Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/37

Rh in works relative to our martial achievements; and our divines have always, and more especially in the darker ages, preserved a knowledge of themselves and their transactions,—but literary men are nearly forgotten, and for what is known of them we are principally indebted to the labours of continental biographers. It would be difficult to point put a more striking illustration of this than the well known individual whose name appears at the head of this article. His name is familiar to every one who is in the least degree conversant with Scottish history or poetry;—he was descended from an honourable family—he acted a prominent part in some of the earlier transactions of his own time, and still almost nothing is known of his history. The indefatigable Wodrow has preserved many scattered hints regarding him in his Biographical Collections in the library of Glasgow college, and except this we are not aware of any attempt at a lengthened biographical sketch of him. In drawing up the following, we shall take many of our facts from that biography, referring also to the excellent works of Dr M'Crie, and occasionally supplying deficiencies from the few incidental notices of himself in Hume's works.

David Hume, it is probable, was born about, or a few years prior to, the period of the Reformation. His father was Sir David Hume, or Home, of Wedderburn, the representative of an old and distinguished family in the south of Scotland, His mother was Mary Johnston, a daughter of Johnston of Elphinstone. This lady died early, and her husband, after having married a second wife, who seems to have treated his family in a harsh and ungenerous manner, died of consumption while the subject of this memoir was a very young man. The family thus left consisted of four sons—George, David, James, and John; and four daughters—Isabell, Margaret, Julian, and Joan.

Of the early education of David Hume, we have not been able to learn almost any thing. His elder brother and he were sent to the public school of Dunbar, then conducted by Mr Andrew Simson, and there is abundant evidence that he made very considerable progress in the acquisition of classical knowledge. He has left a poem, entitled Daphn-Amaryllis, written at the age of fourteen, and he incidentally mentions the expectations George Buchanan formed of his future eminence from his early productions. After receiving, it may be conjectured, the best education that a Scottish university then afforded, Hume set out for France, accompanied by his relation, John Haldane of Gleneagles. His intention was to have also made the tour of Italy, and for that purpose he had gone to Geneva, when his brother's health became so bad as to make his return desirable. On receiving the letters containing this information, he returned to Scotland without delay, "and arrived," to use his own words in his History of the Family of Wedderburn, "much about the time that Esme, lord Aubigny, (who was afterwards made duke of Lennox,) Mas brought into Scotland—and that Morton began to decline in his credit, he being soon after first imprisoned, and then put to death;" that is about the beginning of 1581.

Sir George Home seems to have recovered his health soon afterwards, and David was generally left at his castle to manage his affairs, while he was engaged in transactions of a more difficult or hazardous nature. This probably did not continue long, foi the earliest public transaction in which we have found him engaged took place in 1583. When king James VI. withdrew from the party commonly known by the name of the Ruthven lords, and re-admitted the earl of Arran to his councils, Archibald, "the good earl" of Angus, a relation of Hume's family, was ordered to confine himself to the north of Scotland, and accordingly resided for some time at the castle of Brechin, the property of his brother-in-law the earl of Mar. At this period Hume seems to have lived in Angus's house, in the capacity of a "familiar servitour," or confidential secretary.