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==Biography==

===Early life and education===
Hume was born on 26 April 1711 ([[Old Style and New Style dates|Old Style]]), as '''David Home''', in a [[tenement]] on the northside of [[Edinburgh]]'s [[Royal Mile|Lawnmarket]]. He was the second of two sons to Joseph Home, an advocate of [[Chirnside#Ninewells House|Ninewells]], and Katherine Home ([[Birth name|née]] Falconer), daughter of Sir [[David Falconer]].<ref name=":2">Hume, David. 1778 [1776]. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20150813092134/http://davidhume.org/texts/mol.html My Own Life]." In ''The History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Cæsar to the Revolution in 1688'' 1. London. Archived from the [http://davidhume.org/texts/mol.html original] on 13 August 2015.

Also available [https://web.archive.org/web/20180116061536/http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/humelife.html via Rutgers University]. Retrieved 18 May 2020.</ref> Joseph died just after David's second birthday, so Katherine, who never remarried, raised Hume and his brother on her own.<ref>Morris, Ted. 2018 [2013]. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20180401123150/http://www.humesociety.org/about/HumeBiography.asp David Hume Biography]." ''The Hume Society''. Retrieved 18 May 2020.</ref>

Hume changed his family name's spelling in 1734, as the surname 'Home' (pronounced like 'Hume') was not well-known in England. Hume never married and lived partly at his [[Chirnside]] family home in [[Berwickshire]], which had belonged to the family since the 16th century. His finances as a young man were very "slender", as his family was not rich and, as a younger son, he had little [[wikt:patrimony|patrimony]] to live on.{{sfn|Hume|1778|p=3}}

Hume attended the [[University of Edinburgh]] at an unusually early age{{mdash}}either 12 or possibly as young as 10{{mdash}}at a time when 14 was the typical age. Initially, Hume considered a career in [[Scots law|law]], because of his family. However, in his words, he came to have:{{sfn|Hume|1778|p=3}} <blockquote>…an insurmountable aversion to everything but the pursuits of Philosophy and general Learning; and while [my family] fanceyed I was poring over [[Johannes Voet|Voet]] and [[Arnold Vinnius|Vinnius]], [[Cicero]] and [[Virgil]] were the Authors which I was secretly devouring.</blockquote>He had little respect for the professors of his time, telling a friend in 1735 that "there is nothing to be learnt from a Professor, which is not to be met with in Books".{{sfn|Mossner|1958|pp=30–33|ps=, quoted in {{harvtxt|Wright|2009|p=10}}}} He did not graduate.{{sfn|Harris|2004|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=K2ygCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=Hume+did+not+graduate&source=bl&ots=sc4E8eb4Ij&sig=4SSQXHoO4QmiGKJuz-dyzgGSxxU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxp769u4vKAhUIhhoKHSs9BqcQ6AEIHzAA#v=onepage&q=Hume%20did%20not%20graduate&f=false p. 35]}}

==== "Disease of the learned" ====
Aged 18 or so, Hume made a philosophical discovery that opened him up to "a new Scene of Thought", inspiring him "to throw up every other Pleasure or Business to apply entirely to it".{{sfn|Hume|1993|p=346}} As he did not recount what this scene exactly was, commentators have offered a variety of speculations.{{Sfn|Johnson|1995|pp=8–9}} One prominent interpretation among contemporary Humean scholarship is that this new "scene of thought" was Hume's realisation that [[Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)|Francis Hutcheson]]'s theory of ''moral sense'' could be applied to the understanding of morality as well.

From this inspiration, Hume set out to spend a minimum of 10 years reading and writing. He soon came to the verge of a [[Mental disorder|mental breakdown]], first starting with a coldness{{mdash}}which he attributed to a "Laziness of Temper"{{mdash}}that lasted about nine months. Later, some [[scurvy]] spots broke out on his fingers, persuading Hume's physician to diagnose Hume as suffering from the "Disease of the Learned".

