TO CORRESPONDENTS.

WE have been favoured with a variety of Poetical and other articles, which we have not had yet leisure to peruse. In our next we shall attend to each.

By the excellence of some of the Poetical Productions at which we have glanced, we have no doubt of greatly increasing the value of this department of our Miscellany.

BIOGRAPHY.

THE LIFE

OF

DR. ADAM FERGUSSON.

THIS HIS eminent historian and philosopher was, as well as his friend, Dr. Robertson, the son of a Scotch clergyman. His father, Mr. Adam Ferguson, after having been Minister for several years at Braemar, in the Highlands of Aberdeenshire, was translated to the living of Logierait, in the Highlands of Perthshire. Mr. Fergusson having married Mary Gordon, daughter of a respectable gentleman in the North, had a numerous family of children, of whom Adam, the youngest, was born in 1724, at Logierait Manse. *

Adam having received the rudiments of his education at the grammar school of the village, was removed to Perth, and placed under the care of Mr. Martin, no less celebrated in Scotland than Busby was formerly in England.+ Mr. Martin soon conceived a very high opinion of young Fergusson; and though he had formed many excellent scholars, declared that none surpassed this youth; but that though Adam excelled in knowledge of the Latin language, his ability chiefly appeared in writing on given themes, exercises that called forward genius and reasoning. Mr. Stewart of Ballechin, a gentleman of great respectability in that country, and who went to Perth school a little before Mr. Fergusson left it, informed the writer of this article that the abilities and exertions of Adam Fergusson were the theme of conversation and praise in the school many years after he was gone.

In October, 1739, he was sent to St. Andrew's College, and was particularly recommended by Mr. Fergusson of Moulin to Mr. Thomas Tulideph, just become Principal of that University. The plan of school education in Scotland includes only the rudiments of Greek. Fergusson having at the commencement of the session, at a com

'Parsonage-bouse.

†The illustrious Mansfield was for some time under Mr. Martin.

This fact was communicated by a very able and worthy friend, both of young Fergusson and his father, the namesake of both, Mr. Adam Fergusson, Minister of Moulin, an adjoining parish.

parative trial, by his ability in writing and translating Latin, procured a bursary (an exhibition), devoted his principal attention, during the first winter, to the study of the Greek language; and with such success, that at the expiration of six months he read Homer with considerable ease. During the Summer recess he tasked himself to prepare an hundred lines of the Iliad every day. The ensuing session, to classical pursuits he added mathematics, and soon distinguished himself by his proficiency in that science. Logic and metaphysics he also studied with great industry, and consequently success. We have known several gentlemen, who were at St. Andrew's College with him, who all admit that he was the best classical scholar, the ablest mathematician and metaphysician of his age and standing.

From St. Andrew's he proceeded to Edinburgh, to study divinity. There he became acquainted with Mr. Robertson, Mr. Blair, Mr. Wedderburne, and other gentlemen, who afterwards attained great eminence in their respective departments.

At Edinburgh Mr. Fergusson devoted his chief attention to natural and moral philosophy; applying as much to divinity as was necessary to prepare him for his intended profession, without wasting his time in controversial theology. He was extremely studious during the vacations as well as the sessions. There is near Logierait a beau. tiful green in the brow of a high hill, sheltered by rocks from the north and east, commanding a most delightful and romantic prospect to the west and south-east, and in some points defended from the sun as well as the winds, called the Green-Gate, or Walk. There Mr. Fergusson, during the summer season, spent the greater part of the day in acquiring some of that learning which has made him since so eminent. In 1745 Mr. Murray, brother to Lord Elibank, applied to Mr. Fergusson to be his deputy as chaplain to the 42d regiment, then recently raised. Mr. Fergusson gladly embraced the offer; but from his age and standing, especially the latter, there was an obstacle to his immediate ordination. By the rules of the church of Scotland, a candidate for orders must have studied divinity six years before he is proposed for trials as a probationer. An exception is made in the case of gentlemen who understand the Galic language. The number of these being comparatively few, they are permitted to be proposed after having studied four years: Mr. Fergusson had only studied two. A presbytery would have incurred a censure by ordaining a gentleman of his standing; an act of the General Assembly was therefore necessary, and this was procured, speciali gratia, on the testimony of the Professors under whom Mr. Fergusson studied, who concurred

