The Life Of Man Is Of

From "Of Suicide," a suppressed essay Hume wrote before 1755 but withheld from publication in his lifetime; it appeared posthumously in 1777. The line forms part of Hume's argument against the religious claim that suicide usurps God's sovereign authority over life and death. He contends that if human life held a uniquely elevated cosmic status, the divine order would never have made it so easily extinguished by accident or disease — and therefore no special prohibition against ending it logically follows. The essay was considered so scandalous that even Hume's close friend Adam Smith declined to oversee its publication, and Hume ultimately suppressed it himself "out of abundant prudence."