Hume wrote that he "went under a Course of Bitters and Anti-Hysteric Pills", taken along with a pint of [[Bordeaux wine|claret]] every day. He also decided to have a more active life to better continue his learning.{{sfn|Mossner|1950|p=193}} His health improved somewhat, but in 1731 he was afflicted with a ravenous appetite and [[Palpitations|palpitations of the heart]]. After eating well for a time, he went from being "tall, lean and raw-bon'd" to being "sturdy, robust [and] healthful-like."<ref>Hume, David. 1932 [1734] "Letter to a [Dr George Cheyne]". Pp. 13–15 in ''The Letters of David Hume'' 1, edited by [[J. Y. T. Greig]]. Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|9780191861581}}. {{Doi|10.1093/actrade/9780199693245.book.1}}.</ref><ref>Mossner, Ernest C. 2001. "Disease of the Learned." ''{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofdavidhume0000moss/page/204|title=The Life of David Hume|url-access=limited}}'' {{ISBN|9780199243365|}}.  {{Doi|10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199243365.003.0006}}.</ref><ref>Wright, John P. 2003. "Dr. George Cheyne, Chevalier Ramsay, and Hume's Letter to a Physician." ''[[Hume Studies]]'' 29(1):125–41. – via [[Project MUSE]]. {{Doi|10.1353/hms.2011.0100}}.</ref> Indeed, Hume would become well known for being obese and a fondness for good port and cheese.<ref>Mossner, Ernest C. 2001. "A Military Campaign." In ''{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofdavidhume0000moss/page/204|title=The Life of David Hume|url-access=limited}}'' {{ISBN|9780199243365|}}.  {{Doi|10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199243365.003.0015}}. {{OCLC|4642088}}. [[iarchive:lifeofdavidhume0000moss/page/204|p. 204]]</ref>

===Career===
Although having noble ancestry at 25 years of age, Hume had no source of income and no learned profession. As was common at his time, he became a [[merchant]]'s assistant, despite having to leave his native Scotland. He travelled via [[Bristol]] to [[La Flèche]] in [[Anjou]], France. There he had frequent discourse with the [[Jesuits]] of the [[College of La Flèche]].<ref>Huxley, Thomas Henry. 2011 [1879]. ''Hume'', (''[[English Men of Letters]]'' 39). Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]]. {{ISBN|9781108034777}}. [https://books.google.ca/books?id=eH67vOxyjEYC&pg=PA7 pp. 7–8].</ref>

Hume was derailed in his attempts to start a university career by protests over his alleged "[[atheism]]",<ref>Hume, David. 2007 [1748]. ''[[An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding]]'', edited by [[Peter Millican|P. Millican]]. Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0191526350}}. {{OCLC|314220887}}. pp. lxiii–lxiv.</ref><ref name=":5" /> also lamenting that his literary debut, ''[[A Treatise of Human Nature]]'', "fell dead-born from the press."<ref name=":2" /> However, he found literary success in his lifetime as an essayist, and a career as a librarian at the [[University of Edinburgh]]. His tenure there, and the access to research materials it provided, resulted in Hume's writing the massive six-volume ''[[The History of England (Hume)|The History of England]]'', which became a bestseller and the standard history of England in its day. For over 60 years, Hume was the dominant interpreter of English history.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Trevor-Roper|first=Hugh|title=History and the Enlightenment|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|year=2010}}</ref>{{Rp|120}} He described his "love for literary fame" as his "ruling passion"<ref name=":2" /> and judged his two late works, the so-called "first" and "second" enquiries, ''[[An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding]]'' and ''[[An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals]]'', as his greatest literary and philosophical achievements.<ref name=":2" /> He would ask of his contemporaries to judge him on the merits of the later texts alone, rather than on the more radical formulations of his early, youthful work, dismissing his philosophical debut as [[juvenilia]]: "A work which the Author had projected before he left College."<ref>Hume, David. 1777. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150813074441/http://davidhume.org/texts/etv2.html ''Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects'' 2]. London. Archived from the [http://davidhume.org/texts/etv2.html original] on 13 August 2015. Retrieved 18 May 2020.</ref> Despite Hume's protestations, a consensus exists today that his most important arguments and philosophically distinctive doctrines are found in the original form they take in the ''Treatise''. Though he was only 23 years old when starting this work, it is now regarded as one of the most important in the history of [[Western philosophy]].<ref name=":6" />

==== 1730s ====
Hume worked for four years on his first major work, ''[[A Treatise of Human Nature]]'', subtitled "Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects", completing it in 1738 at the age of 28. Although many scholars today consider the ''Treatise'' to be Hume's most important work and one of the most important books in Western philosophy, critics in [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] at the time described it as "abstract and unintelligible".{{sfn|Mossner|1950|p=195}} As Hume had spent most of his savings during those four years,{{sfn|Mossner|1950|p=193}} he resolved "to make a very rigid frugality supply [his] deficiency of fortune, to maintain unimpaired my independency, and to regard every object as contemptible except the improvements of my talents in literature".<ref name=":8">Hume, David. 1993 [1734]. "[[wikisource:A kind of history of my life|A Kind of History of My Life]]." In ''The Cambridge Companion to Hume'', edited by D. F. Norton. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]]. {{ISBN|9780521387101}}.</ref>{{Rp|352}}

