FERGUSON, Adam, LL.D., a distinguished philosopher and historian, was born at Logierait, in the Highlands of Perthshire, on the 20th of June 1723. His father, the Reverend Adam Ferguson, a native of the neighbouring parish or Moulin, had been minister of Crathie and Braemar, in Aberdeenshire, from 1700 to 1714; but, on the eve of the rebellion under the Earl of Mar, had been translated to Logierait, where he passed the remainder of his long life, discharging the duties of his laborious charge with such exemplary piety, fidelity, and firmness, that, though at the period of his induction the parishioners were almost universally hostile to presbyterian principles, he speedily secured the respect and admiration of all ranks; and, till the close of his incumbency in 1754, retained a degree of influence which proved that his knowledge of mankind was not inferior to his zeal for their religious improvement. This excellent man left a numerous family, of whom Adam was his youngest son, by Mary Gordon, daughter of Mr Gordon of Hallhead, in Aberdeenshire.

It is believed that Adam received the first part of his education at the village school of his native parish, under the superintendence of Mr John Connacher, of whose literary attainments little can now be ascertained. Whatever may have been the merits of this teacher, they do not seem to have been estimated so highly as those of the schoolmasters of Dunkeld and Perth; to one or other of which places it was at this time customary for the parishioners of Logierait to send such of their sons as they wished to prepare for a course of academical study. Two, at least, of Mr Ferguson’s younger sons attended the grammar-school of Perth, between the years 1732 and 1738, whilst Mr James Martin was rector, and Mr Andrew Cornfute one of the assistants. Under the tuition of these able and diligent instructors, Adam is said to have made uncommon progress in classical literature; and in addition to the benefit which he derived from his teachers, he possessed the advantage of living under the protection of a respectable citizen, Mr William Ferguson, his relative, a merchant in the town, and at one time chief magistrate or provost.

Towards the end of autumn 1738, when he had entered into his sixteenth year, he was removed from school to the University of St Andrews, where his father had commenced his studies fifty years before, under a very meritorious regent, Mr John Row, son of the minister of Ceres; who, being grandson of the well-known David Ferguson, minister of Dunfermline, was induced, by the claims of kindred as well as of duty, to pay particular attention to the improvement of a youth whom he soon discovered to be highly deserving of his favour. It so happened that one of the colleagues of Mr Row was still a master of St Leonard’s College, and that all the other masters were of nearly the same standing with the elder Mr Ferguson, who was thus confirmed in his preference of the college in which he had prosecuted his own philosophical studies. At this very juncture the principal of St Leonard’s College died, and the other professors, at whose almost unanimous recommendation Mr Tullideph was appointed to the vacant chair, anticipated the most prosperous results from his efforts to promote the good of an establishment which they considered as having fallen into disrepute, in consequence of the feeble and undignified administration of his predecessors.

The Greek class in St Leonard’s College was at this time taught with great reputation by Mr Francis Pringle, who had obtained his office in 1699; but, though no other teacher of that language in Scotland could pretend to rival him, the average number of students who were received annually under his charge, from 1738 to 1747, did not exceed eleven; whilst the average of entries to the corresponding class in St Salvator’s College scarcely amounted to six. Adam Ferguson was enrolled in Mr Pringle’s class as a ternar, the same rank of students which, in the days of Buchanan, was characterized by the term pauper ; that is to say, one who pays the lowest rate of fees. It has been alleged that Ferguson, after a comparative trial, was admitted one of the foundation bursars, having stood first in the list of successful competitors. If it were so, the victory was not very splendid, as, of the twelve who entered the class along with him, not more than eight (being of the denomination of ternars) could have been permitted to take a share of the contest.

Besides Pringle, the other masters in St Leonard’s College were, John Craigie, admitted professor of philosophy in 1691; Ninian Young, professor of humanity, and Henry Rymer, professor of philosophy, both admitted in 1709; and David Young, professor of philosophy, admitted in 1716. Before the end of the session 1739, Charles Gregory, professor of mathematics, resigned in favour of his son David, who, though a very ordinary man, was the most popular teacher of geometry ever known in that university, which had many years before numbered amongst its professors the inventor of the reflecting telescope.

