1. _Period of Training_ (1711–1734). Hume was born in Edinburgh and lived there and at Ninewells on the border. He was a student at Edinburgh University (1723–1726) and studied law the next year. He was in business in Bristol in 1734. In all the occupations of this period he was unhappy. 2. _Period of Philosopher_ (1734–1752). From 1734 to 1737 Hume was in retirement in France, especially at La Flèche, where he wrote his _Treatise on Human Nature_. He returned to Edinburgh in 1737 and published his _Treatise_ (1739–1740). It was read by nobody and was an absolute failure. So he rewrote Book I in 1748 and called it the _Enquiry concerning Human Understanding_. Hume’s full statement of his theory of knowledge is contained in the _Treatise_ and not in the _Enquiry_. He rewrote Book III in 1751 and called it the _Enquiry concerning Principles of Morals_, “of all my writings, incomparably the best,” and in 1757 he published Book II as an _Essay on the Passions in Four Dissertations_. He became acquainted with Adam Smith in 1740; he published _Essays, Moral and Political_, in 1741–1742, and was a tutor in 1745, because he needed money. In 1746–1748 he became secretary in the English military embassy to Vienna. In 1751, the same year that he was recasting the third book of the _Treatise_, he wrote his _Dialogues concerning Natural Religion_, which was not published until 1779. His autobiography was also published posthumously. 3. _Period of Politician_ (1752–1776). In 1752 Hume published his _Political Discourses_, “the only work of mine that was successful on its first publication.” In 1754–1761, while Librarian at Edinburgh, he wrote and published his _History of England_. This work was the first serious attempt since the Revolution to give an impartial account of the earlier struggles against the Stuarts. Through it he at last got great fame, and fortune followed in its wake. In 1757 came his restatement of Book II of the _Treatise_. In 1763–1765 Hume was secretary of the English Embassy at Paris, and he was made much of by French society. The thought of the French Enlightenment had advanced far enough to entertain him and his doctrines. Hume met Rousseau at this time. Later Hume was visited by Rousseau in England and was badly treated by the eccentric Frenchman. He says that Rousseau sins at the foundation. Hume was appointed Under Secretary of State in 1766; he returned to Edinburgh in 1769, and died in 1776.