6 HUME i 



Michael Bamsay, is certainly a most singular 

 production for a boy of sixteen. After sundry 

 quotations from Virgil the letter proceeds: 



"The perfectly wise man that outbraves fortune, is 

 much greater than the husbandman who slips by her; and, 

 indeed, this pastoral and saturnian happiness I have in a 

 great measure come at just now. I live like a king, 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 con- 

 firmed by philosophy to withstand the blows of fortune. 

 This greatness 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 think much on, and 

 could talk all day long of." 



If David talked in this strain to his mother her 

 tongue probably gave utterance to " Bless the 

 bairn!" and, in her private soul, the epithet 

 " wake-minded " may then have recorded itself. 

 'But, though 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 commoner at this age, than fathers 

 and mothers, busy with the cares of practical life, 

 are apt to imagine. 



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 termina- 



