^{page 599 note *} MSS., University of Edinburgh.

^{page 601 note *} Lord John Murray—son of John Duke of Athole by his second marriage—was appointed colonel of the Royal Highlanders on April 25, 1745; major-general in 1753; lieut.-general in 1754; and general in 1770.

^{page 601 note †} SirScott's, W.Miscellaneous Prose Works, vol. xix. p. 331.Google Scholar

^{page 602 note *} Hist, of the Highlanders, vol. i. p. 292.Google Scholar

^{page 602 note †} Lond., 1746. 8vo.

^{page 602 note ‡} MSS. Univ. of Edin.

^{page 603 note *} The following anecdote illustrates their character:—”Sometimes he lent or presented a sermon to his friends. One of them one day preached a very profound discourse on the superiority of personal qualities to external circumstances, that showed a very thorough acquaintance with the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle. Mr Bisset (his father's successor), in whose church the gentleman delivered this sermon, was at first greatly surprised at hearing such observations and arguments from a worthy neighbour, whom he well knew to be totally unacquainted with the philosophy of Plato, or any other, ancient or modern. When service was over, he paid the young man very high encomiums on his discourse—that it very much exceeded the highest expectations he had ever entertained of the talents of the preacher; who told him very honestly that he knew very little about these things himself, but that he had borrowed the discourse from his friend Ferguson, Adam.”—Histor. Mag. (1799) vol. i. p. 44.Google Scholar

^{page 603 note †} This interesting letter is in the possession of the Rev. Mr Cunningham, Prestonpans.

^{page 604 note *} Life of Lord Kames, vol. i, p. 175.Google Scholar

^{page 604 note †} Like his predecessor Hume, Ferguson enjoyed the moderate salary of L.40 per annum.

^{page 604 note ‡} Edinburgh, 1757, 8vo.

^{page 605 note *} The following was the cast of the piece on that occasion: —“Lord Randolph, Dr Robertson (Principal); Glenalvon, David Hume (Historian); Old Norval, Dr Carlyle (Minister of Musselburgh); Douglas, John Home (the Author); Lady Randolph, Dr Ferguson; Anna (the Maid), Dr Blair (Minister, High Church).”

“The audience that day, besides Mr Digges and Mrs Ward, were the Right Hon. Patrick Lord Elibank, Lord Milton, Lord Kames, Lord Monboddo (the two last were then only lawyers), the Rev. John Steele and William Home, ministers.”— Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle, 21st January, 1829. Dr Carlyle corroborates this statement so far in his Diary, p. 311.

^{page 605 note †} It has been stated that in 1742 Ferguson was Secretary to Lord Milton, and lived with him in that capacity for some time, at Brunstain House, near Edinburgh.— Chambers's Journal, No. 60, 1855.Google Scholar

^{page 605 note ‡} Sommervill's Life and Times, p. 380.

^{page 605 note §} Hume's Life by Burton, vol. ii. p. 45.

^{page 605 note |} Afterwards Sir William Pulteney.

^{page 606 note *} Smith had lectured on Belles Lettres in Edinburgh in 1748.

^{page 606 note †} Professor of Logic.

^{page 607 note *} Hume's Life, by J. H. Burton, vol. ii. p. 47.

^{page 607 note †} It may here be mentioned, that the Professorship of the Law of Nature and Nations—the patronage of which was vested in the Crown—was then a sinecure, and was abolished in 1832. It has, however, been again revived as the Chair of Public Law, by the Universities' Commissioners of 1858.

^{page 607 note ‡} Carlyle's Diary, p. 283.

^{page 607 note §} Lond. 1760,12mo.—It may be interesting to those who possess this curious little volume, which (from its having been published anonymously) has sometimes been attributed to Swift, to have the following key to the principal characters referred to in it:—John Bull, England; Sister Peg, Scotland; Nurse, Lord Hardwicke; Jowler, Mr Pitt; Hubble Bubble, Duke of Newcastle; Boy George, George Townshend, Esq.; Bumbo, Lord President Dundas; M'Lurcher, The Highlanders; Sir Thomas, The King; Gilbert, Sir Gilbert Elliot, Bart.; Squire Geoffrey, The Pretender; Small Trash, Charles Hope Weir; Lick Pelf, Earl of Hopetoun; James, James Oswald, Esq.; Suckfist, General Watson.

^{page 608 note *} An account of the manner in which this singular work was written is given in Carlyle's Diary, page 407; and an interesting letter of Hume, in which he avowed himself as its author, is given in his Life, by J. H. Burton, vol. ii. page 88.

