dria, and supplies a great part of the material used in that city;* and so much was Phineka formerly frequented by the Sultan's ships running between Constantinople and Alexandria, that a bakery was established there by the orders of the Capitan Pasha for their service. The interior parts of the country are not destitute of resources. Cibyra was formerly the Birmingham of Asia Minor, and it is an interesting fact that while in Lower Lycia the stone is carved in imitation of woodwork, many of the remains in Cibyra have been cut to resemble designs executed in iron. The trades of tanning and dyeing are still prosecuted at Almalee, and vast quantities of grain and of leeches are exported from that upland though fertile region. Nor do the natives display that apathy which is the prevailing character of the Turks in other places. They are active, industrious, and gentle, and obliging in their manners. In short a better government and the introduction of capital into the country is all that is wanting to cause Lycia to assume a prominent place in the future history of nations. We must not omit to notice, in conclusion, the exceedingly valuable and well-executed memoirs which this work contains on the land and fresh water animals of Lycia, on the zoology of its coasts and seas, and on its botany and geology. Our limits will not permit us to do more than notice them, and indeed it is hardly to be expected that the joint labours of three enquirers can be adequately dealt with by a single reviewer. Such a triple Chimeara would require another Bellerophon.

ART. V.-Life and Correspondence of David Hume. In two vols. By J. H. BURTON, Esq. Edinburgh: 1846.

SECOND ARTICLE.

We repeat it, that it would have been better not to withdraw David Hume from the abeyance into which he had profoundly sunk. At the very best, a man of mere ambition, governed by the love of fame, and making renown his only goal and endabsorbed in himself, and without charity, set upon leaving a trace in his country's history-but caring not whether it should be a bleeding wound, or a fertile furrow, is a man of low mark. It is a pity, even should his name live. His remembrance is not salutary-is not vital-and to extinguish it, would be a patriotic service. But was not Hume such a character? He had an athletic mind, but the product was frivolous and evanescent, if

Vol. i. pp. 87, 145, 172, 193.

not pestilential, for the most part. He was capable of important results, but accomplished nothing with which his name will be gratefully connected. He cherished the full belief that he would construct a celebrity for himself, equal to what the most distinguished philosophers had won; yet it is long since cotemporaneous reverence and awe were exchanged for respectful neglect. Men continue yet to speak of his name, but his works are not studied. His volumes contribute to swell the bulk of our literature, but it cannot be said that we owe aught that is useful, or magnanimous, or national, to his speculations. Unfortunately he preferred subtlety to strength-and as is the case with all who require more thought than they impart, it is far more common to possess Hume's works, than to be acquainted with Hume's philosophy.

Every thing considered, therefore, we must insist that the world could have done without a further Life, and still more emphatically, without an elaborate panegyric of David Hume. But tastes differ-and since Mr Burton has anew challenged us to place him in the balance, we will not shrink from recording our opinions.

Beyond all doubt, the most favourable point of view from which to look at David Hume, and estimate his services, is as a political economist. So early as the year 1734, and while his mind was as yet casting about on all sides for subjects of speculation, he went to Bristol in the employment of "a considerable trader," and though his residence here was of no greater duration than "a few months," we can easily imagine it having an effect in awakening his mind to an interest in political philosophy. At all events, it is manifest, that whilst he was just entering manhood, he had begun to draw together materials for an inquiry into national resources, and was even then finding his way to the grand principles of the science. It may not be amiss to quote one or two of those "memoranda," which indicate the current of his mind in this direction.

"No hospitals in Holland have any land, or settled residence, and yet the poor are better provided for than anywhere else in the world." "The governments north of Virginia interfere most with us in manufactures, which proceeds from the resemblance of soil and climate." "Men have oftener erred from too great respect to government than too little." "Ninety-five thousand seamen in France-only sixty thousand in England." "After the conquest of Egypt by Augustus, the price of every thing was double in Rome." "The Romans were very exact in their book-keeping, in so much that a crime, such as bribery or poisoning, could be proved or refuted from their books." "The clergy in Venice are chosen by a popular call." (I. 132.)

In part, these extracts, and the other "Memoranda" rela-. tive to the same subject, were collected when Hume was sojourning in France, and contain evidence that he had at least looked into some of those writers on political science, whom, even at this date, that country had produced. Vauban was not unknown to the pensive, but ambitious recluse of La Fleche, and perhaps more effectively had he been stimulated by the genius of Montesquieu.

Fortunately, at the time when Hume's thoughts were directed towards trade and commerce, with a view to ascertain the great truths of national economy, little had been written on the subject directly, and nothing that claimed to be a definite and final system. Had it been otherwise; and, instead of the entire domain being unbroken, except in one or two detached spots, had it been parcelled out among a host of philosophical squatters claiming it as their own, beyond a question, Hume would have expended his energies in dislodging these, and done nothing else than denounce all who had preceded him. Political economy in his hands would have been debated as a controversy, not built up as a science; and the issue would have been, the confirmation of the author's prejudice, not the establishment of sound, and comprehensive, and invincible principles. But when Hume first surveyed the territory of commercial science, save here and there, where a stray inquirer had planted his theodolite, the whole was uncultured and unclaimed, and so, finding neither windmills nor basti ons to fight with, he sat down like an honest man, to work out all the higher problems connected with the wealth of nations.

