THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For JUN E, 1777.

ART. I. Efays on the Nature and Immutability of Truth, in Oppofition to Sophiftry and Scepticism; on Poetry and Mufic, as they affect the Mind; on Laughter and ludicrous Compofition; on the Utility of Claffical Learning. By James Beattie, LL. D. Profeffor of Philofophy and Logic in the Marifchal College and Univerfity of Aberdeen. 4to. . s. Boards. Dilly. 1777.

S this publication has been attended with fome peculiar

A circumftances, which are liable to be mifunderfood, Dr.

Beattie, in a fhort advertisement prefixed to it, begs leave to explain them:

About three years ago, fays he, fome perfons of distinction in England, who had honoured me with their friendship, were pleafed to exprefs a defire, that the ESSAY ON TRUTH fhould be printed in a more fplendid form than that in which it had hitherto appeared; and fo as to ensure profit, as well as honour, to the Author. And the Proprietors of the Copy-right, being at the fame time applied to, declared their willingness to permit an edition to be printed for his advantage, on his agreeing to certain terms, which were thought reafonable.

་

It was then propofed, that a new edition of the Essay should be printed in quarto, by fubfcription. To this the Author had fome objections. He was apprehenfive, that the fize of that work might be inadequate to fuch a purpose. Befides, to publish in this manner a book which had already gone through two or three editions, feemed hazardous, becaufe unprecedented; and might, to those who were uninformed of the affair, give ground to suspect the Author of an infirmity, which no person who knows him will ever lay to his charge, an exceffive love of money.

It was answered, That the volume might be extended to a fufficiency of fize, by printing, along with that on Truth, fome other Eays, which, though not originally designed for the prefs, his Friends, who had feen them, were pleafed to think not unworthy of it; and that the Propofed Subfcription, being of a peculiar kind, should be conducted in a peculiar manner. "It fhall never," said the promoters of this undertaking, be committed to Bookfellers, VOL. LVI. Ee

"" nor

nor made public by advertisements; nobody fhall be folicited to join in it; we, by ourselves and our friends, fhall carry it on, "without giving you any further trouble, than just to fignify your "confent, and prepare your materials :-and if there be, as we "have reafon to think there are, many perfons of worth and fortune, who with for fuch an opportunity, as this will afford them, "to teftify their approbation of you and your writings, it would "feem capricious in you to deprive them of that fatisfaction, and "yourself of fo great an honour."

66

To a Propofal fo uncommonly generous the Author could not refufe his confent, without giving himself airs, which would not have become him. He therefore thankfully acquiefced. And the bufinefs went on; and has now terminated in a way that does him much honour, and demands his most grateful acknowledgements to thofe Noble and Learned Perfons who conducted and encouraged it.' In regard to the Effay on Truth, our fentiments are well known to our Readers*, and we have the fatisfaction to find that fo large and refpectable a part of the Public entertain the fame opinion of its merit, and have teftified their approbation of it, in a manner that reflects no less honour on themselves than on the Author.

As to the reafonings, and general principles of the Effay, the Doctor tells us, in his Preface, he has feen no cause to alter his opinion; though he has carefully attended to what has been urged against them by feveral ingenious writers. He has endeavoured, however, to obviate fome objections by occafional remarks and amendments interfperfed in this edition, which, he hopes, will be found lefs faulty than any of the former. • Several inaccuracies, fays he, are now removed, unneceffary words and fentences expunged, a few erroneous paffages either cancelled or rectified, and fome new-modelled in the ftyle, wdich before feemed too harshly or too ftrongly expreffed.'