^{page 608 note †} See Carlyle's Diary, page 419.

^{page 608 note ‡} Along with Patrick Lord Elibank, Principal Robertson, Dr Blair, and J. Home, Fergsun made zealous efforts to induce M'Pherson to promote his further researches for the discovery of ancient Gaelic Poetry, and he took part in a meeting convened by Dr Blair, in 1760, to provide funds for the purpose of enabling M'Pherson to do so.—Browne's Hist, of the Highlands, vol. i. p. 43.

^{page 609 note *} Encye. Brit. Suppt. vol. iv. art. Ferguson.

^{page 609 note †} Edinburgh, 1766. 8vo.

^{page 609 note ‡} Hume's Life, by Burton, J. H., vol. ii. p. 387.Google Scholar

^{page 610 note *} His hurry was so great that he apparently had not time to sign the letter. It is in the possession of D. Laing, Esq.

^{page 610 note †} Encye. Brit. Suppl. vol. iv. art. Ferguson.

^{page 610 note ‡} Life of Hume, by Burton, , vol. ii. p. 386.Google Scholar

^{page 610 note §} The elegant author of an Essay on the genius of Shakespeare.

^{page 610 note |} Stewart's Works, vol. x. p. 223.Google Scholar

^{page 610 note ¶} Gray's Works, vol. ii. p. 295.Google Scholar

^{page 611 note *} Gray's Works, vol. ii. p. 295.Google Scholar

^{page 611 note *} MSS. University of Edinburgh.

^{page 612 note *} Stewart's Works, x, p. 261.Google Scholar

^{page 614 note *} Editor of Dr Robert Simson's posthumous works.

^{page 614 note †} Writing to Smith with reference to this appointment, Ferguson alludes to Beattie's celebrated Essay on Truth, and the corpulence of Hume, in the following letter. Beattie's “Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth in opposition to Sophistry and Scepticism,” was so popular a work, that in four years five large editions of it were sold off. It was first published in 1771; and the letter of Ferguson refers to the 3d edition, which appeared in 1773:—

“Edin. Sept. 2d, 1773.

“My Dear Sir,—I am told that Dr Beaty, or his party, give out that he has not only refuted but killed D. Hume. I should he very glad of the first, but sorry for the other; and I have the pleasure to inform, you that he is in perfect goodhealth; if he had been otherwise I should have certainly mentioned it in some of myletters. He had a cough, and lost flesh, soon after you went from home, which we did not know what to think of, but it turned out a mere cold, and it went off without leaving any ill effects; he has still some less flesh than usual, which nobody regrets, but in point of health and spirits I never saw him better. You seemed to doubt whether I should not write to Lord Stanhope. I had inclination enough, but was not so decided as to send my letter to himself without putting it in your power to withhold it if proper, and therefore I stayed for a frank; what is disagreeable is, laying him under the obligation to make a ceremonious answer, and, if he be gone, subjecting him to Continental postage, so you will judge. I have not seen J. Ferguson, but he must acquiesce.—I am, dear Sir, most affectionately yours, Adam Ferguson.”

^{page 615 note *} MSS. University of Edinburgh.

^{page 616 note *} On the death of his relation Mr Russell, Ferguson had undertaken the additional duty of teaching the Natural Philosophy class during sessions 1773, and 1774.

^{page 616 note †} Dalzel's, Hist, of the University of Edin., vol. ii. p. 445.Google Scholar

^{page 618 note *} MSS. University, Edinburgh.

^{page 618 note †} Ably drawn up by Ilay Campbell, afterwards Lord President.

^{page 618 note ‡} Ibid.

^{page 619 note *} Ferguson's ‘Institutes of Moral Philosophy’ having been translated into Russian, was used as a Text-Book in the Russian universities.

^{page 620 note *} James M'Pherson (Ossian).

^{page 620 note †} MSS. University, Edinburgh.

^{page 621 note *} See ‘Wealth of Nations,’ book v. chap. i. part 3, art. 2.

^{page 621 note *} The original letter is in the possession of the Rev. Mr Cunningham, Prestonpans.

^{page 622 note *} Gibbon's Miscellaneous Works, By Lord Sheffield, vol. ii. p. 499.

