Philosophical Chemistry in the Scottish Enlightenment: The Doctrines and Discoveries of William Cullen and Joseph Black (review)

102 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY attention to a small number of the topics treated in this collection (omitting names to save space). The most quoted work is the Treatise, especially Book I with its many ambiguities and inconsistencies. It is a fair question whether the minute analysis of the Treatise is worthwhile in view of Hume's vehement repudiation of it towards the end of his life, stamping it as what had been his philosophy. Most of the contributors, however, do turn occasionally to his later writings from the Philosophical Essays (1748) onwards. It is refreshing to find a contributor writing on Hume's rare excursions into aesthetics. He originally intended to complete his Treatise with a Book IV (to be entitled "On Criticism," the then current term), elevating aesthetic experience into one of the major parts of "human nature ." Following Hutcheson, Hume emphasizes that beauty is not the property of an object but a "passion" similar to the moral sense. Of its many forms he mentions articles of furniture , when we detect the fitness of their design (chairs, and so on) to their use; also instances when poetry pleases, eloquence persuades, and historiography instructs. One of the essayists confines himselfto a comparison of Hume and Wittgenstein. He quotes a relevant remark in Hume's second Enquiry, that it is not "for philosophers to encroach upon the province of grammarians and to engage in disputes of words," repeated in one of his Essays, that it is "worthwhile to consider what is real and what is only verbal." Religion is not neglected. In his Natural History of Religion (in Four Dissertations, 1757) Hume presents religion as original in human nature and also, as on reason, resulting in belief in an invisible intelligent power. It is in the Dialogues that we are faced with shrouded uncertainties . One of the essayists attributes this confusion to our trying to identify which of the characters in the debate represents Hume. He contends that none of them singly does so: Hume puts fragments of himself into each of the debaters to ensure that all the pros and cons will be exposed. The intimate question whether or not Hume held religious convictions is not mentioned. After searching biographical information, I have concluded that he did. Finally, there are Hume's political ideas, treated by three of the contributors. The first deservedly corrects the common view that he was a Tory. He had a personal leaning toward conservatism but was not a party man. His ruling concern was social well-being, but he realized that a nation has a peculiar history, partly shaping and partly shaped by its geographical situation and mentality. The political constitution he sketched was a parliamentary coalition. The other two essays are on Hume's ideas about the unification of the widely scattered thirteen settlements of the colonists. On the details of this dit~cult problem he was vehemently opposed by Madison. 1 venture to add one of Hume's remarks about the British loss of the colonists: "I am American in my principles, and wish we could let them be alone to govern or misgovern themselves as they think proper." Other remarks of his show that he was warmly on the side of the colonists. T. E. JESSOP University of Hull A. L. Donovan. Philosophical Chemistry in the Scottish Enlightenment: The Doctrines and Discoveries of William Cullen and Joseph Black. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 1975. Pp. x + 343. $17.50. During the eighteenth century chemistry came into its own as a disciplineof science, and the work of Joseph Black played no small part in that story. In 1756 Black published "Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quicklime, and other Alcaline Substances," a paper that truly began the chemical study of gases that was the key to the "chemical revolution" of the 1780s. Black's teacher, William Cullen, is not as well known a figure, yet many of his ideas were crucial for Black's later work, not just in chemical theory, but especially in terms of the nature of BOOK REVIEWS 103 chemistry itself as an independent discipline. The two men shared a close personal as well as intellectual friendship, and it is fitting that...