The method of teaching in St Leonard’s College at this period did not materially differ from that which had been pursued in the former century. The professors in general followed the beaten track in which they had been guided by their predecessors; and the tasks which they exacted from the students were little more than exercises of memory. A young man of slender abilities might easily distinguish himself as much as his most ingenious associates, who, on the other hand, might be apt to underrate acquirements which were more accessible to plodding industry than to original talents. We have good reason to believe that Ferguson acquired little more at this seminary than a high admiration of the Grecian and Roman literature, to the beauties of which he was more nearly introduced than he had hitherto been; and that his advances in the knowledge of philosophy were all made at a subsequent period. Even under the vigilant and severe inspection of Principal Tullideph, the discipline of the college was by no means effective; and, in Mr Pringle’s class particularly, some of the young gentlemen conducted themselves so improperly as to have narrowly escaped the disgrace of being refused their degrees, after they had undergone the usual trials. Mr Ferguson obtained the degree of master of arts on the 4th of May 1742, when he had nearly completed his nineteenth year. The regent under whom he finished his course of physical study was Mr David Young, who used as a text book Keill’s Introductio ad veram Physicam.

The minister of Logierait had attempted to induce some of his other sons to follow his own profession; but as they had all testified a disinclination to this line of life, he determined to breed his youngest son to the church, and accordingly he was sent to the divinity hall at St Andrews, in November 1742, when the theological department o study was superintended by Principal Murison and Professors Shaw and Campbell, the last of whom, a man oftalents an learning, was well known by his writings; but, like seve of his predecessors in the same chair, he scarcely ever ec tured at all. Mr Ferguson studied also a year or two a Edinburgh under Professors Gowdie and Cuming; but ı» attention appears to have been chiefly given to pursuι s not immediately connected with his clerical views·

In the year 1745, when he had attended divinity on y [7:9:511]one half of the usual period, an appointment was offered to him, which he could not hold without ordination. It was, in feet, represented to the General Assembly that Lord John Murray, colonel of the Highland regiment (the 42d), was desirous of having a chaplain of the communion of the Church of Scotland possessed of the Erse language; and that Mr Adam Ferguson, though he had not studied divinity for the full period of six years, was pitched upon for that office, provided the Assembly would allow the presbytery of Dunkeld to take him on trials. The Assembly, in respect of the young man’s capacity and good character, authorized the presbytery to ordain him on passing bis first trials, and accordingly he was ordained at Dunkeld, on the 2d of July 1745. A few days afterwards he joined the regiment, in which he continued to serve till 1757; about die beginning of which year he was elected keeper of the Advocates’ Library, on the resignation of the celebrated David Hume. About a year after, Mr Ferguson was succeeded in this office by Mr William Wallace, junior, advocate.

In the course of the year 1757, Mr Ferguson rendered himself conspicuous by the interest which he took in the success of the tragedy of Douglas, written by his friend Mr Home. He published a defence of the morality of stage plays, which, though its merit is not of the highest order, was admitted by the opposite party to be “the only piece on that side that was written with any tolerable degree of discretion.” After Mr Home resigned his living in June 1757, Mr Ferguson and he retired to country lodgings at Braid, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, where they spent several months in a course of laborious study, enlivened by the intercourse of friendship. As Mr Ferguson’s campaigning habits had reconciled him to a migratory life, it is not easy to trace him through all his changes of residence. During his father’s lifetime he had great satisfaction in making occasional excursions to the Highlands, and thinking aloud in his solitary walks, amidst the lakes and forests of Rannoch, or on the summit of his native mountains, where one of the most magnificent prospects in nature was displayed before his eyes. It was here that the lofty enthusiasm of his spirit was nursed and matured; and it was not so much in the intercourse with polished society as in the wilds of Athole that he acquired that dignity and ease of manner for which he was distinguished above most of the literary men of his country. To use his own expressive words: “If I had not been in the Highlands of Scotland, I might be of their mind who think the inhabitants of Paris and Versailles the only polite people in the world. It is truly wonderful to see persons of every sex and age, who never travelled beyond the nearest mountain, possess themselves perfectly, perform acts of kindness with an aspect of dignity, and a perfect discernment of what is proper to oblige. This is seldom to be seen in our cities or in our capital; but a person among the mountains, who thinks himself nobly born, considers courtesy as the test of his rank. He never saw a superior, and does not know what it is to be embarrassed. He has an ingenuous deference for those who have seen more of the world than himself; but never saw the neglect of others assumed as a mark of superiority.”

