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
termination. Nevertheless, as a very competent authority[2] wisely
remarks:--
"There appear to have been in Hume all the elements of which a good
lawyer is made: clearness of judgment, power of rapidly acquiring
knowledge, untiring industry, and dialectic skill: and if his mind
had not been preoccupied, he might have fallen into the gulf in
which many of the world's greatest geniuses lie
buried--professional eminence; and might have left behind him a
reputation limited to the traditional recollections of the
Parliament house, or associated with important decisions.
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