[13] Madame d'Epinay gives a ludicrous account of Hume's performance
when pressed into a _tableau_, as a Sultan between two slaves,
personated for the occasion by two of the prettiest women in Paris:--
"Il les regarde attentivement, _il se frappe le ventre_ et les genoux a
plusieurs reprises et ne trouve jamais autre chose a leur dire que _Eh
bien! mes demoiselles.--Eh bien! vous voila donc.... Eh bien! vous voila
... vous voila ici?_ Cette phrase dura un quart d'heure sans qu'il put
en sortir. Une d'elles se leva d'impatience: Ah, dit-elle, je m'en etois
bien doutee, cet homme n'est bon qu'a manger du veau!"--Burton's _Life
of Hume_, vol. ii. p. 224.
PART II.
_HUME'S PHILOSOPHY._
CHAPTER I.
THE OBJECT AND SCOPE OF PHILOSOPHY.
Kant has said that the business of philosophy is to answer three
questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? and For what may I hope?
But it is pretty plain that these three resolve themselves, in the long
run, into the first. For rational expectation and moral action are alike
based upon beliefs; and a belief is void of justification, unless its
subject-matter lies within the boundaries of possible knowledge, and
unless its evidence satisfies the conditions which experience imposes as
the guarantee of credibility.
Fundamentally, then, philosophy is the answer to the question, What can
I know? and it is by applying itself to this problem, that philosophy is
properly distinguished as a special department of scientific research.
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