HUME I 



life, that Hume addressed to some eminent 

 London physician (probably, as Mr. Burton 

 suggests, 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 interest- 

 ing 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 from my earliest infancy I found 

 always a strong inclination to books and letters. As our 

 college education in Scotland, extending little further than the 

 languages, ends commonly when we are about fourteen or 

 fifteen years of age, I was after that left to my own choice 

 in my reading, and found it incline me almost equally to books 

 of reasoning and 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 estab- 

 lished in either of these two sciences, and that they contain 

 little more than endless disputes, even in the most fundamental 

 articles. Upon examination of these, I found a certain boldness 

 of temper growing on me, which was not inclined to submit to 

 any authority in these subjects, but led me to seek out some 

 new medium, by which truth might be established. After 

 much study and reflection on this, at last, when I was about 

 eighteen years of age, there seemed to be opened up to me 

 a new scene of thought, which transported me beyond measure, 

 and made me, with an ardour natural to young men, throw up 

 every other pleasure or business to apply entirely to it. The 

 law, which was the business I designed to follow, appeared 

 nauseous to me, and I could think of no other way of pushing 

 my fortune in the world, but that of a scholar and philosopher. 



