In April 1776, four months before his death and in full knowledge that his illness was fatal, David Hume wrote a remarkable autobiographical essay of a few thousand words that he called “My Own Life.” Near the outset of the essay, he recalled that he had been “seized very early with a passion for literature, which has been the ruling passion of my life, and the great source of my enjoyments.” At its conclusion, he offered this sketch of his own character:

I am, or rather was (for that is the style, I must now use in speaking of myself; which emboldens me the more to speak my sentiments); I was, I say, a man of mild dispositions, of command of temper, of an open, social, and cheerful humour, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of great moderation in all my passions. Even my love of literary fame, my ruling passion, never soured my temper, notwithstanding my frequent disappointments … . I cannot say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not a misplaced one; and this is a matter of fact which is easily cleared and ascertained.