In the year 1759 he was elected professor of natural philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, in the room of Dr John Stewart. He had not made physical science the principal object of his inquiries; and indeed he had not studied it much more attentively than most young men do m the common routine of academical instruction. But with only fonr months to prepare for the labours of the winter, ŋ qualified himself so well as to give universal satisfaction.

e conducted this branch of education five years, and by a apting his lectures to the capacities of the young, contrived to render the study more interesting than it had been commonly considered. At this time he was a member of the well-known Select Society of Edinburgh, instituted in 1754, for the purpose of promoting philosophical discussion, and training the members to the practice of public speaking. The ardour of this society did not begin to languish till the year 1762, when another association, equally celebrated, was formed by the literary circle of Edinburgh, the design of which was to rouse the country to demand from the legislature the establishment of a militia in Scotland. Mr Ferguson may almost be considered as the founder of this society; and it was at his suggestion that it received a name (The Poker) which was sufficiently significant in the ears of the initiated, but utterly unintelligible by strangers. His satirical pamphlet entitled The History of Sister Peg, was intended to forward the object of this patriotic society; and it is perhaps the only production connected with that cause, which, at this distance of time, is capable of exciting any interest.

In 1763 Mr Ferguson was applied to by the Earl of Warwick, to take charge of his two younger sons, the Honourable Charles and Robert Greville, whose eldest brother, Lord Greville, had received part of his education under the eye of Principal Robertson. These young gentlemen resided some years in his house, and both they and their tutor Mr Macpherson repaid his attention to their improvement by the warmest affection and gratitude. Lord Warwick, who had been advised by General Clerk to place his sons under Mr Ferguson’s care, was not insensible of the “great benefit they had reaped from his tuition, and advantageous as well as manly and friendly conversation.” Mr, afterwards Sir John, Macpherson, at the same time acknowledged, that “to him he owed all his knowledge, as well as all his success in life.”

On the appointment of Mr Balfour to the professorship of the law of nature and nations in 1764, Mr Ferguson was elected by the magistrates of Edinburgh to succeed him in the chair of moral philosophy. This had long been a favourite object of his ambition; and about ten years before, when the able and accomplished Mr Cleghorn was on his death-bed, he urged his young friend to apply for the office, which, in his apprehension, no man was more capable of adorning. Mr Cleghorn, after expressing his regret at having no such influence with the patrons as to secure such an arrangement, added, as Mr Ferguson sometimes related with much emotion, “I can only say of you, as Hamlet did of Fortinbras, Hehas my dying voice?

