On Sunday July 7, 1766, James Boswell records in his diary that ‘being too late for church’ he decided to stroll over to St Andrews Square in Edinburgh to visit David Hume, who had recently returned from Bath and – in Boswell’s words – was ‘just a dying’.

Boswell, who had cultivated the great philosopher’s friendship for decades, found him alone in a reclining posture, in his drawing room. Hume was ‘lean, ghastly and quite of an earthy appearance’, and dressed in a suit of grey cloth with white metal buttons. Despite his terminal condition (probably bowel cancer), Hume’s habitual warmth and good nature was still in evidence, and they exchanged their usual amusing pleasantries.

The real motive for Boswell’s visit, however, was not so much to give comfort, but to see how Hume confronted the reality of his impending demise, without the consolation of religious belief. Hume’s notoriety as a religious sceptic was well known and he was frequently attacked as the ‘Great Infidel’. But if Boswell was hoping for some kind of graveside recantation, he was to be disappointed. It turned out that Hume was as calm and clear as ever, still firmly rejecting any notion of the survival of the soul beyond the death of the body.

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Given the dominance of religion at the time, it is no surprise that Boswell was profoundly shocked by Hume’s eerie serenity. Today, with the advance of science and secularism, many of us will die without religious consolation.

Reflecting this profound societal change, Scotland currently registers 51% of its population as secular. In this context, to us, Hume’s attitude may seem admirable - or foolish - but certainly not surprising. And it is primarily this change in religious sentiment, combined with medical advances that can artificially extend life, which........

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