^{page 623 note *} Dalzel's, Hist, of the University of Edinburgh, vol. i. p. 22.Google Scholar

^{page 623 note †} It was principally at the desire of Ferguson that David Hume, a few days after the date of this letter, was induced to undertake a journey to London, to try the effect of change of air in mitigating the severity of his disease. Ferguson had also written to their mutual friend Adam Smith, giving him an account of Hume's critical state at this time; and thus describes his condition —“David, I am afraid, loses ground. He is cheerful, and in good spirits as usual; but I confess that my hopes from the effects of the turn of the season towards spring have very much abated.” In consequence of this letter, Smith and John Home set out from London to visit Hume at Edinburgh, and accidentally met him at Morpeth on his way south. Home returned to London with Hume, and preserved a diary of the journey, which has been printed in his life, by Mackenzie. In this diary is the following interesting entry:—

“Newcastle, Wednesday, 24th April.

“Mr Hume not quite so well in the morning,—says that he had set out merely to please his friends; that he would go on to please them; that Ferguson and Andrew Stuart (about whom we had been talking) were answerable for shortening his life one week a-piece: for, says he, you will allow Xenophon to be good authority; and he lays it down, that suppose a man is dying, nobody has a right to kill him. He set out in this vein, and continued all the stage in his cheerful and talking humour. It was a fine day, and we went on to Durham—from that to Darlington, where we passed the night.”

The illness of Hume, feelingly alluded to in the above letters of Gibbon and Ferguson, was the cause of his death on the 25th of August in the same year. The following interesting letter (belonging to Mr David Laing), dated at Edinburgh, on the 9th of July before his decease, is very characteristic of the cheerfulness which he displayed up to his last moments. It is addressed to “John Hume at Kilduff, near Haddington:”—

“My Dear John,—I offered to give you a letter along with you, informing you how I should be on Tuesday thereafter, viz., weaker and more infirm than when you saw me. This, indeed, would have sav'd postage; and I can do no more at present than confirm the same truth, only that the matter seems now to proceed with an accelerated motion. I had yesterday a grand jury of physicians who sat upon me, the Doctors Cullen, Black, and Home. They all declare the opinion of the English physicians absurd and erroneous. They own a small tumour in my liver; but so small and trivial, that it never could do me any material injury; and they say that I might have liv'd twenty years with it, and never have felt any inconvenience from it; each of them has had patients who have had tumours in that part ten times larger without almost complaining for years together. They have thoroughly persuaded me to be of their opinion; and, according to their united sentiments, my distemper is now a hæmorrhage as before, which is an illness that I had as lief dye of as any other. The first part of the text being now discuss'd, we proceed to the second, viz., the cure, which I leave to another opportunity. I send you a letter which my nephew opened by mistake; but finding, after he had read a few lines, that it was not meant for him, he proceeded no further. Yours sincerely, David Hume.”

In token of the long friendship which had existed between Hume and Ferguson, Hume bequeathed him a legacy of L.200.

^{page 624 note *} Dr Adam Smith.

^{page 624 note †} Gibbon's, Misc. Works. By LordSheffield, , vol. ii. p. 501.Google Scholar

^{page 624 note ‡} Ferguson was in the habit of discussing from time to time in his correspondence with General Clerk, Mr Johnstone (afterwards Sir William Pulteney), and other friends, the various political changes which were taking place at this period. The following extract from a letter addressed by General Clerk to him when he was at Geneva, in 1776, with Lord Chesterfield, is interesting in connection with recent events in America. The General says: “When I saw you at Paris, you said that the American Colonies would end in military governments. You astonished me, and though I contradicted you, I had not patience to discuss it at that time, as it required the clearing up of so many points of which you and I had different opinions. However, I never doubted of its being a very disagreeable affair for us, and I think now that it has the appearance of being as bad as ever I imagined it.‘'—MSS. University of Edinburgh.

^{page 625 note *} 4th ed. p. 98.

^{page 626 note *} MSS. University of Edinburgh.

^{page 629 note *} MSS. University, Edinburgh.

^{page 630 note *} The resemblance between this case and the attack which ultimately proved fatal to M. De Saussure in 1799 rendered that eminent French philosopher anxious to learn the mode of treatment employed by Dr Black, under which Ferguson had recovered. De Saussure's physician, Dr Odier, accordingly requested Dr Marcet, then a student at the University of Edinburgh, to obtain from Dr Black the desired information. Dr Marcet, accompanied by Professor Dugald Stewart, waited on Dr Black, who, after a long and interesting conversation, delivered to him, in writing, for transmission to De Saussure, an account of the case and its treatment, which has been printed in the ‘Medico-Chirurgical Transactions’ (vol. vii. p. 230), and is the more interesting, as it is, perhaps, the only existing memorial of the medical practice of that distinguished chemist.