Despite the disappointment, Hume later wrote: "Being naturally of a cheerful and [[Humorism|sanguine]] temper, I soon recovered from the blow and prosecuted with great ardour my studies in the country."<ref name=":8" />{{Rp|352}} There, in an attempt to make his larger work better known and more intelligible, he published the ''[[A Treatise of Human Nature (Abstract)|An Abstract of a Book lately Published]]'' as a summary of the main doctrines of the ''Treatise'', without revealing its authorship.{{sfn|Hume|1740}} Although there has been some academic speculation as to who actually wrote this pamphlet,{{sfn|Norton|1993|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vv5ERpFQBCoC&pg=PA31&dq=hume+abstract+author&hl=en&sa=X&ei=70ODVLXoM4r_UIDpgNgP&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=hume%20abstract%20author&f=false p. 31]}} it is generally regarded as Hume's creation.{{sfn|Redman|1997|loc= [https://books.google.com/books?id=1faeMedY8k8C&pg=PA175&dq=An+Abstract+of+a+Book+lately+Published;+Entitled&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XRryVP6yCYX6ygPViYDABg&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=An%20Abstract%20of%20a%20Book%20lately%20Published%3B%20Entitled&f=false p. 175, footnote 19]}}

==== 1740s ====
After the publication of ''Essays Moral and Political'' in 1741{{mdash}}included in the later edition as ''[[Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary]]''{{mdash}}Hume applied for the Chair of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy at the [[University of Edinburgh]]. However, the position was given to [[William Cleghorn]]<ref>Nobbs, Douglas. 1965. "The Political Ideas of William Cleghorn, Hume's Academic Rival." ''[[Journal of the History of Ideas]]'' 26(4):575–86. {{Doi|10.2307/2708501}}. {{JSTOR|2708501}}. p. 575.</ref> after Edinburgh ministers petitioned the town council not to appoint Hume because he was seen as an [[atheism|atheist]].<ref>Lorkowski, C. M. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20170517005711/http://www.iep.utm.edu/hume-rel/ David Hume: Religion]." ''[[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''.</ref>
[[File:David Hume 1754.jpeg|thumb|left|An engraving of Hume from the first volume of his ''The History of England'', 1754]]
In 1745, during the [[Jacobite risings]], Hume tutored the [[George Vanden-Bempde, 3rd Marquess of Annandale|Marquess of Annandale]] (1720–92), an engagement that ended in disarray after about a year.{{sfn|Mossner|1950|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=7HXJAqqNl4QC&pg=PA378&dq=annandale+lunatic+hume&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bxWIVPykIYHtUtevgvAI&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=annandale%20lunatic%20hume&f=false p. 172]}} Hume then started his great historical work, ''[[The History of England (Hume)|The History of England]]'', taking fifteen years and running to over a million words. During this time he was also involved with the Canongate Theatre through his friend [[John Home]], a preacher.{{sfn|Fieser|2005|loc=[https://www.google.co.uk/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=canongate+theatre&gws_rd=ssl#hl=en&tbm=bks&q=canongate+theatre+hume+fieser p. xxii]}}

In this context, he associated with [[James Burnett, Lord Monboddo|Lord Monboddo]] and other [[Scottish Enlightenment]] luminaries in Edinburgh. From 1746, Hume served for three years as secretary to General [[James St Clair]], who was envoy to the courts of [[Turin]] and [[Vienna]]. At that time Hume also wrote ''Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding'', later published as ''[[An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding]]''. Often called the ''First Enquiry'', it proved little more successful than the ''Treatise'', perhaps because of the publication of his short autobiography ''My Own Life'', which "made friends difficult for the first Enquiry".<ref>Buckle, Stephen. 1999. "Hume's biography and Hume's philosophy."  ''[[Australasian Journal of Philosophy]]'' 77:1–25. {{Doi|10.1080/00048409912348781}}.</ref>

In 1749 he went to live with his brother in the countryside, although he associated with [[James Burnett, Lord Monboddo|Lord Monboddo]] and other [[Scottish Enlightenment]] luminaries in Edinburgh.

