D/AVID H/UME was born at Edinburgh, on April 26, 1711.He was the second son of Joseph Home or Hume, of Ninewells, so called from a number of springs which may still be seen as fresh as when the name was given.The mansion is in the parish of Chirnside, in Berwickshire, and is situated on the green slope of a hill which rises from the river Whitadder, immediately in front.The situation is remarkably pleasant, and from the heights above there are extensive views of the whole eastern border country, now associated in the minds of all reading people with tales of romance.Here David Hume passed the greater portion of his younger years, and much of the quieter and more studious parts of his middle age.But he never refers to the scenes of his native place, not even (as Mr.Burton has remarked)when be has occasion in his History of England" to relate events which might have led him to do so.It is clear that his taste for the beauties of nature was never very keen;the time had not come when all people rave about natural scenery; he was in no way disposed to expose himself to English prejudice by betraying Scottish predilections, and Irather think that he was glad that the time of border raids had for ever passed away.
His father was a member of the Faculty of Advocates, but passed his life as a country gentleman.His mother was a daughter of Sir D.Falconer of Newton, who had been a lawyer in the times of the Stuarts, and had filled the office of president of the Court of Session from 1682 to 1685.So far as the youth was exposed to hereditary predilections, they were those of Scotch landlords, who ruled supreme in their own estates, of hard-headed Edinburgh lawyers, and of old families {114} opposed to the great Whig or covenanting struggle of the previous century.His father having died when the second son was yet an infant, the education of the children devolved on their mother, who is represented as training them with great care,-in what way or form in respect of religion we are not told.
David became an entrant of the class of William Scott, professor of Greek in the Edinburgh University, February 27, 1723, being still under twelve years of age.What his precise college course was is not recorded; but we know generally that in those times, and for many years after, boys who should have been at school, after getting an imperfect acquaintance with Latin and Greek, were introduced in the classes of logic, pneumatics, and moral philosophy, to subjects fitted only for men of mature powers and enlarged knowledge.I suspect there was no ruling mind among his teachers to sway him, and he was left to follow the bent of his own mind.Already he has a taste for literature, and a tendency to speculative philosophy." I was seized very early," be says in " My Own Life," with a passion for literature, which has been the ruling passion of my life, and a great source of my enjoyments." In writing to a friend, July 4, 1727, he mentions having by him written papers which he will not make known till he has polished them, and these evidently contain the germs of a system of mental philosophy." All the progress I have made is but drawing the outlines on loose bits of paper: here a hint of a passion; there a phenomenon in the mind accounted for; in another an alteration of these accounts." Mr.Burton publishes part of a paper of his early years, being " An Historical Essay on Chivalry and Modern Honor." In it we have no appreciation of chivalry, but we have the germs of the historical, political, and ethical speculations which he afterwards developed.He inquires why courage is the principal virtue of barbarous nations, and why chastity is the point of honor with women (always a favorite topic with him), and is evidently in the direction of his utilitarian theory of virtue.About his seventeenth year he began, but speedily relinquished, the study of the law." My studious disposition, my sobriety, and my industry, gave my family a notion that the law was a proper profession for me; but Ifound an unsurmountable aversion {115} to every thing but the pursuits of philosophy and general learning; and while they fancied I was poring upon Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil were the authors I was secretly devouring."We have two admirable accounts of Hume's life: the one, " My Own Life," calm as philosophy itself; the other by Mr.
Hill Burton, who had access to the papers collected by Baron Hume, and deposited with the Royal Society of Edinburgh; and who has collected all other available information, and put it together in a clear and systematic manner.But there is much that we should like to know not communicated.The autobiography, though honest enough, is not open or communicative.We may rest assured that in that great lake which spreads itself so calmly before us, there were depths, and movements in these depths, which have been kept from our view.Though so skilled in psychological analysis, he gives no account of the steps by which he was led to that deadly scepticism in philosophy and theology which be held by so firmly, and propounded so perseveringly.Mr.Burton has, however, published a remarkable document, which lets us see what we should never have learned from " My Own Life," that there had been an awful struggle and a crisis.