David Hume was born on the 7th of May 1711 in a tenement building located on the north side of Edinburgh's Lawnmarket. He entered the University of Edinburgh at an unusually early age, possibly as young as 10 years old when 14 was typical for students of that era. His family background provided little financial security since his father Joseph Home died shortly after David turned two. Catherine Falconer raised her three children alone without remarriage while living in Chirnside, Berwickshire. The younger son received very slender finances and had to rely on his own talents rather than inherited wealth. Hume initially considered studying law due to family expectations but soon developed an insurmountable aversion to legal texts like Voet and Vinnius. Instead he secretly devoured Cicero and Virgil while pretending to study jurisprudence with professors who taught nothing beyond what could be found in books.
The Disease Of The Learned
At around age 18 Hume experienced a profound mental crisis that threatened to destroy his ability to continue philosophical work. This condition began with a coldness he attributed to a Laziness of Temper lasting approximately nine months before physical symptoms appeared. Scurvy spots broke out on his fingers leading his physician to diagnose him with the Disease of the Learned. Treatment involved courses of Bitters and Anti-Hysteric Pills taken alongside daily consumption of a pint of claret wine. He adopted a more active lifestyle to improve his health while maintaining his intellectual pursuits. After eating well for some time he transformed from being tall lean and raw-bon'd into someone sturdy robust and healthful-like. This recovery allowed him to pursue reading and writing for at least ten years despite earlier fears of permanent disability. His later life would show him as obese with fondness for good port and cheese often used as metaphors in his philosophical conjectures.