Selections

David Hume (1711–1776) was born in Edinburgh and wrote his Treatise of Human Nature in his twenties, in France. His scepticism about religion cost him professorships at Edinburgh and Glasgow, but his essays and his History of England made him famous and comfortable.

As secretary to the British embassy in Paris he was adored in the salons, and in Edinburgh he was the warm centre of the Scottish Enlightenment and a close friend of Adam Smith. His Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding woke Kant from his dogmatic slumber. He faced death with a calm and humour that astonished his visitors.