PREFACE. THE general preface to the first volume renders it unnecessary to add anything introductory to the second, except for the purpose of calling the reader's attention to the following circumstances: 1. Beside the Letters of Voltaire, communicated by Mr Stanford, and which were given in the former editions, there are some of his and one of Helvétius now inserted, which had been given in the French edition, having been kindly communicated by M. Feuillet, a gentleman of great respectability. 2. The family of La Beaumelle made strong representations against the manner in which he had been described, upon the authority of Voltaire's correspondence; and, after fully considering their statements, it appeared that in some material particulars an unjust account had been given, by Voltaire and his friends, of that person's history. Some change has therefore been made as to those particulars. 3. Of the judgment respecting Maupertuis's conduct no modification can be admitted. In that judgment there has long been an entire concurrence of all who have considered the facts. It appears that his merits as a mathematician had been rated somewhat below their just amount. 4. There are some valuable additions to the Life of Hume, from letters communicated by the gentleman above mentioned, and still more from those which Colonel Mure has furnished, in his important publication of the Caldwell Papers.' 5. The note which has been added upon Archbishop Magee's marvellous judgment, pronounced against Hume's "wicked heart and weak head," seemed required by a strict regard to truth and justice-if, indeed, that judgment did not carry with it the certainty of unhesitating and instant reversal. 6. In discussing Hume's merits as an historian, too little reference had been made to Mr Brodie's most valuable work. It is, indeed, hardly fit that any one after him should handle the subject. There is perhaps no other instance of so complete a demonstration of historical errors of an historian's errors through prejudice and negligence. 7. To the Life of Robertson is appended the greater part of the discourse on the nature of the pleasure derived from Science Natural, Moral, and Political. In truth, the same argument is applicable to all the pleasures derived from literature; and Robertson afforded a remarkable example of one richly endowed with the powers of literary exertion, passing the period of his early youth in study and contemplation, and the greater part of his after life in the same pure enjoyments-a comparatively small portion of it only having been devoted to composition. It is a most gratifying reflection, that the doctrines contained in the first of the discourses referred to received the sanction of my revered friend, Dugald Stewart, in the last of his works, the Introduction to which was written a very short time before his decease. LONDON, April 5th, 1855. |