Stuck in a bog (“Hume, the atheist”)

One day, in his sixties, being as always out of the common road, Hume fell and stuck in a bog. An old woman heard his calls for assistance but, recognizing the philosopher, she refused him any help: “What,” she cried, “are you not Hume the Atheist?”. But the atheist, by praying, seemingly turned a Christian himself and was rescued by the woman. Anecdotes are often used to justify an interpretation. I will limit myself to anatomize one of them and delineate its possible connections with Hume’s life, writings and reception. Unlike the story of Hume at d’Holbach’s table, the bog story is scarcely cited by scholars to deny that Hume was an atheist, while it is often mentioned by those who do not study Hume in particular to account for his general view. Though Hume’s opinion on the belief in the existence of God does not require any confirming anecdote, and his writings suffice to themselves, the bog anecdote reveals something of Hume’s attitude toward his own atheism. David was not one of those fools who utter with their lips that there is no God. He probably contented himself to say it in his heart and in the heart of his writings. His contemporaries knew it.