He, therefore, determined to seek out a
more active life; and, though he could not and would not "quit his
pretensions to learning, but with his last breath," he resolved "to lay
them aside for some time, in order the more effectually to resume them."
The careers open to a poor Scottish gentleman in those days were very
few; and, as Hume's option lay between a travelling tutorship and a
stool in a merchant's office, he chose the latter.
"And having got recommendation to a considerable trader in Bristol,
I am just now hastening thither, with a resolution to forget
myself, and everything that is past, to engage myself, as far as is
possible, in that course of life, and to toss about the world from
one pole to the other, till I leave this distemper behind me."[3]
But it was all of no use--Nature would have her way--and in the middle
of 1736, David Hume, aged twenty-three, without a profession or any
assured means of earning a guinea; and having doubtless, by his apparent
vacillation, but real tenacity of purpose, once more earned the title of
"wake-minded" at home; betook himself to a foreign country.
"I went over to France, with a view of prosecuting my studies in a
country retreat: and there I 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.
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