Government_ and the _Letters on Toleration_. Hume, in those _Essays on Trade and Politics_, which are free from the stain of infidelity, was one of the most solid of thinkers; and he who produced the _Theory of Moral Sentiments_ continues to give law at the present time, in his _Wealth of Nations_, to the commerce of the civilised world. From a subtile but comparatively narrow class of intellects, though distinguished in the metaphysical province, mankind has received much less. Berkeley was one of these, and may be regarded as their type and representative. Save his metaphysics,--demonstrative of the non-existence of matter, or demonstrative rather that fire is not conscious of heat, nor ice of cold, nor yet our enlightened surface of colour,--he bequeathed little else to the world than his tar-water; and his tar-water, no longer recognised as a universal medicine, has had its day, and is forgotten. Without professing to know aught of German metaphysicians--for in the times when we used to read Hume and Reid they were but little known in this country--we can by no means rate them so high as the men whose writings they are supplanting. What, we have been accustomed to ask, are their trophies in the practical? Have any of them given to the world even tar-water? Where are their Lockes, Humes, and Adam Smiths? The man who, according to Johnson, can walk vigorously towards the east, can walk vigorously toward the west also. How is it that these German metaphysicians exhibit their vigour exclusively in walking one way? Where are their works of a practical character, powerful enough to give law to the species? Where their treatises like those of Locke on _Toleration_ or on _Government_, or their essays like that of Hume or of Adam Smith on the _Balance of Power_ or the _Wealth of Nations_? Are they doing other, to use a very old illustration, than merely milking rams, leaving their admirers and followers to hold the pail?