I was infinitely happy in this course of life for some
months; till at last, about the beginning of September, 1729, all
my ardour seemed in a moment to be extinguished, and I could no
longer raise my mind to that pitch, which formerly gave me such
excessive pleasure."
This "decline of soul" Hume attributes, in part, to his being smitten
with the beautiful representations of virtue in the works of Cicero,
Seneca, and Plutarch, and being thereby led to discipline his temper and
his will along with his reason and understanding.
"I was continually fortifying myself with reflections against
death, and poverty, and shame, and pain, and all the other
calamities of life."
And he adds very characteristically:--
"These no doubt are exceeding useful when joined with an active
life, because the occasion being presented along with the
reflection, works it into the soul, and makes it take a deep
impression: but, in solitude, they serve to little other purpose
than to waste the spirits, the force of the mind meeting no
resistance, but wasting itself in the air, like our arm when it
misses its aim."
Along with all this mental perturbation, symptoms of scurvy, a disease
now almost unknown among landsmen, but which, in the days of winter salt
meat, before root crops flourished in the Lothians, greatly plagued our
forefathers, made their appearance. And, indeed, it may be suspected
that physical conditions were, at first, at the bottom of the whole
business; for, in 1731, a ravenous appetite set in and, in six weeks
from being tall, lean, and raw-boned, Hume says he became sturdy and
robust, with a ruddy complexion and a cheerful countenance--eating,
sleeping, and feeling well, except that the capacity for intense mental
application seemed to be gone.
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