At twenty-three, young Hume went to France to prosecute his studies.

"There," says he, in his Autobiography, "I laid down that plan of life which I have steadily and successfully pursued.

I resolved to make a very rigid frugality supply my deficiency of fortune, to maintain unimpaired my independency, and to regard every object as contemptible, except the improvement of my talents in literature." The first book he published was a complete failure.

But he went on again; composed and published another book, which was a success.

But he made no money by it.