Mr Ferguson entered on his new duties with a degree of spirit and activity, from which the most splendid results were to be anticipated. In one particular his mode of lecturing was singular, and not easily imitated. After having delineated the general plan of his course, and committed it to writing, he resolved not to write a system of lectures, but to endeavour to make himself master of every part of his subject, and to trust to the moment of delivery for the expression of his sentiments. This method of discoursing was in his hands very happily executed; but its success depended, in a great measure, on the state of his health and spirits, as well as upon the interest excited by the different subjects of discussion. Perhaps no lecturer, with the exception of his immediate successor, was ever more admired. His class was crowded by great numbers of gentlemen of high rank and official station, as well as by younger students. In the mean time, eagerly as he applied to the discharge of his professional duties, his attention was extended to other branches of inquiry; and within little more than a year after he commenced his labours as a lecturer on morals, he sent to the press his Essay on the History of Civil Society, a work which was received with an expression of public approbation which even exceeded the [7:9:512]Mr Russell. He was not able to prevail on the patrons to accept of a substitute to complete the labours of that session; but after obtaining leave of absence for the next session, he joined his young charge at Geneva in May 1774, and at first entertained hopes that his labours might prove beneficial. The connection, however, was not so agreeable as he expected, and it terminated about twelve months afterwards. In the mean time, he had very nearly been deprived of his office in the university. The towncouncil had, at his desire, appointed Mr John Bruce, then assistant and afterwards successor to Mr Stevenson, to teach the moral philosophy during the session 1774-1775 but before the conclusion of the session they thought fit to rescind this act, and to declare the office vacant. His friends in the university, particularly Drs Robertson, Blair, and Black, were exceedingly indignant at this proceeding; more especially as Sir John Pringle had been permitted to be several years absent; and at that very time the professors of mathematics and of the theory of medicine had both been allowed to discharge their duty by substitutes for two years without challenge or complaint. As the council, however, seemed to have determined to fill up the place by a new election, it became necessary for his friends to apply to the Court of Session to put a stop to their proceedings. “I have been much obliged,” says he, in a letter to a friend, “to the general voice that was raised in my favour, as well as to the ardent zeal of particular friends. Hay Campbell (afterwards Lord President) has given me proofs of friendship which I can never forget. Pulteney has behaved to me in every thing as he would have done at the beginning of the Poker Club. I have always been an advocate for mankind, and am a more determined one than ever; the fools and knaves are no more than necessary to give others something to do.”After his return, he continued, as formerly, to divide his time between his literary and agricultural pursuits, and engaged occasionally in the political controversies which agitated the country during the progress of the American war. Besides his pamphlet in answer to Dr Price’s observations on liberty, he communicated his views from time to time to Sir William Pulteney, and other members of parliament; and when it was resolved by government to send out commissioners to quiet the disorders in the colonies, he was appointed secretary to the commission. It appears from a letter of General Putnam, dated July 1778, that the nomination of Dr Ferguson was very agreeable to the more intelligent part of the Americans, who, not without reason, were dissatisfied to find that the commissioners were fettered by restrictions, which rendered their appointment nugatory. “I am very sorry,” he writes, “that the parliament of Great Britain is still so blind to their own and our interest, as to send Dr Ferguson and the rest of the worthy gentlemen over to America with limited power, and that to last only till July 1779, and then to be revoked by them if they think fit; by which means I am deprived of seeing your friend Dr Ferguson, which gives me great pain, as 1 always have heard of his being a gentleman of the first character for learning, good sense, and humanity.” It is well known that the commissioners returned without accomplishing the object of their mission; but they had an opportunity of acquiring more useful information of the state and temper of the country' than government had received in al the previous course of the contest. Whilst Dr Ferguson was absent duringthe session 1778-1779, hisplace wassuρ-plied by Mr Dugald Stewart, who, about five years afterwards, was destined to succeed him in the chair ofmora philosophy.In the year 1780 he was seized with an attack of apoplexy» which, though not violent, was nevertheless sufficient high expectations of his friends. “Ferguson’s book,” says Mr Hume, writing to Dr Robertson from London, “goes on here with great success.” Gray the poet says, “There are uncommon strains of eloquence in it; and I was surprised to find not one single idiom of his country (I think) in the whole work.” Mr Hume, in a letter to the author, (dated 10th March 1767), congratulates him on the success of the book, adding that he had “met with nobody that had read it who did not praise it. Lord Mansfield is very loud to that purpose in his Sunday societies. I heard Lord Chesterfield and Lord Lyttleton express the same sentiment; and, what is above all, Caddel, I am told, is already projecting a second edition of the same quarto size.” Mr Hume then informs him, that Lord Shelburne and Lord Bute were amongst his most zealous partisans; the last declaring the book one of the best he had ever read. Charles Townshend appears to have been of the same opinion, as he read it five times.

General Clerk had pressed the author to dedicate his work to Lord Shelburne, who had signified his intention of offering Mr Ferguson the government of West Florida; upon which occasion his lordship laughed very heartily, when the general expressed his conviction that Mr Ferguson was more usefully employed as a teacher of science. The book, however, appeared without any dedication. In the course of the following year, Lord Shelburne intimated a hope of getting Mr Ferguson established with a proper appointment at Oxford; and some other persons of influence meditated a design of employing him in one of the departments of state. This purpose was frustrated in all probability by a temper which did not permit him to accommodate himself to the views of those whose maxims of conduct he did not entirely approve. Another circumstance may be considered as having also operated to obstruct the fulfilment of the schemes which were devised for his advancement. At this time he married Miss Burnet, a young lady nearly connected with his mother’s family, and still more nearly related to his intimate friend Dr Black. Soon afterwards he began to cultivate a farm in the parish of Currie, and, at a considerable sacrifice of private interest, gratified his taste for improvement, by transforming a barren heath into a scene which became distinguished for beauty and fertility.

