Upon the whole, I have always considered him, both in his lifetime and since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Upon the whole, I have always considered him, both in his lifetime and since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit." in the context of "On David Hume, in a letter To William Strachan, Esq., Kirkaldy, Fifeshire (9 November 1776)." to mean that wisdom is timeless.