Oliver Sacks channeling David Hume-
On Gratitude, the Measure of Living, and the Dignity of Dying – The Marginalian
"It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me. I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can. In this I am encouraged by the words of one of my favorite philosophers, David Hume, who, upon learning that he was mortally ill at age 65, wrote a short autobiography in a single day in April of 1776. He titled it "My Own Life."
"I now reckon upon a speedy dissolution," he wrote. "I have suffered very little pain from my disorder; and what is more strange, have, notwithstanding the great decline of my person, never suffered a moment's abatement of my spirits. I possess the same ardour as ever in study, and the same gaiety in company."
https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/11/24/oliver-sacks-gratitude-book/
Death and David Hume
Two of the most famous late 18th-century Scots were James Boswell and David Hume. Convivial, but neurotic, Boswell was the biographer, friend and admirer of Samuel Johnston, compiler of the first English Dictionary and arbiter of literary taste down south. David Hume was the philosopher who dared to expose the fatal flaws in some of the most popular and generally accepted arguments for the existence of God. He rubbished the argument that the study of nature showed that it must have an intelligent creator. He attacked belief in miracles. To his disappointment, his most biting treatises seemed to make little impact on the society around him - but his ideas had an impact on someone. Poor Boswell suffered from DOUBT, which he was always trying to assuage. The atheism of one of the most brilliant minds in Scotland was a horror to him. Here is Boswell's own account of his interview with Hume on the latter's deathbed in 1776.
An Account of my last interview with David Hume, Esq.
Partly recorded in my Journal, partly enlarged from my memory,
3 March 1777
On Sunday forenoon the 7 of July 1776, being too late for church, I went to see Mr David Hume, who was returned from London and Bath, just adying. I found him alone, in a reclining posture in his drawing-room. He was lean, ghastly, and quite of an earthy appearance. He was dressed in a suit of grey cloth with white metal buttons, and a kind of scratch wig. He was quite different from the plump figure which he used to present. He had before him Dr. Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric. He seemed to be placid and even cheerful. He said he was just approaching to his end...
I had a strong curiosity to be satisfied if he persisted in disbelieving a future state even when he had death before his eyes. I was persuaded from what he now said, and from his manner of saying it, that he did persist. I asked him if it was not possible that there might be a future state. He answered it was possible that a piece of coal put upon the fire would not burn; and he added that it was a most unreasonable fancy that we should exist for ever...
I asked him if the thought of annihilation never gave him any uneasiness. He said not the least; no more than the thought that he had not been, as Lucretius observes. 'Well,' said I, 'Mr Hume, I hope to triumph over you when I meet you in a future state; and remember you are not to pretend that you was joking with all this infidelity.' 'No, no,' said he...
Mr. Lauder, his surgeon, came in for a little, and Mr. Mure, the Baron's son, for another small interval. He was, as far as I could judge, quite easy with both. He said he had no pain, but was wasting away. I left him with impressions which disturbed me for some time.
Boswell in Extremes 1776-8, eds. C. McC. Weis and F. Pottle, London, 1971.
https://digital.nls.uk/scotlandspages/timeline/17762.html
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