, COM
patihle with the objective validity of the law
such construction in fact forms the basis oil MI
Mills Logic" Tho editors believe that they have
shown in their introductiOns how inconsistent this
construction is with the principles from which Hume
started and which ne never gave up; how lmpos-
sible il would be to any who had assimlated his
system as whole; and how close is the organic
connection between all the parts OF this as he
originally conceived it.
Anything like consideration of the elaborate
analysis to which Mr.. Green has devoted his intro
ductIon would take me beyond the limits of notice
meant only to give American students some notion
of the scope and intent of the present edition. But
select two passages as examples OF the views
taken by these editors and of the intellectual energy
they have brought TO their selfimposed task, or
rather which one of them has, since Mr.. Green Is
solely responsible for the present Introduction, and
puts his name to il sTngly.
To begin with he has studied the history of phil
osophy in few great names not, as is the common
uan. in compendia of the system Of philosophical
writer's token tGeii ~ tthe gross. with discrimina
non except in regard to time and popularity, TO
which latter habit he traces the common notion that
metaphysical inquiry is endless process of thresh-
ing old straw.
At rare epochs there appear men, or sets OF men, with
the true speculative impulse 10 begin at the beginning
and 80 TO the end and with the faculty OF discerning
the true point Of departure which previous speculation
has fixed for them The intervals are occupied by com
mentators and expOnents Of the last philosopher,
IL IL has has been his mission to constructs if it has
Iean skepcal, by writers who cannot understand the
fatal question that ne has asked, and thus still dig in
the old vein which he had exhausted, and OF when Dis
nnal dilemma had shown the bottom.
In continental philosophy, such an interval fol-
lowed the epoch of LeibmtZ an interval OF aca-
demic exposition or formulation; an inquiry Ieft
incompete bv the master becoming a One-sided dog
matism in the hands Of his disciples: In Engls91
speculation. . ...ne regime of strenuous inactivity
has prevailed since Hume; an interval unprohtaDe
because It's representatives have persisted III phoSo
rhlzng upon principles which Hume had pursued
10 their legitimate issue, and had shown, not as
their enemy, but as their advocate, to render all
philosophy futile.
AS the result of the experiment the method, which
began with protesting explain knowledge. showed
knowledge to be impossible. Hume himself was per
fectly cognzant of this result but his successors In
England and Scotland would seem so far 10 nave Deeh
unable 20 look in the face They have either thrust
their heads again the bush OF unertclsed bee or
they have gone on celebrating Hume doctrine OF asso
catiou in apparent forgetuRess of Humes own proof
of its insuhcency account for an intelligent as op
nosed 10 a merely instructive habitul experience.
An ipoury however thorough and passoness as the
.Treatise Of Human Nature" could not be in vain and
81 no English athlete had strength to on the torch
n WAS transferred 10 vigorous line in Germany.
Ii awoke Kant be used to say, from his dogmatlc
sumber to put him into that state OF mind. by some
called wonder. by Others doubt in whch all true pho'
ophy beg ns Thus the "Treatise of Human Nature
and the Crtic of Pure Reason" taken together form
the real bridge between the old world Of philosophy and
The new.
1t must be left TO the other disciples of Kant to
say whether they are willing to accept Hume as the
master at whose feet their master sat. Platonlsts,
at all events will be slow to acQuiesce IN the trans
fer TO Kant of the fundamental maxim of the author
of the Timacus, that all true philosophy begins in