Hume, David (1711-1776)

The Natural History of Religion

London

A. Millar

1757

"This in the mean time is obvious, that the empire of all religious faith over the understanding is wavering and uncertain, subject to every variety of humour, and dependent on the present incidents, which strike the imagination."

The inference is by no means just, that, because a system of religion has made no deep impression on the minds of a people, it must therefore have been positively rejected by all men of common sense, and that opposite principles, in spite of the prejudices of education, were generally established by argument and reasoning. I know not, but a contrary inference may be more probable. The less importunate and assuming any species of superstition appears, the less will it provoke men's spleen and indignation, or engage them into enquiries concerning its foundation and origin. This in the mean time is obvious, that the empire of all religious faith over the understanding is wavering and uncertain, subject to every variety of humour, and dependent on the present incidents, which strike the imagination.The difference is only in the degrees. An ancient will place a stroke of impiety and one of superstition alternately, throughout a whole discourse: A modern often thinks in the same way, though he may be more guarded in his expression.
(p. 350)

Government::Empire

Searching "empire" and "imagination" in Past Masters

At least 16 entries in the ESTC (1757, 1758, 1760, 1764, 1768, 1770, 1772, 1777, 1779, 1784, 1788, 1793, 1800)

See Hume, David. Four Dissertations (London: A. Millar, 1757). <Link to ESTC><Link to Google Books>

05/03/2005

06/04/2006