It was impossible, however, for any combination of circumstances to abate his literary activity; and he not only continued to conduct the business of his class with unremitted diligence, but seized every interval of leisure which he could command, to collect materials for a history of the Roman commonwealth. Whilst he was proceeding in his researches, he was solicited by Philip, Earl of Stanhope, the editor of Dr Robert Simson’s posthumous works, and the other guardians of Charles, Earl of Chesterfield, to superintend the education of that young nobleman, then in his nineteenth year. The negotiation was conducted through the mediation of Dr Adam Smith, who, judging the offer to be advantageous to his friend, exerted himself with great earnestness to induce him to accept it. Lord Stanhope was extremely anxious to obtain the able services of Dr Ferguson without delay, as he conceived it to be of the utmost consequence to his young kinsman to be placed under the care of “a person so well qualified to complete the remaining part of his education, and to repair the neglects, omissions, and errors, which had unfortunately been committed in the former part of it.” The proposal had originally been made early in the year 1773, and was renewed in December, soon after the commencement of the session of the college, when Dr Ferguson was engaged not only in teaching his own class, but also in lecturing on natural philosophy, the professorship of which had recently become vacant by the death of his relation [7:9:513]alarm his friends for his safety. This formidable affection did not in the slightest degree impair the force of his understanding; and so abstemious did he afterwards become, as not only to secure himself against the recurrence of the disease, but to enjoy almost uninterrupted health for more than thirty years. As he could not now venture to lecture as formerly without the use of written notes, he therefore found it necessary to write out a course of instruction to be read during the remainder of his incumbency. In his endeavours to recover the substance of his lectures, he availed himself of the notes taken by intelligent young men, who had studied under him different sessions, and who might thus be expected to have preserved the various modes in which he had stated his doctrines, and the different arguments and illustrations by which he had happened to supply in one session what might have been omitted in another. But, in the prospect of soon relinquishing his office, it was scarcely conceivable that the compilation which he thus executed could possess all the excellencies which he was capable of imparting to it; more especially as he was now busy in carrying his great historical work through the press. This was the History of the Progress and Termination of the Homan Republic, in three volumes quarto, published in 1783, a book which not only delights by the clearness of its narrative and the boldness of its descriptions, but instructs and animates by profound and masterly delineations of character, as well as by the philosophical precision with which it traces the connection of events. It is written in that tone of high-minded enthusiasm, which, if it can only snatch from oblivion whatever is noble and generous in the record of human actions, regards the graces of style as objects merely of secondary account, and is chiefly studious of impressing the lessons of wisdom which may be gathered from the survey of distant ages.

The fatigues and anxieties of public teaching now became oppressive to his spirits, and not altogether favourable to his health; and he therefore deemed it expedient to resign his office in 1784, when he had completed his sixty-first year. Mr Dugald Stewart, then professor of mathematics, succeeded to his office; and in order to entitle Dr Ferguson to retain his salary, he was conjoined in the professorship of mathematics with Mr Playfair. He now proceeded to revise the notes of his lectures on ethics and politics, with a view to publication; and in 1792 the work appeared, under the title of Principles of Moral and Political Science. Though composed under disadvantageous circumstances, and though he has omitted many of the questions which were treated in his elementary course, it contains an admirable view of the systems both of ancient and modern philosophers, particularly respecting the foundations of moral approbation, and the sources of private happiness and public security. The authors to whose suggestions he was most indebted were Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle, amongst the Greeks, Cicero and Seneca amongst the Latins, Epictetus and Antoninus amongst the later scholars of the Grecian school; and, amongst the moderns, Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Montesquieu, and Adam Smith. It has been considered as a blameable omission in this work, that too slight notice is taken of the importance of religious principle; and the author, ' 1 . act, seems 1° have been aware that he had exposed himself to this objection. No man, however, was ever more anxious to establish the foundations of natural theology, and to strengthen the arguments for a future state; subjects on which the work abounds in passages of uncommon beauty.

