In the spring of 1734, Hume accepted a position with a Bristol merchant. His philosophical endeavors were not going well, and so he determined to put these “aside for some time, in order the more effectually to resume them.” As he traveled to Bristol, he wrote to an unnamed physician, probably either John Arbuthnot or George Cheyne, to ask advice about how to get on with his philosophical work. Whether Hume actually sent such a letter is not known, but the surviving manuscript furnishes us with a valuable account of the first years of his adult life. The text printed here is based on the original manuscript deposited in the National Library of Scotland, and is published with the permission of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The title is taken from the first paragraph of the letter.