The first and second volumes of the _Treatise_, containing Book I., "Of
the Understanding," and Book II., "Of the Passions," were published in
January, 1739.[6] The publisher gave fifty pounds for the copyright;
which is probably more than an unknown writer of twenty-seven years of
age would get for a similar work, at the present time. But, in other
respects, its success fell far short of Hume's expectations. In a letter
dated the 1st of June, 1739, he writes,--
"I am not much in the humour of such compositions at present,
having received news from London of the success of my _Philosophy_,
which is but indifferent, if I may judge by the sale of the book,
and if I may believe my bookseller."
This, however, indicates a very different reception from that which
Hume, looking through the inverted telescope of old age, ascribes to the
_Treatise_ in _My Own Life_.
"Never literary attempt was more unfortunate than my _Treatise of
Human Nature_. It fell _deadborn from the press_ without reaching
such a distinction as even to excite a murmur among the zealots."
As a matter of fact, it was fully, and, on the whole, respectfully and
appreciatively, reviewed in the _History of the Works of the Learned_
for November, 1739.[7] Whoever the reviewer may have been, he was a man
of discernment, for he says that the work bears "incontestable marks of
a great capacity, of a soaring genius, but young, and not yet thoroughly
practised;" and he adds, that we shall probably have reason to consider
"this, compared with the later productions, in the same light as we view
the juvenile works of a Milton, or the first manner of a Raphael or
other celebrated painter.
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