CHAPTER XI.
THE PRINCIPLES OF MORALS.
In his autobiography, Hume writes:--
"In the same year [1752] was published at London my _Inquiry
Concerning the Principles of Morals_; which in my own opinion (who
ought not to judge on that subject) is of all my writings,
historical, philosophical, and literary, incomparably the best. It
came unnoticed and unobserved into the world."
It may commonly be noticed that the relative value which an author
ascribes to his own works rarely agrees with the estimate formed of them
by his readers; who criticise the products, without either the power or
the wish to take into account the pains which they may have cost the
producer. Moreover, the clear and dispassionate common sense of the
_Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals_ may have tasted flat after
the highly-seasoned _Inquiry concerning the Human Understanding_.
Whether the public like to be deceived, or not, may be open to question;
but it is beyond a doubt that they love to be shocked in a pleasant and
mannerly way. Now Hume's speculations on moral questions are not so
remote from those of respectable professors, like Hutcheson, or saintly
prelates, such as Butler, as to present any striking novelty. And they
support the cause of righteousness in a cool, reasonable, indeed
slightly patronising fashion, eminently in harmony with the mind of the
eighteenth century; which admired virtue very much, if she would only
avoid the rigour which the age called fanaticism, and the fervour which
it called enthusiasm.
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