After the publication of this work, Dr Ferguson, now in ιs seventieth year, resolved to pay a visit to the ancient Metropolis of the world. He passed a short time at some o the principal cities of Europe, Berlin, Vienna, Florence, a ple⅛, and Venice, and resided part of the winter 1793 at Rome, in all of which places his reception was extremely 1 flattering. He was elected a member of the Academy of Berlin, as well as of other learned societies. Upon his return to Britain in 1794, he took up his residence at Nidpath Castle in Tweeddale, from which he soon removed to Hallyards in Manor Water. In this agreeable retreat he spent the next fourteen years of his life, a longer period than he had ever before resided in any one place. At last, however, when his sight and his hearing had in a great measure failed, he deemed it advisable to settle in a town, where he might occasionally enjoy the conversation of intelligent friends; and his early prepossessions induced him to settle at St Andrews. Here his strength gradually declined, but the vigour of his mind continued unimpaired as long as he lived. No man took a more lively interest in the great events which were then passing in the world, or contemplated more anxiously the consequences of the arduous struggle in which his country was engaged. He lived long enough to witness the triumphant issue of the contest; and after a short illness, he died on the 22d of February 1816, in the ninety-third year of his age, leaving three sons and three daughters.

In the various situations which it was his lot to occupy, he had uniformly conducted himself with a dignity and decision which bespoke the elevation and force of his mind. As a military chaplain, he happily united the strict decorum of the clerical character with the unembarrassed address of a man of the world; so that he at the same time secured the respect of the officers and the devoted attachment of the private soldiers. It was while accompanying the army on different expeditions, one of the first of which was an ill-conducted descent on the coast of Bretagne in 1745, that he applied his mind to study the art of war; and it cannot be denied that he excels particularly in the description of military evolutions. In private life his conversation was easy and elegant, and, among his intimate friends, en-livenea by a fascinating gaiety and refinement of humour. He was not very patient of contradiction, however, and rather apt to testify his contempt of assumed superiority.

His writings are,

1. A Sermon, preached in the Erse language to his majesty’s first Highland regiment of foot, commanded by Lord John Murray, at their cantonment at Camberwell, on the 18th day of December 1745. By the Rev. Mr A. F. chaplain to the said regiment, and translated by him into English for the use of a lady of quality in Scotland, at whose desire it is now published. London, 1746.

2. The Morality of Stage Plays seriously considered- Edinburgh, 1757.

3. A Pamphlet on the Militia. London, 1758.

4. The History of the Proceedings in the ease of Margaret, commonly called Sister Peg. Three editions. London, 1762. Another, 1777.

5. Analysis of Lectures on Mechanics. Edinburgh.

6. An Essay on the History of Civil Society. London, 1767. This book has passed through many editions, and has been translated into almost all the European languages. A translation into German was published at Leipsig in 1768, under the title of Bersuch uber die Geschichte der Burger* lichen Gesellschaft- A French translation, by Μ. Bergier, was published in 1783.

7. Analysis of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy- A

German translation, by Mr Garve of Leipsig, is said to be well executed. Edinburgh, 1766. Fifty-five pages 12mo. λ , λ io

8. Institutes of Moral Philosophy, 1769; 319 pages 12mo. Another edition, revised and corrected, 1773; 294 pages. A translation of this edition into French was published at Geneva in 1775, and it had the advantage of being revised by the author. A third edition, enlarged, was published at [7:9:514] Edinburgh, 1785; 317 pages 12mo. This elementary work has been used as a text book in several foreign universities. A translation into the Russian language (from the German) was printed at Moscow in 1804.

9. Remarks on a pamphlet lately published by Dr Price, entitled Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, 8fc. in a letter from a gentleman in the country to a member of Parliament. London, 1776. These remarks having been addressed to Sir Grey Cooper, secretary of the treasury, were printed by his direction.

