[86:1] "Had I done but half as much as he [Hume] in labouring to subvert principles which ought ever to be held sacred, I know not whether the friends of truth would have granted me any indulgence, I am sure they ought not. Let me be treated with the lenity due to a good citizen no longer than I act as becomes one."--Beattie's Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth, &c. p. 20. On this Priestley says, "Certainly the obvious construction of this passage is, that Mr. Hume ought not to be treated with the indulgence and lenity due to a good citizen, but ought to be punished as a bad one. And what is this but what a Bonner and a Gardiner might have put into the preamble of an order for his execution. . . I for my part am truly pleased with such publications as those of Mr. Hume, and I do not think it requires any great sagacity or strength of mind, to see that such writings must be of great service to religion, natural and revealed. They have actually occasioned the subject to be more thoroughly canvassed, and consequently to be better understood than ever it was before, and thus _vice cotis funguntur_."[86:A] [86:A] Examination of Dr. Reid's Inquiry, &c. Dr. Beattie's Essay, &c. and Dr. Oswald's Appeal, &c. 1774, pp. 191-193. [88:1] Critik der reinen Vernunft, (Methodenlehre,) 7th ed. p. 571. [89:1] Preliminary Dissertation to the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 210. [95:1] A scientific friend observes, that this is the germ of the theory of oxidation. [98:1] I have been favoured by Mr. Chambers with an old copy of this letter, in which it is titled as a letter to Gilbert Stuart. The original is among the MSS. R.S.E. where there is a note in Baron Hume's handwriting, with a supposition that it was addressed to Dr. Traill. [101:1] B. i. part iv. sect. 7. [104:1] B. i. part iv. sect. 7. [104:2] B. ii. part i. sect. 10. CHAPTER III. 1739-1741. ÆT. 27-29. Letters to his friends after the publication of the first and second volume of the Treatise--Returns to Scotland--Reception of his Book--Criticism in "The Works of the Learned"--Charge against Hume of assaulting the publisher--Correspondence with Francis Hutcheson--Seeks a situation--Connexion with Adam Smith--Publication of the third volume of the Treatise--Account of it--Hume's notes of his reading--Extracts from his Note books. Immediately after the publication of his work we find Hume thus writing to Henry Home:-- "_London, February 13, 1739._