Part 1 (1/2)
Hume
by TH Huxley
PART I
_HUME'S LIFE_
CHAPTER I
EARLY LIFE: LITERARY AND POLITICAL WRITINGS
David Huh on the 26th of April (OS), 1711 His parents were then residing in the parish of the Tron church, apparently on a visit to the Scottish capital, as the small estate which his father Joseph Hume, or Home, inherited, lay in Berwickshi+re, on the banks of the Whitadder or Whitewater, a few round The paternal mansion was little more than a very modest farmhouse,[1] and the property derived its na, which breaks out on the slope in front of the house, and falls into the Whitadder
Both ood Scottish falas, ent over to France with the Douglas during the French wars of Henry V and VI and was killed at the battle of Verneuil Joseph Hu himself and two elder children, a brother and a sister, to the care of their mother, who is described by David Huh young and handso and education of her children” Mr Burton says: ”Her portrait, which I have seen, represents a thin but pleasing countenance, expressive of great intellectual acuteness;” and as Hume told Dr Black that she had ”precisely the same constitution with himself” and died of the disorder which proved fatal to him, it is probable that the qualities inherited from his mother had much to do with the future philosopher's eminence It is curious, however, that her estihtly apocryphal utterance, is of a sooodnatured crater, but uncoht seek in vain for signs of what is commonly understood as ”weakness of mind” in a man who not only showed himself to be an intellectual athlete, but who had an eminent share of practical wisdom and tenacity of purpose One would like to knoever, when it was that Mrs Hue of four and thirty, before he obtained any ere pittance of a er brother into a decent maintenance, it is not iht his devotion to philosophy and poverty to be due to h to see more than the dawn of her son's literary faed her mind about ”Davie's” force of character
David Hume appears to have owed little to schools or universities There is some evidence that he entered the Greek class in the University of Edinburgh in 1723--when he was a boy of twelve years of age--but it is not kno long his studies were continued, and he did not graduate
In 1727, at any rate, he was living at Ninewells, and already possessed by that love of learning and thirst for literary fa passion of his life and the chief source of his enjoyments A letter of this date, addressed to his friend Michael Raular production for a boy of sixteen After sundry quotations froil the letter proceeds:--
”The perfectly wise reater than the husbandman who slips by her; and, indeed, this pastoral and saturnian happiness I have in a great , pretty much by myself, neither full of action nor perturbation--_molles somnos_ This state, however, I can foresee is not to be relied on My peace of mind is not sufficiently confirreatness and elevation of soul is to be found only in study and contemplation This alone can teach us to look down on human accidents You must allow [me] to talk thus like a philosopher: 'tis a subject I thinkof”
If David talked in this strain to his ave utterance to ”Bless the bairn!” and, in her private soul, the epithet ”wake-h few lonely, thoughtful, studious boys of sixteen give vent to their thoughts in such stately periods, it is probable that the brooding over an ideal is coe, than fathers and mothers, busy with the cares of practical life, are apt to iine
About a year later, Hume's family tried to launch him into the profession of the law; but, as he tells us, ”while they fancied I was poring upon Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil were the authors which I was secretly devouring,” and the attempt seems to have come to an abrupt termination Nevertheless, as a very competent authority[2] wisely remarks:--
”There appear to have been in Huood lawyer isknowledge, untiring industry, and dialectic skill: and if his ulf in which eniuses lie buried--professional eht have left behind him a reputation limited to the traditional recollections of the Parliament house, or associated with ih life an able, clear-headed, al documents, written in his own hand and evidently drawn by hieneral professional observation; and their writer, by preparing documents of facts of such a character on his own responsibility, showed that he had considerable confidence in his ability to adhere to the forms adequate for the occasion He talked of it as 'an ancient prejudice industriously propagated by the dunces in all countries, that _a eneral conduct through life, that he did not choose to coer Hume remained at Ninewells before he made another attempt to embark in a practical career--this time commerce--and with a like result For a few months' trial proved that kind of life, also, to be hopelessly against the grain
It hile in London, on his way to Bristol, where he proposed to commence his mercantile life, that Hume addressed to soests, Dr George Cheyne) a remarkable letter Whether it was ever sent seems doubtful; but it shows that philosophers as well as poets have their Werterian crises, and it presents an interesting parallel to John Stuart Mill's record of the corresponding period of his youth The letter is too long to be given in full, but a few quotations may suffice to indicate its importance to those who desire to comprehend the man
”You must know then that fro inclination to books and letters As our college education in Scotland, extending little further than the languages, ends coe, I was after that left to , and found it inclineand philosophy, and to poetry and the polite authors Every one who is acquainted either with the philosophers or critics, knows that there is nothing yet established in either of these two sciences, and that they contain little more than endless disputes, even in the most fundamental articles Upon exarowing on me, which was not inclined to submit to any authority in these subjects, but led ht be established After much study and reflection on this, at last, when I was about eighteen years of age, there seeht, which transported me beyondmen, throw up every other pleasure or business to apply entirely to it The lahich was the business I designed to follow, appeared nauseous tomy fortune in the world, but that of a scholar and philosopher I was infinitely happy in this course of life for so of Septeuished, and I could no longer raise ave me such excessive pleasure”
This ”decline of soul” Hu smitten with the beautiful representations of virtue in the works of Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch, and being thereby led to discipline his te
”I was continually fortifying ainst death, and poverty, and shame, and pain, and all the other calamities of life”
And he adds very characteristically:--
”These no doubt are exceeding useful when joined with an active life, because the occasion being presented along with the reflection, works it into the soul, and makes it take a deep impression: but, in solitude, they serve to little other purpose than to waste the spirits, the force of theitself in the air, like our ar with all this mental perturbation, sy landsmen, but which, in the days of winter salt reatly plagued our forefathers, made their appearance And, indeed, it may be suspected that physical conditions were, at first, at the bottom of the whole business; for, in 1731, a ravenous appetite set in and, in six weeks fro tall, lean, and raw-boned, Hume says he became sturdy and robust, with a ruddy co, and feeling well, except that the capacity for intense one He, therefore, deterh he could not and would not ”quit his pretensions to learning, but with his last breath,” he resolved ”to lay them aside for some time, in order the more effectually to resuentleman in those days were very few; and, as Hu tutorshi+p and a stool in a ot recommendation to a considerable trader in Bristol, I aet e myself, as far as is possible, in that course of life, and to toss about the world from one pole to the other, till I leave this distemper behind me”[3]
But it was all of no use--Nature would have her way--and in the ed twenty-three, without a profession or any assureddoubtless, by his apparent vacillation, but real tenacity of purpose, once more earned the title of ”wake-n country
”I went over to France, with a view of prosecuting my studies in a country retreat: and there I laid that plan of life which I have steadily and successfully pursued I resolved to ality supply my deficiency of fortune, to ard every object as contemptible except the improvement of h Paris on his way to Rheireater part of his three years' stay was spent at La Fleche, in frequent intercourse with the Jesuits of the fae in which Descartes was educated Here he coh it would appear froe in the letter to Cheyne, that he had been accu materials to that end for some years before he left Scotland