==== 1750s-mid 1760s ====
Hume's religious views were often suspect and, in the 1750s, it was necessary for his friends to avert a trial against him on the charge of [[heresy in Christianity|heresy]], specifically in an ecclesiastical court. However, he "would not have come and could not be forced to attend if he said he was not a member of the Established Church".{{sfn|Emerson|2009|p=244}} Hume failed to gain the [[Professor of Moral Philosophy (Glasgow)|chair of philosophy]] at the [[University of Glasgow]] due to his religious views. By this time, he had published the ''Philosophical Essays'', which were decidedly anti-religious. Even [[Adam Smith]], his personal friend who had vacated the Glasgow philosophy chair, was against his appointment out of concern that public opinion would be against it.<ref>Rivers, Isabel. 2000. ''[https://books.google.ca/books/about/Reason_Grace_and_Sentiment_Volume_2_Shaf.html?id=VSqj2pyBN3sC&redir_esc=y Reason, Grace, and Sentiment: A Study of the Language of Religion and Ethics in England, 1660–1780]'' '''2'''. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]]. {{ISBN|9780511484476}}. {{Doi|10.1017/CBO9780511484476}}. p. 255.</ref>

Hume returned to Edinburgh in 1751. In the following year, the [[Faculty of Advocates]] hired him to be their Librarian, a job in which he would receive little to no pay, but which nonetheless gave him "the command of a large library".<ref group="lower-roman">"The Faculty of Advocates chose me their Librarian, an office from which I received little or no emolument, but which gave me the command of a large library." ([[David Hume#CITEREFHume1778|Hume 1776]]:11).</ref><ref name=":2" />{{Rp|11}} This resource enabled him to continue historical research for ''The History of England''. Hume's volume of ''Political Discourses'', written in 1749 and published by [[Alexander Donaldson (bookseller)|Kincaid & Donaldson]] in 1752,<ref>Sher, Richard B. 2008. [https://books.google.com/books?id=gB9liJb5o7UC ''The Enlightenment and the Book: Scottish Authors and Their Publishers in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and Americ''a], (''Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology'' ''Series''). Chicago: [[University of Chicago Press]]. {{ISBN|9780226752549}}. p. 312.</ref> was the only work he considered successful on first publication.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|10}}

Eventually, with the publication of his six-volume ''The History of England'' between 1754 and 1762, Hume achieved the fame that he coveted.{{sfn|Emerson|2009|p=98}} The volumes traced events from the [[Roman conquest of Britain|Invasion of Julius Caesar]] to the [[Glorious Revolution|Revolution of 1688]], and was a bestseller in its day. Hume was also a longtime friend of bookseller [[Andrew Millar]], who sold Hume's ''History'' (after acquiring the rights from Scottish bookseller Gavin Hamilton<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.millar-project.ed.ac.uk/manuscripts/html_output/2.html|title=The manuscripts, Letter from David Hume to Andrew Millar, 12 April, 1755.|website=millar-project.ed.ac.uk|access-date=2016-06-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115092006/http://www.millar-project.ed.ac.uk/manuscripts/html_output/2.html|archive-date=15 January 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>), although the relationship was sometimes complicated. Letters between them illuminate both men's interest in the success of the ''History''. In 1762 Hume moved from Jack's Land on the [[Canongate]] to James Court on the [[Lawnmarket]]. He sold the house to [[James Boswell]] in 1766.<ref>Grants Old and New Edinburgh vol 1, p. 97</ref>

===Later years===
[[File:Old Calton David Hume.jpg|thumb|David Hume's mausoleum by [[Robert Adam]] in the [[Old Calton Burial Ground]], Edinburgh.]]
From 1763 to 1765, Hume was invited to attend [[Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford|Lord Hertford]] in [[Paris]], where he became secretary to the [[Embassy of the United Kingdom, Paris|British embassy]].<ref>Klibansky, Raymond, and Ernest C. Mossner, eds. 1954. ''New Letters of David Hume''. Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]]. p. 77–79.</ref> Hume was well received in Paris, and while there he met with [[Isaac de Pinto]].<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Hume and Isaac de Pinto|author=Popkin, Richard H.|author-link=Richard Popkin|year=1970|journal=Texas Studies in Literature and Language|volume=12|issue=3|pages=417–430|jstor = 40754109}}</ref>

