[325:1] "La Perpétuité de la Foi, de l'Eglise Catholique touchant L'Eucharistie," 3 vols. 4to, 1669-1676. A smaller work published by the same author in 1664, was called "La Petite Perpétuité." Its author, Pierre Nicole, one of the illustrious recluses of the Port Royal, was more efficient as a polemical supporter of the principles of his church, than as a practical administrator of its authority. An amusing story is told of his unguarded habits and absence of mind. A lady had brought under his notice, as her spiritual adviser, a matter of extreme delicacy, with which he felt it difficult to deal. Seeing approach at the moment Father Fouquet, whom he knew to have much judgment and experience in such matters, he cried out--"Ah, here comes a man who can solve the difficulty," and, running to meet him, told the whole case, loudly and energetically. The feelings of the fair penitent may be imagined. [327:1] Probably "The Bellman's Petition," mentioned above. [327:2] Minto MSS. [328:1] In the MSS. R.S.E. [331:1] The late Rev. Dr. Morehead of St. Paul's Chapel in Edinburgh, who was revered as a minister, and respected as a scholar and philosopher, published in 1830, "Dialogues on Natural and Revealed Religion," a pleasing continuation of the work we have just been considering, in which the speakers are made to approach a conclusion nearer to the reverend author's own opinions, than he found them to be when he had read to the end of Hume's little book. From a note by Dr. Morehead, I am tempted to extract the following passage: "Mr. Hume was conscious of his own power, probably while his countrymen were making him a theme of their uncouth derision; and he seems to have had a prescience that he had not yet gathered all his fame. . . . . . . I am much mistaken if the name of this profound thinker does not yet receive the encomiastic epithets of a _grateful_ posterity; and if, when his errors have passed away, he does not yet come to be regarded as the philosopher who has made the most penetrating and successful researches in the intricate science of human nature. He is a cool anatomist, who has dissected it throughout every fibre and nerve; and he may be partly pardoned, perhaps, if, in this sort of remorseless operation, he has too much lost sight of the principle of its moral and intellectual life." The Dialogues on Natural Religion seem to have taken a firm hold of Dr. Morehead's mind. He left behind him a farther continuation, called "Philosophical Dialogues," in which he beautifully represented the Philo of the original, revising his old opinions amidst such a serene old age, as the writer was then himself enjoying. This little work was published after its author's death, by a distinguished surviving friend, who has probably done more towards the propagation of Christian philosophy, than any other living writer of the English language.