although, perhaps, an undesigned tendency" to subvert a person's
"future and eternal welfare." The author concludes that the Life is
"a dry, unsatisfactory narrative; as little answering its title as
the expectation of the public." Hume's  was published again in
1777, 1778, and in several 19th century editions of his collected
works. The following is from the first 1777 edition.

                                  

                              * * * *

                                  

                            MY OWN LIFE

     IT Is difficult for a man to speak long of himself without
Vanity; therefore, I shall be short. It may be thought an instance
of vanity that I pretend at all to write my life; but this Narrative
shall contain little more than the History of my Writings; as,
indeed, almost all my life has been spent in Literary pursuits and
occupations. The first success of most of my writings was not such
as to be an object of vanity.

     I was born the 26th of April 1711, old style, at Edinburgh. I
was of a good family, both by father and mother: my father's family
is a branch of the Earl of Home's, or Hume's; and my ancestors had
been proprietors of the estate, which my brother possesses, for
several generations. My mother was daughter of Sir David Falconer,
President of the College of Justice: the title of Lord Halkerton
came by succession to her brother.

     My family, however, was not rich, and being myself a younger
brother, my patrimony, according to the mode of my country, was of
course very slender. My father, who passed for a man of parts, died
when I was an infant, leaving me, with an elder brother and a
sister, under the care of our mother, a woman of singular merit,
who, though young and handsome, devoted herself entirely to the
rearing and educating of her children. I passed through the ordinary
course of education with success, and was seized very early with a
passion for literature, which has been the ruling passion of my
life, and the great source of my enjoyments. My studious
disposition, my sobriety, and my industry, gave my family a notion
that the law was a proper profession for me; but I found an
unsurmountable aversion to everything 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 which I was secretly
devouring.

     My very slender fortune, however, being unsuitable to this plan
of life, and my health being a little broken by my ardent
application, I was tempted, or rather forced, to make a very feeble
trial for entering into a more active scene of life. In 1734, I went
to Bristol, with some recommendations to eminent merchants, but in a
few months found that scene totally unsuitable to me. I went over to
France, with a view of prosecuting my studies in a country retreat;
and I there laid that plan of life, which I have steadily and
successfully pursued. I resolved to make a very rigid frugality
supply my deficiency of fortune, to maintain unimpaired my
independency, and to regard every object as contemptible, except the
improvement of my talents in literature.

     During my retreat in France, first at Reims, but chiefly at La
Fleche, in Anjou, I composed my <Treatise of Human Nature>. After
passing three years very agreeably in that country, I came over to
London in 1737. In the end of 1738, I published my Treatise, and
immediately went down to my mother and my brother, who lived at his
country-house, and was employing himself very judiciously and
successfully in the improvement of his fortune.

     Never literary attempt was more unfortunate than my Treatise of
Human Nature. It fell <dead-born from the press>, without reaching
such distinction, as even to excite a murmur among the zealots. But
being naturally of a cheerful and sanguine temper, I very soon
recovered the blow, and prosecuted with great ardor my studies in
the country. In 1742, I printed at Edinburgh the first part of my
Essays the world was favourably received, and soon made me entirely
forget my former disappointment. I continued with my mother and
brother in the country, and in that time recovered the knowledge of
the Greek language, which I had too much neglected in my early
youth.

     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 noble man 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. I then received an invitation from General St. Clair
to attend him as a secretary to his expedition, which was at first
meant against Canada, but ended in an incursion on the coast of
France. Next year, to wit, 1747, I received an invitation from the
General to attend him in the same station in his military embassy to
the courts of Vienna and Turin. I then wore the uniform of an
officer, and was introduced at these courts as aid-de-camp to the
general, along with Sir Harry Erskine and Captain Grant, now General
Grant. These two years were almost the only interruptions which my
studies have received during the course of my life: I passed them
agreeably, and in good company; and my appointments, with my
frugality, had made me reach a fortune, which I called independent,
though most of my friends were inclined to smile when I said so; in