10. The History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic. London, 1783. 3 vols* 4to. A translation into German was printed at Leipsig in 1784. It has been translated into several other modern languages, and has passed through a number of English editions, one of which was printed at Basel, in Switzerland, in 1791.

11. Principles of Moral and Political Science, being chiefly a retrospect of lectures delivered in the College of Edinburgh. London, 1792. 2 vols. 4to.

12. Minutes of the Life and Character of Joseph Black, Μ. D. 1801. (Published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburghs

13. Biographical Sketch, or Memoir of Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Ferguson. Edinburgh, 1817. This tract, though printed, has not been published for sale.

He left behind him many papers on the subjects which had chiefly occupied his thoughts from the time of his last academical appointment; but a great mass of letters and other valuable documents had been indiscriminately destroyed by his direction some years before his death. (p. p. p.)

Ferguson, James, an eminent experimental philosopher, mechanist, and astronomer, was born in Banffshire, Scotland, in 1714. His parents were very poor. At an early age, however, his extraordinary genius began to unfold itself. He first learned to read by overhearing his father teach his elder brother; and he had made this acquisition before any one suspected he had done so. He soon discovered a peculiar taste for mechanics, which first indicated itself on seeing his father use a lever; and having pursued this study a considerable time, even when very young, he at length made a watch in wood work, from having once seen one. As he had no instructor, nor any help from books, every thing he learned had all the merit of an original discovery; and such in fact he very naturally believed it to be. As soon as his age permitted he went out to service; but he met with hardships in this humble capacity, which rendered his constitution feeble through life. Whilst he was servant to a farmer, whose goodness he acknowledges in the modest account of himself which he prefixed to his Mechanical Exercises, he frequently contemplated the stars; and he began the study of astronomy by laying down, from his own observations alone, a celestial globe. His kind master observing these marks of his ingenuity, procured him the countenance and assistance of some neighbouring gentlemen, by whose help and instructions he went on acquiring further knowledge, and was at length sent to Edinburgh. There, having obtained some notion of drawing, he began to take portraits in miniature, by which means he supported himself and family for several years, both in Scotland and England, whilst engaged in pursuing more serious studies. In London he first published some curious astronomical tables and calculations, and afterwards gave public lectures on experimental philosophy, which he repeated in most of the principal towns in England with general approbation. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society without paying for admission; and he had a pension of L.50 per annum given him, unsolicited, by King George III. on his accession, who had heard his lectures, and who frequently sent for and conversed with him on curious topics. Ηe also received several presents from his majesty, and from other patrons of merit. The degree of consideration which Mr Ferguson attained by the strength of his natural genius alone is in fact known to every one. He was universally considered as at the head of astronomy and mechanics in this nation of philosophers; and he might justly be styled self-taught, or rather heaven-taught; for in his whole life he had not received above half a year’s instruction at school. He was a man of the clearest judgment and the most unwearied application to study; benevolent, gentle, and innocent in his manners as a child; humble, courteous, and communicative; and, instead of pedantry, philosophy seemed to have produced in him only diffidence and urbanity. He died in 1776, at the age of sixty-two.

The following is a list of Mr Ferguson’s published works: 1. Astronomical Tables, and Precepts for calculating the true times of New and Full Moon, 1763; 2. Tables and Tracts relative to several Arts and Sciences; 3. An easy Introduction to Astronomy, 1769, second edition; 4. Astronomy explained upon Sir Isaac Newton’s Principles, 1772, fifth edition; 5. Lectures on select subjects in Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, and Optics, 1772, fourth edition; 6. Select Mechanical Exercises, with a short account of the Life of the Author by himself, 1773; 7. The Art of Drawing in Perspective made easy, 1775; 8. An Introduction to Electricity, 1775; 9. Two Letters to the Reverend Mr John Kennedy, 1775; 10. A Third Letter to the Reverend Mr John Kennedy, 1775. Mr Ferguson also communicated several papers to the Royal Society r , which were printed in their Transactions. In 1805, a valuable edition of his Lectures was published at Edinburgh by Dr, now Sir David, Brewster, in two volumes 8vo, with notes and an appendix, intended to adapt the whole to the actual state of science.