^{page 631 note *} MSS. University of Edinburgh.

^{page 632 note *} “Reliques,” 2d ed.; vol. i, p. 45.

^{page 633 note *} Gallic Antiquities, p. 96.

^{page 633 note †} Shaw's Inquiry, p. 25

^{page 635 note *} See Johnson's Life by Boswell, , vol. ii. page 303.Google Scholar

^{page 636 note *} MSS. University of Edinburgh.

^{page 637 note *} MSS., University of Edinburgh.

^{page 640 note *} MSS. University of Edinburgh.

^{page 640 note †} See Shaw's ‘Inquiry’ for Ferguson's vindication, Appendix, p. 82.

^{page 640 note ‡} See his letter to Mr M'Kenzie, Secretary Of The Highland Society, In That Society's Report on the Poems of Ossian, Appendix, p. 62.

^{page 640 note §} Smellie's Account of the Antiquarian Society of Edinburgh, p. 12.

^{page 640 note ∥} It was due to the persevering efforts of Principal Robertson that the Royal Society was instituted. After memorialising Government, about the end of the year 1782, to the effect above stated, the Records of the University bear that the Principal, on the 10th of February 1783, informed the Senatus Academicus, “that the Lord Advocate and Mr Hunter Blair had desired him to acquaint them, that as they had the prospect of being in Edinburgh during the recess of Parliament, they had not returned any answer to the letters which the Principal had written to them, in obedience to the appointment of the meeting held on the second day of December last, but that they had laid the Memorial transmitted to them before His Majesty's ministers, and had good reason to think that what was requested in the aforesaid Memorial would be granted. That in order to obtain this, it would be necessary that a petition from the Principal and Professors of the University, in respectful and general terms, should be addressed to His Majesty, which the Lord Advocate undertook to present.”

“The Principal produced a scroll of such a petition, the tenor whereof follows:—‘Unto the King's most excellent Majesty, the Petition of the Principal and Professors of the University of Edinburgh, humbly sheweth—That literary societies having been found by experience to contribute greatly towards promoting useful science and good taste in everycountry where they have been established, many persons eminent in rank, or in learning, have long expressed an earnest desire that a literary society, formed on the plan suited to the state of this part of the United Kingdom, might be instituted in Edinburgh, being fully persuaded that its labours and researches will be of considerable advantage to the nation.

“‘We, therefore, deeply sensible of your Majesty's paternal attention to the welfare of your people in every instance, and confiding in the gracious disposition of a Sovereign who has distinguished his reign by the splendour of his efforts to extend the knowledge of nature, and the liberality of his institutions for encouraging the arts of elegance, are humble suitors to your Majesty, that you may be graciously pleased to establish, by Charter, a literary society, to be denominated, The Royal Society of Edinburgh, for the advancement of learning and useful knowledge, empowering the Members of it to have, as the objects of their investigation and discussion, not only the Sciences of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Medicine, and Natural History, but those relating to Antiquities, Philology, and Literature.

“‘We humbly request that your Majesty will take our petition into your gracious consideration, and be pleased, as Founder and Patron, to give a beginning and form to this Royal Society, in that mode, and under those Regulations, which to your Royal wisdom shall seem most proper.’

“Which being maturely considered by theSenatus Academicus, was approved of, and the Principal empowered to sign it in their name, and to transmit it to the Lord Advocate and Mr Hunter Blair, with thanks for their obliging attention to the former application of the Senatus Academicus, and to request that they will still continue to attend to this business, until it be brought to the desired issue.”

^{page 643 note *} It was translated into French by De Meunier and Gibelin in 1784, also into German and Italian.

^{page 644 note *} Lord North.

^{page 646 note *} Ferguson, for several years after his marriage, had cultivated the farm of Bankhead, near Currie, at a considerable sacrifice of his private means.

^{page 648 note *} Life of Scott, vol. i. p. 136.

