"_Mira cano, Sol occubuit, nox nulla sequutaest_."'
Camden's _Remains_ (1870), p. 351.
[897] 'When Mr. Hume began to be known in the world as a philosopher,
Mr. White, a decent, rich merchant of London, said to him:--"I am
surprised, Mr. Hume, that a man of your good sense should think of
being a philosopher. Why, _I_ now took it into my head to be a
philosopher for some time, but tired of it most confoundedly, and very
soon gave it up." "Pray, Sir," said Mr. Hume, "in what branch of
philosophy did you employ your researches? What books did you read?"
"Books?" said Mr. White; "nay sir, I read no books, but I used to sit
whole forenoons a-yawning and poking the fire." _Boswelliana_, p. 221.
The French were more successful than Mr. Edwards in the pursuit of
philosophy, Horace Walpole wrote from Paris in 1766 (_Letters_, iv.
466):--'The generality of the men, and more than the generality, are
dull and empty. They have taken up gravity, thinking it was philosophy
and English, and so have acquired nothing in the room of their natural
levity and cheerfulness.'
[898] See _ante_, ii. 8.
[899] See _ante_, i. 332.
[900] See _ante_, i.
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