A Treatise of Human Nature

A TREATISE OF HUMAN NATUREBy David Hume* * * * *VOL. I OF THE UNDERSTANDING.ADVERTISEMENT.My design in the present work is sufficiently explained in theIntroduction. The reader must only observe, that all the subjects I havethere planned out to myself, are not treated of in these two volumes.The subjects of the Understanding and Passions make a compleat chainof reasoning by themselves; and I was willing to take advantage of thisnatural division, in order to try the taste of the public. If I have thegood fortune to meet with success, I shall proceed to the examinationof Morals, Politics, and Criticism; which will compleat this Treatise ofHuman Nature. The approbation of the public I consider as the greatestreward of my labours; but am determined to regard its judgment, whateverit be, as my best instruction.INTRODUCTION.Nothing is more usual and more natural for those, who pretend todiscover anything new to the world in philosophy and the sciences, thanto insinuate the praises of their own systems, by decrying all those,which have been advanced before them. And indeed were they content withlamenting that ignorance, which we still lie under in the most importantquestions, that can come before the tribunal of human reason, there arefew, who have an acquaintance with the sciences, that would not readilyagree with them. It is easy for one of judgment and learning, toperceive the weak foundation even of those systems, which have obtainedthe greatest credit, and have carried their pretensions highestto accurate and profound reasoning. Principles taken upon trust,consequences lamely deduced from them, want of coherence in the parts,and of evidence in the whole, these are every where to be met with inthe systems of the most eminent philosophers, and seem to have drawndisgrace upon philosophy itself.