connection with a young woman, till then of unblemished reputation, which brought its usual concomitants, shame and sorrow.

He never had the courage to marry the partner of his errors; was too manly to cast her off; bitterly sensible the while of the degradation, regrets, and remorse which ever attend such unhallowed unions; and agonized at times for the future of his innocent children.

And yet this was a caressed, flattered, and envied man!

Are we still to learn that the smiles of the world are ever more pernicious to the soul than its frowns? Its smiles, like a soporific draught, soothe the soul into a fatal security; its frowns drive us to God.

239

CHAP. XV.

The Historian, Philosopher, and Enfidel.

DAVID HUME.

“Shall all things else be in mystery, and GOD alone be understood?

"Shall a man comprehend his MAKER, being yet a riddle to himself?

"Or Time teach the lesson that Eternity cannot master?"-TUPPER'S Proverbial Philosophy.

66

Excellently skilled in the Scriptures; and well had it been for him if he had known them less or understood them better."-SAURIN.

DAVID HUME, a distinguished historian and philosopher, was born at Edinburgh April 22d, 1711. Losing his father in his infancy, he was the youngest son-under the care of his mother, a woman of rare attainments. Her father was no less a person than Sir David Falconer, one of the Judges of the Court of

Session. Hume was destined by his family for the law; but his passion for literature rendered professional studies wholly distasteful. In 1734 he visited Bristol, having with him recommendations to some eminent merchants. Commerce proved, however, as unattractive as law, and he resolved to retire to France, to study in privacy, and recruit his finances by economy. He there passed three years. In 1737 we find him in London. In the following year he published his "Treatise on Human Nature." It proved a total failure. In 1742 he printed at Edinburgh his " Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary: to these was given a more favourable reception. In 1745 he took up his residence with the invalid and feeble-minded Marquis of Annandale, to whom he acted, according to his own impression, in the capacity of guardian.

In other words, he became keeper to a lunatic. But let him describe his appointment in his own terms:

"In 1745, I received a letter from the

Marquis of Annandale, inviting me to come and live with him in England. I found, also, that the friends and family of that young nobleman were desirous of putting him under my care and direction, for the state of his mind and health required it. I lived with him a twelvemonth. My appointments during that time made a considerable accession to my small fortune."

It should be added, that in 1748 the Court of Chancery decided that the Marquis had been incapable of managing his own affairs since December, 1744! It was not till some months after that date that Hume's engagement commenced. The whole transaction is a strange and unpleasant incident in a not eventful life. No advantage, beyond the pecuniary gain to which the provident philosopher alludes, could well have been expected from it. That it entailed on him annoyance and vexation of every kind, cannot be doubted. Besides the nature of the duties he had to perform, in themselves enough to test his equanimity,—he

R

found himself involved in the petty cabals and intrigues of an ill-regulated household, and treated almost as a menial by one himself a dependant. One fact, however, must be broadly stated. The philosopher, in addition to the actual augmentation of his wealth, carried away with him a claim on the Annandale estates to the amount of seventy-five pounds, on his right to which he for a long time strenuously insisted. It was quaintly remarked of him by one who had well studied his character, "that when Mr. Hume thought fit to make a pecuniary claim, he did not easily resign it.”

With the unfortunate Marquis, Hume remained one year, and then boldly contested the professorship of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh. His known sceptical sentiments proved a barrier to his success. In 1746 he accompanied General St. Clair as his secretary in an expedition designed against Canada, but which issued in an attack upon the French coast. In 1747 he attended the same officer in a military embassy to the courts of Vienna and Turin.