A  letter  of  this  date,  addressed  to  his  friend


6  HUME  I

Michael  Ramsay,  is  certainly  a  most  singular
production  for  a  boy  of  sixteen.  After  sundry
quotations  from  Virgil  the  letter  proceeds : —

"The  perfectly  wise  man  that  outbraves  fortune,  is  much
greater  than  the  husbandman  who  slips  by  her  ;  and,  indeed,
this  pastoral  and  saturnian  happiness  I  have  in  a  great  measure
come  at  just  now.  I  live  like  a  king,  pretty  much  by  myself,
neither  full  of  action  nor  perturbation — molles  somnos.  This
state,  however,  I  can  foresee  is  not  to  be  relied  on.  My  peace
of  mind  is  not  sufficiently  confirmed  by  philosophy  to  with
stand  the  blows  of  fortune.  This  greatness  and  elevation  of
soul  is  to  be  found  only  in  study  and  contemplation.  This
alone  can  teach  us  to  look  down  on  human  accidents.  You
must  allow  [me]  to  talk  thus  like  a  philosopher  :  'tis  a  subject
I  think  much  on,  and  could  talk  all  day  long  of. "

If  David  talked  in  this  strain  to  his  mother  her
tongue  probably  gave  utterance  to  "  Bless  the
bairn ! "  and,  in  her  private  soul,  the  epithet
"  wake-minded  "  may  then  have  recorded  itself.
But,  though  few  lonely,  thoughtful,  studious  boys
of  sixteen  give  vent  to  their  thoughts  in  such
stately  periods,  it  is  probable  that  the  brooding
over  an  ideal  is  commoner  at  this  age,  than  fathers
and  mothers,  busy  with  the  cares  of  practical  life,
are  apt  to  imagine.