Our Author has, in juftice to Mr. Hume, inferted, in his preface, an Advertisem nt which was prefixed to the last edition of that writer's Effays, and has likewife, in juftice to himfelf, fubjoined a few remarks upon it. In order to gratify the curiolity of fuch of our Readers as cannot be fuppofed to have feen this Advertisement, and may haye no immediate opportunity of teeing the present edition of the Essay on Truth, we shall place before them both Mr. Hume's Aavirtijiment, and Dr. Beattie's Remarks:

66

"Most of the principles and reafonings contained in this volume," fays Mr. Hume, "were publifhed in a work in three volumes, intitled, A Treatise of Human Nature: a work, which the author "had projected before he left college, and which he wrote and published not long after. But not finding it fuccefstul, he was fenfible of his error in going to the prefs too early, and he cast

* For our account of Dr. Beattie's Effay on Truth, fee Review, vols. xlii, and xliii.

the

66

"the whole anew in the following pieces; where fome negligences in his former reasoning, and more in the expreflion, are, he hopes, "corrected. Yet feveral writers, who have honoured the author's philofophy with anfwers, have taken care to direct all their bat"teries against that juvenile work, which the author never acknow"ledged; and have affected to triumph in any advantages which, they imagined, they had obtained over it: a practice very contrary to all rules of candour and fair-dealing, and a strong in"ftance of thofe polemical artifices, which a bigotted zeal thinks *itfelf authorized to employ. Henceforth the author defires, that "the following pieces may alone be regarded as containing his philofophical fentiments and principles." Thus far Mr. Hume.

66

I do not think it is with an evil purpofe, fays Dr. B. that any of those who attacked this author's philofophy directed their batteries against the Treatife of Human Nature. In regard to myself, the cafe was briefly this

Ever fince I began to attend to matters of this kind, I had heard Mr. Hume's philofophy mentioned as a fyftem very unfriendly to religion both revealed and natural, as well as to fcience; and its author fpoken of as a teacher of fceptical and atheistical doctrines, and withal as a molt acute and ingenious writer. I had reason to believe, that his arguments, and his influence as a great literary character, had done harm, by fubverting or weakening the good principles of fome, and countenancing the licentious opinions of others. Being honoured with the care of a part of the British youth; and confidering it as my indifpenfable duty (from which I truft I fhall never deviate) to guard their minds againft impiety and error, I endeavoured, among other ftudies that belonged to my office, to form a right eftimate of Mr. Hume's philofophy, fo as not only to understand his peculiar tenets, but alfo to perceive their connection and confequences.

In forming this efimate, I thought it at once the fureft and the faireft method to begin with the Treatife of Human Nature, which was allowed, and is well known to be, the ground-work of the whole; and in which fome of the principles and reasonings are more fully profecuted, and their connection and confequences more clearly feen by an attentive reader (notwithstanding fome inferiority in point of flyle) than in thofe more elegant republications of the fyftem, that have appeared in the form of Eays. Every found argument that may have been urged against the paradoxes of the Treatife, particularly against its first principles, does, in my opinion, tend to difcredit the fyftem; as every fuccefsful attempt to weaken the foundation of a building does in effect promote the downfal of the fuperftructure. Paradoxes there are in the Treatife, which are not in the Eays; and, in like manner, there are licentious doctrines in thefe, which are not in the other: and therefore I have not directed all my batteries against the first. And if the plan I had in view when I published this book, had been completed, the reader would have feen, that, though I began with the Treatife of Human Nature, it was never my intention to end with it. In fact, the Effay on Truth is only one part of what I had projected. Another part was then in fo great forwardness, that I thought its publication

Eez

not

not very remote, and had even made proposals to a bookfeller concerning it though afterwards, on enlarging the plan, I found I had not taken fo wide a view of the fubject as would be neceffary. In that part, my meaning was, to have applied the principles of this Book to the illuftration of certain truths of morality and religion, to which the reafonings of Helvetius, of Mr. Hume in his Eays, and of fome other modern philofophers, feemed unfavourable. That work, however, have been obliged, on account of my health, to lay afide; and whether I fhall ever be in a condition to refume it, is at prefent very uncertain.

