1739 and 1740; the original advertisements, and a critical index by the editor; the latter intended, in the language of the preface, to "point, not loudly but unmistakably, to any contradictions or inconsequences and. . . to any omissions of importance." This valuable index occupies thirty pages of fine print. Altogether, the present edition is a credit to all who have been concerned in its preparation; and no inconsiderable service is done to philosophy by thus calling attention again to the great importance of Hume in the development of philosophical thought.
The "Treatise of Human Nature" was finished by Hume when he was scarcely twenty-five years old; and its final composition occurred in the village of La Flèche, in France, where his philosophical predecessor, Descartes, was educated. The result of its publication, in England, was, to use the author's own language, that "it fell dead-born from the press, without reaching such distinction as even to excite a murmur the zealots" It was not till his "Essays, Moral and Political," were published (1741-1748), and achieved notable success, that any measure of attention was bestowed upon the "Treatise"; and indeed the significance of the latter in the history of philosophy was not made manifest till the world became acquainted with Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason," which was first published at Riga in 1781.
This relation between Hume and Kant can be studied to advantage in the Introductions to Hume's works by the late Prof. T. H. Green, of Oxford, who was the leader of the Hegelian coterie of that institution. These Introductions are now accessible in a separate volume (Longmans, Green & Co., 1885). If Green's statements were limited to the English experiential school, before the doctrine of evolution appeared as a factor in philosophical thought, they would not stand in so much need of correction. As they are, however, they do need correction; but, nevertheless, they exhibit tolerably well the true position of Hume as the precursor of Kant. The former marked the close of an epoch, that of the course of thinking of which Locke was the progenitor. To Kant's mind Hume demonstrated the necessity of a new point of departure and a new method. This invests the "Treatise of Human Nature," his most important work, with a peculiar interest. To use Green's language, but with a less wide application of the terms "old" and "new"; the "Treatise" and Kant's "Critique" "taken together, form the real bridge between the old world of philosophy and the new. They are the essential 'propædeutik,' without which no one is a qualified student of modern philosophy."
The reader who desires to learn something more about Hume will do well to peruse the little volume entitled "Hume," of the Blackwood series of "Philosophical Classics for English Readers," written by William Knight, LL. D., Professor in St. Andrews University. This book gives both a good biography of Hume and an outline of his philosophy, a great deal in small compass; though, as in the case of Green's works, the reader of Knight's volume must be on his guard against a strong bias adverse to Hume's philosophy, and indeed to that of the English experiential school generally.
Down the Great River: Embracing an Account of the Discovery of the True Source of the Mississippi, etc. By Captain Willard Glazier. Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers. Pp. 443 liii. Price, $2.
In this book Captain Glazier relates the story in full of his journey, in 1881, by the aid of an Indian guide, "across country," from Brainard, Minnesota, to "Glazier Lake," south of Itasca Lake, and his determination of it as the real source of the Mississippi River. The journey was made first to Leech Lake, which is on one of the main affluents of the upper Mississippi, and is the seat of an Indian agency, and thence up a chain of lakes and portages, through a territory of which very little if anything was definitely known, to Itasca Lake; around Itasca Lake to the largest stream flowing into it; up that stream to "Glazier Lake," and around that lake till the author was satisfied that nothing important was likely to be found above it. Thence Captain Glazier descended in canoes, through all the windings and the lakes of the main stream of the Mississippi, and down the river to its mouth; the whole of this journey being performed in one hundred and seventeen days. He claims that his is the only party that has thus
