St. Cavid Street.] DAVID HUME. 161
which a denomination was conferred upon the street
in which his house is situated. ?Perhaps, if it be
premised that a corresponding street at the other
angle of St. Andrew Square is called St. Andrew
Street-a natural enough circumstance with reference
to the square, whose title was determined
on the plan-it will appear likely that the choosing
of ? St. David Street ? for that in which Hume?s
house stood was not originally designed as a jest
at his expense, though a second thought and whim of
his friends might quickly give it that application?
Burton, in his ?? Life of Hume,? relates that
when the house was first inhabited by him, and
when the street was as yet without a name-a very
dubious story, as every street was named on the
On Sunday the 25th of August, 1776, Hume died
in his new house. On the manner of his death,
after the beautiful picture which has been drawn of
it by his friend, Adam?Smith, we need not enlarge.
The coolness of his last moments, unexpected by
many, was universally remarked at the time, and
is still well known. He was buried in the place
selected by himself, in the old burial-ground on the
western slope of the Calton HilL A conflict
between vague horror of his imputed opinions and
respect for the individual who had passed a life so
pure and irreproachable, created a great sensation
among the populace of Edinburgh, and a vast
concourse attended the body to the grave, which
for some time was an object of curiosity to many
Edinburgh. Adam Smith, Blair, and Ferguson, were
within easy reach, and what remains of Hume?s
correspondence with Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto,
Colonel Edmonstone, and Mrs. Cockburn, gives
pleasant glimpses of his social surroundings, and
enables us to understand his contentment with
his absence from the more perturbed, if more
brilliant, worlds of Paris and London.
In 1775 his health began to fail, and it was
evident that he would not long enjoy his new
residence. In the spring of the following year his
disorder, which appears to have been a hzniorrhage
of the bowels, attained such a height that he knew
it must be fatal, so he made his will, and wrote
? My Own Life,? the conclusion of which is one of
the most cheerful and dignified leave-takings of
life and all its concerns.
wilderness, and may meditate undisturbedly upon
the epitome of nature and man-the kingdoms of
this world-spread out before him. Surely there
is a fitness in the choice of this last resting-place
by the philosopher and historian who saw so
clearly that these two kingdoms form but one
realm, governed by uniform laws, and based alike
on impenetrable darkness and eternal silence; and
faithful to the last to that profound veracity which
was the secret of his philosophic greatness, he
ordered that the simple Roman tomb which marks
his grave should bear no inscription but, ?DAVID
HUME. Born, 1711. Died, 1776.? Leavhg it to
posterity to add the rest.?
It is a curious fact, sometimes adverted to in
Edinburgh, but which cannot be authenticated,
according to the Book of Days, that in the room
