THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS OF DAVID HUME. INCLUDING ALL THE ESSAYS, AND EXHIBITING THE MORE IMPORTANT ALTERATIONS AND CORRECTIONS IN THE SUCCESSIVE EDITIONS PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. I. EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR ADAM BLACK AND WILLIAM TAIT; AND CHARLES TAIT, 63, FLEET STREET, LONDON. MDCCCXXVI. [Illustration: Allan Ramsey pinx.--Robert Grace Sculp.--David Hume] ADVERTISEMENT. The Philosophical Writings of Mr Hume are here for the first time collected in a uniform edition. The Essays are reprinted from the Edition of 1777, in two octavo volumes, corrected by the Author for the press, a short time before his death, and which he desired might be regarded as containing his philosophical principles. The text of that Edition has been faithfully adhered to in the present; but as it has been thought an interesting object of curiosity, to trace the successive variations of sentiment and taste in a mind like that of Hume, and to mark the gradual and most observable increase of caution in his expression of those sentiments, it has been the care of the present Editor to compare the former Editions, of which a List is here subjoined, and where any alterations were discovered, not merely verbal, but illustrative of the philosophical opinions of the author, to add these as Notes to the passages where they occur. The Essays contained in the early Editions, but which were omitted in that of 1777, will be found at the end of the last volume of the present Collection of his Works, together with the Two Essays, on Suicide, and the Immortality of the Soul. In addition to the Author's Life, written by himself, the Account of the Controversy with M. Rousseau has also been prefixed. It was originally printed in French, and shortly afterwards in English, in the year 1766. The English translation was superintended by Mr Hume; and as it relates to an extraordinary occurrence in the Lives of these eminent philosophers, has been thought a suitable appendage to the short Memoir of himself. EDINBURGH, JUNE 1825. EDITIONS OF THE ESSAYS COLLATED AND REFERRED TO. Essays, Moral and Political. Edinburgh, Kincaid, 1741. 12mo. (A) Essays, Moral and Political, Vol. II. Edinburgh, Kincaid, 1742. 12mo. pp. 105. (B) Essays, Moral and Political, 2d Edition, corrected. Edinburgh, Kincaid, 1742. 12mo. pp. 189. (C) Essays, Moral and Political. By D. Hume, Esq. 3d Edition, corrected, with additions. London, Millar, 1748. 12mo. (D) Three Essays, Moral and Political, never before published, which completes the former Edition, in two volumes octavo. By D. Hume, Esq. London, Millar, 1748. 12mo. (E) Political Discourses. By D. Hume, Esq. Edinburgh, Kincaid, 1752. Small 8vo. _To this Edition there is sometimes added 'a List of Scotticisms_.' (F)