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. 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 r