A Short History of Freethought Ancient and Modern, Volume 2 of 2 by J. M. Robertson

of his day. [839] Reflections on Incredulity, in Works, undated, ii, 141-42. Yet the works of Forbes were translated for orthodox purposes into German, and later into French by Père Houbigant (1769), who preserves the passage on freethinkers' morals, though curtailing the Reflections as a whole. [840] As to which see A Sober Enquiry into the Grounds of the Present Differences in the Church of Scotland, 1723. [841] Cockburn's Life of Jeffrey, ed. 1872, p. 10. [842] See the Autobiography of the Rev. Dr. A. Carlyle, 1860, pp. 492-93. Millar's Historical View of the English Government (censured by Hallam) was once much esteemed; and his Origin of Ranks is still worth the attention of sociologists. [843] Ritchie's Life of Hume, 1807, pp. 52-81; Tytler's Life of Lord Kames, 2nd ed. 1814, i, ch. v; Burton's Life of Hume, i, 425-30. [844] Ritchie, as cited, p. 57. [845] McCulloch, Life of Smith prefixed to ed. of Wealth of Nations, ed. 1839, p. ii. [846] Ramsay of Ochtertyre, Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century, 1888, i, 462-63. Mr. Rae doubts the story, Life of Adam Smith, 1895, p. 60. [847] Ramsay, as last cited. [848] Ramsay, passage cited. [849] Theory of Moral Sentiments, pt. iii, ch. ii, end. [850] Cp. Rae, pp. 427-30. Mr. Rae thinks the deletion stood for no change of opinion, and cites Smith's own private explanation (Sinclair's Life of Sir John Sinclair, i, 40) that he thought the passage "unnecessary and misplaced." But this expression must be read in the light of Smith's general reticence concerning established dogmas. Certainly he adhered to his argument--which does not claim to be a demonstration--for the doctrine of a future state. [851] Bk. v, ch. i, pt. iii, art. 3. [852] Smith's admiration for Voltaire might alone indicate his mental attitude. As to that see F. W. Hirst, Adam Smith (Eng. Men of Letters ser.), pp. 127-28. But the assertion of Skarzinski, that Smith, after being an Idealist under the influence of Hume, "returned a materialist" from his intercourse with Voltaire and other French freethinkers, is an exhibition of learned ignorance. See Hirst, p. 181. [853] An Explanation and Defence of the Principles of Protestant Dissent, by the Rev. Dr. W. Hamilton Drummond, 1842, pp. 5-6. 47; Skeats, Hist. of the Free Churches of England, ed. Miall, pp. 238-39; Wallace, Anti-Trinitarian Biography, iii, art. 360. [854] Cp. Drummond, as cited, pp. 29-30; History, Opinions, etc., of the English Presbyterians, 1834, p. 29. [855] W. R. Scott, Francis Hutcheson, p. 31. [856] Above, p. 154, note. [857] Scott, pp. 28-29, 35-36. The suggestion is not quite convincing. Synge, after becoming Archbishop of Tuam, continued to publish his propagandist tracts, among them An Essay towards making the Knowledge of Religion Easy to the Meanest Capacity (6th ed. 1734), which is quite orthodox, and which argues (p. 3) that the doctrine of the Trinity is to be believed, and not pried into, "because it is above our understanding to comprehend." All the while there was being sold also his early treatise, "A Gentleman's Religion: in Three Parts ... with an Appendix, wherein it is proved that nothing contrary to our Reason can possibly be the object of our belief, but that it is no just exception against some of the doctrines of Christianity that they are above our reason." [858] Scott, p. 36. [859] All that is told of this prelate by Lecky (Hist. of Ireland in the 18th Cent. 1892. i, 207) is that at Killala he patronized horse-races. He was industrious on more episcopal lines. He wrote an