For thefe eighteen years paft (and before that period I knew nothing of this author's writings) I have always heard the Treatife of Human Nature ipoken of as the work of Mr. Hume. Till after publishing the Effay on Truth, I knew not that it had ever been faid, or infinuated, or even fufpected, that he either did not acknowledge that Treatife, or withed it to be confidered as a work which he did not acknowledge. On the contrary, from his reprinting fo often, in Efays that bore his name, most of the principles and reafonings contained in it; and never, fo far as I had heard, difavowing any part of it; I could not but think, that he fet a very high value upon it. By the literary people with whom I was then acquainted it had been much read; and by many people it was much admired. And, in general, it was confidered as the author's chief work in philofophy, and as one of the most curious fyftems of human nature that had ever appeared. Those who favoured his principles fpoke of it as an unaniwerable performance. And whatever its fuccefs might have been as an article of fale (a circumftance which I did not think it material to inquire into) I had reafon to believe, that as a fyftem of licentious doctrine it had been but too fuccessful and that to the author's reputation as a philofopher, and to his influence as a promoter of infidelity, it had contributed not a little.

Our author certainly merits praife, for thus publickly difowning, though late, his Treatife of Human Nature; though I am forry to obferve, from the tener of his declaration, that he ftill feems inclined to adhere to "most of the reafonings and principles contained in that Treatife." But if he has now at laft renounced any one of his errors, I congratulate him upon it with all my heart. He has many good as well as great qualities; and I rejoice in the hope, that he may yet be prevailed on to relinquish totally a fyftem, which I fhould think would be as uncomfortable to him, as it is unfatisfactory to others. In confequence of his Advertisement, I thought it right to mitigate in this Edition fone of the cenfures that more efpecially refer to the Treatife of Human Nature: but as that Treatise is fill extant, and will probably be read as long at least as any thing I write, I did not think it expedient to make any material change in the reafoning or in the plan of this performance.'

Thefe Remarks were written feveral months before Mr. Hume's death, and they appear to be very candid and fatisfactory. We fhall, in a fubfequent Article, proceed to the other Effays contained in the publication now before us; wherein we have

obferved

obferved many ingenious, and fome original, remarks, on the curious and entertaining fubjects which are here difcuffed, with that tafte and judgment which have already diftinguished the writings of Dr. Beattie.

(To be continued.)

R.

ART. II. A new, eafy, and expeditious Method of difcharging the National Debt; or, a Plan of Refo mation of the English Constitution in Church, practicable not only without Detriment but without Emolument to the Constitution in State; and defigned as introductory to a wife political Institution, preferable to and perfective of it. Both refpectfully fubmitted to the ferious Connderation of the Public in general, and of the Legiflature in particular; and interfperfed with free Obfervations on Part of the late Addrefs of the Convocation to the King; accompanied with a farcical Description of an Epifcopo military Triumvirate, arming for the American Warfare. By Francis Stone, M. A. F S. A. C. S. P C. [Chairman of the Society of the Petitioning Clergy] Rector of Cold Norton, Effex. 8vo. 3 s. fewed johnfon. 177.

R

EFORMATION, either in church or ftate, is a bufinefs of too ferious and important a nature, to be conducted by the playful and vulgar hand of buffoonery. From our regard for liberty, and our earnest defire of feeing every judicious plan of improvement, whether in civil or ecclefiaftical concerns, propofed with dignity, fupported with difcretion, and executed with fteadiness, we feel no fmall degree of pain, on obferving the Chairman of the Society of the Petitioning Clergy, appearing before the Public with a fool's cap on his head; and, inftead of giving a calm and difpaffionate representation of the grounds of the petition, and of the benefits which might be expected to arife from the abolition of fubfcriptions to articles of faith, treating the established formularies of religion, the dignitaries of the church, and the whole ecclefiaftical conftitution, with ridicule and contempt.

In the true Newmarket ftyle he gives the pedigree of orthodoxy, and advertifes a race to be run by him and Clerical Petitioner. With an abundant affectation of humour, he propofes that the prefent expedition against America fhould be conducted by three epifcopal generals, whom he has accoutred with a motley compound of ecclefiaftical robes, and military regi mentals. He is fo much pleafed with this whimsical fancy, that, befides employing twenty pages of his work in fitting out his hero, with drefs, armour, and other habiliments, he has prefixed a frontispiece, in which he is exhibited as completely equipped for his expedition.

The fame ludicrous turn appears through the whole piece, and mingles itself with all the Author's arguments, and even

Ee 3

with