Ferguson, Robert, a Scottish poet, who acquired a considerable share of celebrity at a very early period of life, was born at Edinburgh on the 5th of September 1750 or 1751. His father, whose name was William, paid court to the muscs as well as the son; but he wisely relinquished the study of poetry for the more certain emoluments of trade and commerce, and was employed in different mercantile houses both in Edinburgh and in Aberdeen. He was an accountant in the Linen Hall when he died, but never acquired any thing like an independent fortune.

The subject of this notice was of a weak and delicate constitution during infancy, so much so, indeed, that small hopes were entertained of his ever reaching the years of manhood. Yet such were the care and attention of his parents, that he was able to attend an English school by the time he was six years of age, when his progress was considered as very extraordinary; and it proved no less rapid at the High School of Edinburgh, which he attended for four years, acquiring a competent knowledge of the Latin tongue with very little labour or exertion. He then went to the grammar school of Dundee, and in two years afterwards to the university of St Andrews, which his father preferred to Edinburgh, because a gentleman of the name of Ferguson had left two bursaries for the education of as many boys of the same name.

Ferguson’s health was never at anytime impaired by severe study; yet he kept alive at the university the opinion which had been entertained of him whilst at school, an he was decidedly the first mathematician of his own stant ing. He was patronized by Dr Wilkie, professor of natural philosophy, but better known as the author of the Ρ goniad, who conceived an attachment for him, as ∏> perhaps for his poetical as his mathematical talents, kindness was repaid by Ferguson, on the death o Wilkie, by a beautiful eclogue to his memory; writ n [7:9:515]the Scottish dialect. A little before he left the university, ' Ferguson had conceived the idea of writing a tragedy on the death of Sir William Wallace, for which he had collected materials; but as he subsequently met with a work on the same subject, he abandoned the design, after he had completed two acts. His own reason for so doing is thus expressed: “Whatever I publish shall be original, and this tragedy might be considered as a copy.”

He returned to Edinburgh when he had finished his studies, without having fixed on any particular employment; for although he was destined for the church by his father, on the death of the latter he paid but little attention to the expostulations of his mother. He also declined to enter on the study of physic, assigning as a reason, that when he read the description of diseases, he believed that he felt the symptoms of them all in himself. He was, however, induced to attempt the study of the law, in which, as might have been expected, he made no proficiency. He seems, however, to have turned a wishful eye to some sinecure place, in order to obtain which he paid a visit to an uncle who resided at Aberdeen, a man of literature and opulence, hoping that, through his influence, he might be settled in a manner suited to his merit. But in this expectation he was completely disappointed; for although his uncle at first showed him every mark of attachment, his fondness decreased by degrees, and in six months he desired his nephew in an abrupt manner to leave his house, without attempting to procure for him any kind of living.

His necessities at this period were so great that he copied papers in the commissary clerk’s office for so much per sheet, an employment which he soon left in disgust. His exuberant wit, equalled only by his good nature, thoughtlessness, and social propensities, made all who knew him receive him with affection; but his powers of song and talents for mimicry often led him into the company of the dissipated, whose example could not fail to do him essential injury, and who had neither the power nor the inclination to provide for him through life. The irregularities in which he was thus led to indulge often awakened in him the reproaches of conscience; and the conversation of a minister, who understood his manner of life, appears to have made a deep impression on his mind. His remorse indeed soon afterwards assumed the appearance of absolute despair. His sprightliness entirely forsook him; but he gradually recovered from this despondency, and his health was at length fully restored. Soon afterwards he cut his head so severely in consequence of a fall, that he became delirious from the loss of blood; and in this condition he remained for some months, till the want of sleep and perpetual talking put a period to his existence on the 16th of October 1774. He was buried in the Canongate churchyard. Over his grave a monument was erected by Robert Burns, who loved his genius, and naturally sympathized with failings akin to his own. Had Ferguson united prudence with his abilities, he would have no doubt risen to distinguished eminence in the literary world. His poems in the Scottish dialect have been universally admired by his countrymen; and when we reflect that they were composed in the intervals of dissipation, they must be considered as unequivocal evidences of his genius.