REFLECTIONS ON THE ROAD FROM LONDON TO BRISTOL

The state of mind of the twenty-two-year-old David Hume as he was jostled up and down in the stagecoach traveling the rough road from London to Bristol in March of 1734 is not difficult to imagine. He had plenty of time on the fifteen-hour-long journey to reflect back on his young life and think about what the future might bring. He must have felt some sadness, having left his family and friends back in Scotland a few weeks earlier. At the same time, Hume was on his way to take up a position with a sugar merchant in Bristol and would have felt the excitement of a young man on a new adventure, traveling alone far from home for the first time in his life. Nevertheless, this was not the life that he had set out for himself five years earlier, and it was with some regrets that he had made this decision. The truth of the matter was that he had made himself ill by the studious way of life that he had adopted, and he had decided to set aside his books and writing for a time until he recovered his health. He believed that this would be best accomplished through an “active” life in business. Thus he was heading toward the major port city of western England to take up a position with a “considerable Trader” to whom he had been recommended.