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his

Accordingly his "Essays" on these subjects are the speculations which of all that he has left us, reflect greatest lustre upon originality and erudition. They are based on large, minute, and accurate information. They embody truths which could only have resulted from the analysis of an energetic and sagacious mind. And at the same time, the illustration in which they abound is expert and tasteful. Mr Burton seems to think that Hume's mission was rather to break down than to organize," to root out what was vicious, not to substitute "new arrangements in the social scheme." And it may be so. Hume's circumstances may have prevented him seeing how radically his doctrines would work in the end. But no one can deny, that the "Essays" of which we now speak contain a substantive addition to our knowledge; they establish the foundation of that science to which they relate, and they unfold those principles of commercial economy that all nations are hastening to adopt.

From their first appearance, Hume's political speculations seem to have met with favour, and even the most aristocratic and

loyal were not afraid to embrace his views in their most thoroughgoing extent. Every one knows that Hume was a Tory. Yet no Whig had ever advanced so far in the suggestion of changes as he, and what is still more singular, the proposed innovations of the philosophical politician were cordially welcomed by the most rigid adherents of conservatism. The remark of Mr Burton on this point merits quotation.

"The dread of innovation, simply as change, and without reference to the interests it may affect, sprung up in later times, a child of the French Revolution. Before that event, some men were republican, or constitutional in their views, and declared war against all changes which tended to throw power into the hands of the monarch. Others were monarchical and opposed to the extension of popular rights. But if an alteration were suggested which did not affect these fundamental principles, it was welcomed with liberal courtesy. Hence both Hume and Smith, writing in bold denunciation of all the old cherished prejudices in matters of commerce, instead of being met with a storm of reproach, as any one who should publish so many original views in the present day would be, at once received a fair hearing and a just appreciation." I. 356.

Great as Hume's merit was in the investigation of political science, it may be affirmed that his inquiries have not exerted that influence which might have been expected from the correctness of their views, and the popularity of their first reception. The great impulse communicated to the study of matters relative to trade and commerce by Quesney, and Mirabeau the elder, and Turgot, was due unquestionably to Hume, and in all the main truths he promulgated Smith only followed where his friend had led the way. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe, that had not Smith expounded Hume, the profound theories of the latter would not have acquired the paramount influence to which they did ultimately attain. Nor is this to be accounted for by the fact of Hume's infidelity exciting a prejudice against his science. The truth is, Smith as an author was eminently practical, whilst Hume was rigidly abstruse, and herein is the explanation of the mystery. Smith knew detail as well as principles. Hume was content with the principles and left the detail to itself. Hume with his phlegmatic temperament had no desire to make the world better. What he lived for was to be spoken of. Smith had an esteem for his fellows, and no wonder if they are partial to his mode of writing, and are not reluctant to fall in with his views, when they find him in good earnest seeking to advance their prosperity, as a man of like passions, a citizen having the same interests, with themselves.

Scarcely inferior to the rank he occupies as a political economist, is the rank Hume sustains as a metaphysician. It would almost seem as if Hume were born a metaphysician. And his

youth was haunted with the dreamings of metaphysical renown; and to mould anew the whole science of metaphysics was his last, as it was his earliest aspiration.

"You must know that from my earliest infancy, I found a strong inclination to books and letters. As our college education in Scotland, extending little further than the languages, ends commonly when we are about fourteen or fifteen years of age, I was after that left to my own choice in my reading, and found it incline me almost equally to books of learning and philosophy, and to poetry and the polite authors. Every one who is acquainted with either, with the philosophers or critics, knows that there is nothing yet established in either of these two sciences, and that they contain little more than endless dispntes, even in the most fundamental articles. Upon examination of these, I found a certain boldness of temper growing in me, which was not inclined to submit to any authority in these subjects, but led me to seek out some medium by which truth might be established. After much study and reflection on this, at last, when I was about eighteen years of age, there seemed to be opened up to me a new scene of thought, which transported me beyond measure, and made me throw up every other pleasure or business to apply entirely to it." "Having time and leisure to cool my inflamed imagination, I began to consider seriously how I should proceed in my philosophical inquiries. I found that the moral philosophy transmitted to us by antiquity laboured under the same inconvenience that has been found in their natural philosophy, of being entirely hypothetical, and depending more upon invention than experience. Every one consulted his fancy in erecting schemes of virtue and happiness without regarding human nature, upon which every moral conclusion must depend. This, therefore, I resolved to make my principal study, and the source from which I would derive every truth in criticism, as well as morality." (I. 31—35.)

When Hume wrote that letter from which the above is an extract, at Bristol, in 1734, his ardour for metaphysical pursuit was unabated, and, resolved to throw the reins upon its neck, he speedily relinquished the mercantile prospects of England, for a cloister in France. Situated upon the Loire, in the department of Anjou, there is a small town named La Fleche, where at an early period the Jesuits had planted a college. In this retired seminary, the great adversary of the scholastic system, and warm champion of dogmatic rationalism, Descartes, was reared, about the commencement of the seventeenth century, and among his unsuspecting teachers of the cell, he acquired that adventurous spirit of speculation which subsequently rendered him so eminent, and in some respects, so useful. But though the Jesuit college awoke his longings after knowledge and truth, it could not satisfy them, and Descartes set out to travel. Ardour now became enthusiasm, and fixing his residence in Holland, he embraced the resolution of constructing a fabric of philosophy which in its source, should be derived from an analysis of thought and mind