Some interesting reminiscences of Ferguson's son, Sir Adam, who was the life-long friend of Scott, printed in Chambers's Journal, No. 60, 1855, supply one or two particulars which Scott's modesty suppressed. “The large black eyes of Burns, which literally glowed when he spoke with feeling or interest, overflowed as he read the above lines, and he turned with an agitated voice to the company, asking if any one knew who wrote them. The philosophers sat mute; and after an interval, young Walter said half aloud and very carelessly, ‘The're written by one Langhorne.’ Burns caught the response, and seeming, both surprised and amused that a boy should know what all those eminent men were ignorant of, he said to Scott, ‘You'll be a man yet, sir.’ Rather oddly, we have found on an inspection of the print, that the name ‘Langhorne’ is inscribed below the lines, though in so small a character, that where the picture hung on a wall, it might well have escaped the notice both of Burns and Scott.”

In the same interesting article, an amusing anecdote is recorded of Principal Robertson, when dining one day at Ferguson's house:—

“Ferguson, while devotedly attached to Dr Robertson, and a great admirer of his works, found reason to complain of the manner in which he conducted himself in private society, particularly at dinner parties. It was the worthy Principal's custom, as soon as the cloth had been removed, to settle himself in his chair, and throwing out a subject, commence lecturing upon it to the destruction of conversation, and the no small weariness of the company. By way of giving him a check, Dr Ferguson took his friend Dr Carlyle of Inveresk into counsel; and it was speedily arranged between them that, immediately after dinner, Dr Carlyle should anticipate the ordinary lecture of Dr Robertson, by commencing a long tirade, in an enthusiastic manner, on the virtues of an article then in the course of being puffed in the newspaper advertisements, namely, patent mustard! Ferguson, in the meantime, had a private conversation with the Principal, in which he took occasion to remark, that he had lately begun to fear there was something wrong with Carlyle's mind; he was getting so addicted to speak loudly in praise of trivial things,—for example, he was unable for the present to converse about anything but patent mustard! Robertson expressed his concern for the case, but hoped it was only a passing whim. The dinner party accordingly assembled at Dr Ferguson's, and Robertson was about to commence as usual with one of his long-winded formal palavers, when all at once Dr Carlyle broke in,—‘This was,’ he said, 'an age most notable for its inventions and discoveries. Human ingenuity was exerted on the noblest and the meanest things, and often with the most admirable effects on the meanest. There was, for instance, an article of ahumble kind which had lately been wonderfully improved by a particular mode of preparation, and he for his part was inclined to say, that patent mustard was the thing above all others which gave a distinguishing glory to this age. In the first place,' —it is needless, however, to pursue his discourse further; suffice it, that Dr Robertson sat paralysed, and could not afterwards, during the whole night, muster power or spirits to utter more than an occasional sentence.”

^{page 650 note *} Philosophie Écossaise, 3d ed., p. 512.Google Scholar

^{page 651 note *} Institutes, 2d ed., page 293.Google Scholar The Lectures on Moral Philosophy were translated into French, and attracted much attention abroad.

^{page 653 note *} MSS. University of Edinburgh.

^{page 654 note *} This letter has been kindly furnished by Sir David Brewster.

^{page 655 note *} MSS. University, Edinburgh.

^{page 656 note *} MSS. University, Edinburgh.

^{page 657 note *} MSS. University, Edinburgh.

^{page 658 note *} Memorials of his Time, p. 48.

^{page 659 note *} MSS. University of Edinburgh.

^{page 660 note *} Chambers's, Hist, of Peeblesshire, p. 402.Google Scholar

^{page 661 note *} MSS. University of Edinburgh.

^{page 662 note *} MSS. University of Edinburgh.

^{page 663 note *} The mother of Ferguson was aunt of the mothers of Joseph Black and James Russell Professor of Natural Philosophy. Ferguson was also married to Dr Black's niece.

^{page 664 note *} In 1812 Ferguson was requested by Mr Henry Mackenzie—‘The Man of Feeling’—to furnish him with some memoranda relative to his early acquaintance with John Home, author of ‘Douglas.’ Mackenzie's last literary effort was a Memoir of Home, which he read before the Royal Society in 1822, and which was afterwards published in a separate form. To that volume an Appendix is added, containing a remarkable letter, written when Ferguson was in his ninetieth year. Besides referring to his early connection with John Home, it contains further information as to his views with reference to the Ossian controversy.

There was also published, after his death, a short biographical sketch or memoir ofhis friend, Lieut.-Col. Patrick Ferguson (second son of James Ferguson, of Pitfour, one of the Lords of Justiciary in Scotland), which he had written some short time previously. It was intended as an article for the Encyclopædia Britannica, but it was considered by the editor too long for that work; and as Ferguson declined to abridge it, it was not inserted. A few copies were printed in 1817 from the original sketch, for private distribution.