In 1766, Hume left Paris to accompany [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] to England. Once there, he and Rousseau fell out,<ref name="wsj11042017">[[Ruth Scurr|Scurr, Ruth]]. 4 November 2017. "An Enlightened Friendship." ''[[The Wall Street Journal|Wall Street Journal]]''.</ref> leaving Hume sufficiently worried about the damage to his reputation from the quarrel with Rousseau. So much so, that Hume would author an account of the dispute, titling it ''"A concise and genuine account of the dispute between Mr. Hume and Mr. Rousseau''".<ref>Becker, T., and P. A. de Hondt, trans. 1766. ''[[iarchive:concisegenuineac00hume/page/n1/mode/2up|A concise and genuine account of the dispute between Mr. Hume and Mr. Rousseau: with the letters that passed between them during their controversy]]''. London. Available in [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004851885.0001.000/1:3?rgn=div1;view=fulltext full text]. Retrieved 19 May 2020.</ref>

In 1765, Hume served as British [[Chargé d'affaires]], writing "despatches to the [[Secretary of State (United Kingdom)|British Secretary of State]]".<ref>Fieser, James. 2005 [2003]. [https://www.academia.edu/20351832/A_Bibliography_of_Humes_Writings_and_Early_Responses ''A'' ''Bibliography of Hume's Writings and Early Responses'']. Bristol: [[Thoemmes Press]]. – via [[Academia.edu]]. p. 59.</ref> He wrote of his Paris life, "I really wish often for the plain roughness of [[The Poker Club|The Poker Club of Edinburgh]]…to correct and qualify so much lusciousness."{{sfn|Mossner|1980|p=285}} In 1766, upon returning to Britain, Hume encouraged his patron [[Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford|Lord Hertford]] to invest in a number of [[Plantation economy|slave plantations]], acquired by [[George Colebrooke]] and others in the [[Windward Islands]].<ref>Waldmann, Felix, ed. 2014. [https://www.academia.edu/13249157/Further_letters_of_David_Hume_Edinburgh_Edinburgh_Bibliographical_Society_2014_ ''Further Letters of David Hume'']. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Bibliographical Society. pp. 65–69. – via [[Academia.edu]].</ref> In June 1766 Hume facilitated the purchase of the slave plantation by writing to [[Victor-Thérèse Charpentier|Victor-Thérèse Charpentier, marquis d'Ennery]], the French governor of Martinique, on behalf of his friend, John Stewart, a wine merchant and lent Stewart £400 earlier in the same year. According to Dr. Felix Waldmann, a former Hume Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Hume's "puckish scepticism about the existence of religious miracles played a significant part in defining the critical outlook which underpins the practice of modern science. But his views served to reinforce the institution of racialised slavery in the later 18th century."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Waldmann |first1=Felix |title=David Hume was a brilliant philosopher but also a racist involved in slavery |url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/david-hume-was-brilliant-philosopher-also-racist-involved-slavery-dr-felix-waldmann-2915908 |website=[[The Scotsman]]|date=17 July 2020 |access-date=14 September 2020}}</ref>

In 1767, Hume was appointed [[Secretary of State for the Northern Department|Under Secretary of State for the Northern Department]]. Here, he wrote that he was given "all the secrets of the Kingdom". In 1769 he returned to James' Court in Edinburgh, where he would live from 1771 until his death in 1776.

Hume's nephew and namesake, [[David Hume (advocate)|David Hume of Ninewells]] (1757–1838), was a co-founder of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]] in 1783. He was a Professor of Scots Law at [[Edinburgh University]] and rose to be Principal Clerk of Session in the Scottish [[High Court of Justiciary|High Court]] and Baron of the Exchequer. He is buried with his uncle in Old Calton Cemetery.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X}}</ref>

==== Autobiography ====
In the last year of his life, Hume wrote an extremely brief autobiographical essay titled "My Own Life",<ref name=":2" /> summing up his entire life in "fewer than 5 pages",<ref>Stanley, Liz. 2006. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20150226004822/http://www.oliveschreinerletters.ed.ac.uk/StanleyHumePersona.pdf The Writing of David Hume’s 'My Own Life': The Persona of the Philosopher and the Philosopher Manqué]." ''Auto/Biography'' 14:1–19. {{Doi|10.1191/0967550706ab051oa}}.</ref> and notably contains many interesting judgments that have been of enduring interest to subsequent readers of Hume.<ref name=":3">Siebert, Donald T. 1984. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20160305154616/http://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1130&context=ssl David Hume's Last Words: The Importance of My Own Life]." ''Studies in Scottish Literature'' 19(1):132–47. Retrieved 18 May 2020.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title= Hume's biography and Hume's philosophy| doi=10.1080/00048409912348781 | volume=77|journal=Australasian Journal of Philosophy|pages=1–25|year = 1999|last1 = Buckle|first1 = Stephen}}</ref> Donald Seibert (1984), a scholar of 18th-century literature, judged it a "remarkable autobiography, even though it may lack the usual attractions of that genre. Anyone hankering for startling revelations or amusing anecdotes had better look elsewhere."<ref name=":3" />

