6 HUME I 



Michael Ramsay, 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 confirmed by philosophy to with- 

 stand 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 termin- 



