Page:A Letter to Adam Smith on the Life, Death, and Philosophy of his friend David Hume (1777).djvu/36

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A LETTER TO

vain. All this must have often occurred to you, and been as often rejected, as utterly frivolous. Could I enforce the present topic by an appeal to your vanity, I might possibly make some impression. But to plead with you on the principles of benevolence, or generosity, is to address you in a language ye do not, or will not, understand; and as to the shame of being convicted of absurdity, ignorance, or want of candour, ye have long ago proved yourselves superior to the sense of it.—But let not the lovers of truth be discouraged. Atheism can-