Despite condemning vanity as a dangerous passion,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Galvagni|first=Enrico|date=2020-06-01|title=Hume on Pride, Vanity and Society|journal=Journal of Scottish Philosophy|volume=18|issue=2|pages=157–173|doi=10.3366/jsp.2020.0265|issn=1479-6651}}</ref> in his autobiography Hume confesses his belief that the "love of literary fame" had served as his "ruling passion" in life, and claims that this desire "never soured my temper, notwithstanding my frequent disappointments". One such disappointment Hume discusses in this account is in the initial literary reception of the ''Treatise'', which he claims to have overcome by means of the success of the ''Essays'': "the work was favourably received, and soon made me entirely forget my former disappointment". Hume, in his own retrospective judgment, argues that his philosophical debut's apparent failure "had proceeded more from the manner than the matter". He thus suggests that "I had been guilty of a very usual indiscretion, in going to the press too early."

Hume also provides an unambiguous self-assessment of the relative value of his works: that "my Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals; which, in my own opinion (who ought not to judge on that subject) is of all my writings, historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best." He also wrote of his social relations: "My company was not unacceptable to the young and careless, as well as to the studious and literary", noting of his complex relation to religion, as well as to the state, that "though I wantonly exposed myself to the rage of both civil and religious factions, they seemed to be disarmed in my behalf of their wonted fury". He goes on to profess of his character: "My friends never had occasion to vindicate any one circumstance of my character and conduct." Hume concludes the essay with a frank admission:<ref name=":2" /><blockquote>I cannot say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not a misplaced one; and this is a matter of fact which is easily cleared and ascertained.</blockquote>

==== Death ====
Diarist and biographer [[James Boswell]] saw Hume a few weeks before his death from a form of [[Stomach cancer|abdominal cancer]]. Hume told him that he sincerely believed it a "most unreasonable fancy" that there might be life after death.<ref>Weis, Charles M., and Frederick A. Pottle, eds. 1970. {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/boswellinextreme00bosw|title=Boswell in Extremes, 1776-1778|url-access=limited}} New York: McGraw Hill. {{OL|5217786M}}. {{LCCN|75102461}}.</ref>{{sfn|Bassett|2012|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=MkTSD5UHu8AC&pg=PA272&dq=dark+hume+Michael+Ignatieff&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YEuIVIzbEseqUbzng_gP&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=dark%20hume%20Michael%20Ignatieff&f=false p. 272]:  this meeting was dramatised in semi-fictional form for the [[BBC]] by [[Michael Ignatieff]] as ''Dialogue in the Dark''}} asked that his body be interred in a "simple Roman tomb", requesting in his [[Will and testament|will]] that it be inscribed only with his name and the year of his birth and death, "leaving it to Posterity to add the Rest".{{sfn|Mossner|1980|p=591}}

David Hume died at the southwest corner of [[St Andrew's in the Square|St. Andrew's Square]] in Edinburgh's [[New Town, Edinburgh|New Town]], at what is now 21 Saint David Street.{{sfn|Burton|1846|loc=[https://archive.org/details/lifeandcorrespo02burtgoog/page/n410 <!-- quote=hume 1767. --> p. 384–385]}} A popular story, consistent with some historical evidence, suggests that the street was named after Hume.{{sfn|Burton|1846|loc= [https://archive.org/details/lifeandcorrespo02burtgoog/page/n410 <!-- pg=384 quote="david street". --> p. 436, footnote 1]}}

His tomb stands, as he wished it, on the southwestern slope of [[Calton Hill]], in the [[Old Calton Cemetery]]. [[Adam Smith]] later recounted Hume's amusing speculation that he might ask [[Charon]], [[Hades]]' ferryman, to allow him a few more years of life in order to see "the downfall of some of the prevailing systems of superstition". The ferryman replied, "You loitering rogue, that will not happen these many hundred years.… Get into the boat this instant."<ref>Smith, Adam. 1789 [1776]. "[https://archive.org/stream/historyenglandf00humegoog#page/n21/mode/2up Letter from Adam Smith, LL.D. to William Strathan, Esq.]" Pp. xix–xxiv in ''The History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Cæsar to the Revolution in 1688'' 1. London: [[Thomas Cadell (publisher)|Thomas Cadell]] and [[Longman]]. p. xxi.</ref>

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