in giving such a character of the young gentleman, that the Assembly admitted him to be an exception to the general rule, and ordered him to be taken on trials. After undergoing a strict examination, he passed with great applause, was ordained, and joined the regiment. He continued with the corps during all the remainder of the war; and was very highly esteemed and respected by the officers and soldiers. His residence with the army enabled Mr. Fergusson to contemplate man in a different situation from any of those which generally fall under the view of scholars. He also was enabled to acquire an accurate knowledge of tactics and military affairs. To this cause may be attributed the very able exhibitions of military proceedings that we meet in his History, and of the principles of war and dissention that we find in his Essay on Civil Society, his Moral and Political Science.

Mr. Murray having retired from his office, Mr. Fergusson was appointed principal chaplain. Returning, after the peace of Aixla-Chapelle, to Scotland, he spent some years either at his father's, in Edinburgh, or the environs, enjoying the company of many of the friends of his early years, who were settled in or near that capital. He afterwards rejoined the regiment in Ireland, and was more than ever prized by his messmates, and the humbler members of the corps; all of whom were proud of having among them a Highlander of the genius and learning that, now matured, he possessed in so eminent a degree. About this time he applied for the living of Caputh, near Dunkeld; but fortunately for him, the Duke of Athol was pre-engaged. Thus he probably avoided burying in obscurity powers and attainments formed and fitted to make a most important addition to the literature and philosophy of the world.*

When his father found his end approaching, instead of proposing his son Adam to be his successor, as he naturally would have done in preference to any other, had he thought him still desirous of a church living, he strongly urged Mr. Bisset,† son of a deceased friend and brother clergyman, to make application, as a vacancy must

There lives at this time a gentleman in the same district, of the most acute, strong, and comprehensive intellect; the most brilliant genius, and most exte.. sive learning, with qualities of the heart equal to those of the head, who has, for near five and forty years, been confined to a living, for the greater part of his incumbency not exceeding eighty pounds a year. Having philosophy and wisdom equal to his powers, he is contented with a lot so little adequate to his intellectual and moral endowments.

+ The father of the writer of this article.

soon take place. This was accordingly done; a promise was obtained from the Duke of Athol for the gentleman in question, who holds the living to this day. Mr. Fergusson, we believe, never afterwards applied for a settlement in the church. The cast of his mind and his habits of composition fitted him, beyond most men, for instructing an enlightened and learned audience, but were not adapted to common hearers. Ilis sermons were rather philosophical discourses than popular harangues. Mr. Fergusson very early imbibed a great portion of the spirit of the Stoic philosophy. He could not altogether be said to be a Stoic, but was and has uniformly been a Peripatetic, with a strong bias to Stoicism. His sermons were profound moral essays, exhibiting a philosophy compounded of that of Aristotle and of Zeno. Always benevolent, he assisted his friends with his purse as far as it went; and with his genius, which was infinitely more extensive. Sometimes he lent or presented sermons to his friends. One of these one day preached a very profound discourse on the superiority of personal qualities to external circumstances, that shewed a very thorough acquaintance with the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle. Mr. Bisset, 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 really very much exceeded the highest expectations he had ever entertained from 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, Mr. Adam Fergusson.

Mr. Fergusson about this time left the 42d regiment; and his nephew, Mr. James Stewart, was appointed chaplain in his place. He then became private tutor in the family of Lord Bute, in which situation he continued till the year 1759, when the professorship of natural philosophy in the University of Edinburgh being offered to him, was accepted. Had he continued in the family of Lord Bute till the accession of his present Majesty, it is probable he might have attained some important office in the State. Instead of an eminent literary character, he might have become an eminent political character. He himself did not regret his different destination; and though the elegance of his address fitted him for a court, his penetrating sagacity, powerful understanding, and extensive knowledge, practical as well as speculative, qualified him for the cabinet; yet was he himself more disposed to the research and contemplation of the