The Philosopher as Essayist

David Hume (1711-76) wrote in the advertisement for the first two books of A Treatise of Human Nature ­­(1739), that he, after having investigated the human understanding and passions, intended to “proceed to the examination of morals, politics, and criticism.” His ambition was partially fulfilled by the third book of the Treatise, “Of Morals,” published in 1740. But politics and criticism (meaning literature and taste) were further explored by the Scottish Enlightenment man of letters in his next venture, an enterprise that took a different form altogether.