Four Dissertations (1757)
by David Hume
This is a transcription of the first and only edition of this work. It was originally intended to consist of the first three essays and a fourth, on geometry and natural philosophy. Hume withdrew the latter following criticism from a competent mathematician, and proposed to replace it with two essays, one on suicide, the other on the immortality of the soul. Hume then withdrew these two essays after they were printed, possibly due to a threat of prosecution, and replaced them with the essay on Taste. The two withdrawn essays were subsequently published posthumously, first in an anonymous edition in 1777, and then under Hume's name for the first time in 1783.
The four essays in this volume subsequently appeared, the first two somewhat expanded, in the 1758 edition of 'Essays and Treatises'.
[Based on A Bibliography of David Hume and of Scottish Philosophy from Francis Hutcheson to Lord Balfour (1966), by Thomas Edmund Jessop, pp.33-37.]
4150472Four Dissertations1757David Hume (1711-1776)

FOUR

DISSERTATIONS.

I. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF RELIGION.
II. OF THE PASSIONS.
III. OF TRAGEDY.
IV. OF THE STANDARD OF TASTE.

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Written by the same Author,
and Printed for A. Millar.

I. Essays and Treatises on several Subjects. In 4 Volumes, Duodecimo.

Containing in
  Vol. I. Essays Moral and Political.
  Vol. II. Philosophical Essays concerning Human Understanding.
  Vol. III. An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals.
  Vol. IV. Political Discourses.

II. The History of Great Britain. In 2 Vol. Quarto.

Containing in
  Vol. I. The Reigns of James I, and Charles I.
  Vol. II. The Commonwealth, and the Reigns of Charles II. and James II.

FOUR

DISSERTATIONS.

I. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF RELIGION.
II. OF THE PASSIONS.
III. OF TRAGEDY.
IV. OF THE STANDARD OF TASTE.

BY

DAVID HUME, Esq;

LONDON,

Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand.

MDCCLVII.

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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