matter or spirit, and that the notion of necessity is something
illegitimately thrust into the perfectly legitimate conception of law, the
materialistic position that there is nothing in the world but matter,
force, and necessity, is as utterly devoid of justification as the most
baseless of theological dogmas. The fundamental doctrines of materialism,
like those of spiritualism, and most other "isms," lie outside "the limits
of philosophical inquiry"; and David Hume's great service to humanity is
his irrefragable demonstration of what these limits are. Hume called
himself a skeptic, and therefore others cannot be blamed if they apply the
same title to him; but that does not alter the fact that the name, with
its existing implications, does him gross injustice.

If a man asks me what the politics of the inhabitants of the moon are, and
I reply that I do not know; that neither I, nor anyone else, has any means
of knowing; and that, under these circumstances, I decline to trouble
myself about the subject at all, I do not think he has any right to call
me a skeptic. On the contrary, in replying thus, I conceive that I am
simply honest and truthful, and show a proper regard for the economy of
time. So Hume's strong and subtle intellect takes up a great many problems
about which we are naturally curious, and shows us that they are
essentially questions of lunar politics, in their essence incapable of
being answered, and therefore not worth the attention of men who have work
to do in the world. And he thus ends one of his essays:--

"If we take in hand any volume of Divinity, or school metaphysics, for
instance, let us ask, _Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning
quantity or number?_ No. _Does it contain any experimental reasoning
concerning matter of fact and existence?_ No. Commit it then to the
flames; for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion."

Permit me to enforce this most wise advice. Why trouble ourselves about
matters of which, however important they may be, we do know nothing, and
can know nothing? We live in a world which is full of misery and
ignorance, and the plain duty of each and all of us is to try to make the
little corner he can influence somewhat less miserable and somewhat less
ignorant than it was before he entered it. To do this effectually, it is
necessary to be fully possessed of only two beliefs: the first, that the
order of nature is ascertainable by our faculties to an exten