MR SMALL S BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PROF. ADAM FERGUSON. 603 



respects qualified for discharging the duties of a Scottish clergyman. Although, 

 by his polished manners and his great abilities, he took a prominent part in pri- 

 vate society, he was deficient in the gifts necessary for the popular preacher. His 

 sermons were elaborate disquisitions, showing more acquaintance with systems 

 of philosophy than with the wants of common hearers.* He was unsuccessful 

 in his application for this living ; and when the death of his father (whom he 

 had hoped to succeed) took place shortly after this disappointment, he abandoned 

 all intention of undertaking the duties of a parochial charge. He continued to 

 remain attached to his regiment, during its service in Ireland, till about the year 

 1754, when he resigned his commission. 



The knowledge of military affairs thus acquired by his service in the army 

 enabled him to give so much distinctness and liveliness to his descriptions of war 

 in his ' History of the Roman Republic,' that it is remarked by Carlyle, that 

 he was excelled, in this respect, by no historian but Polybius, who was an eye- 

 witness of so many battles. His military service also proved beneficial to him 

 by opening up a wide field for the observation of human character, and gave him 

 enlarged opportunities of studying the political phenomena of the period. 



After resigning the chaplaincy of the 42d Regiment, Ferguson spent some 

 time in Holland with his friend Mr Gordon, and resolved to give up all thoughts 

 of further exercising the clerical profession. Writing to Adam Smith from Gron- 

 ingen, in October 1754, he concludes by requesting a reply to be addressed to him 

 at Rotterdam, " without any clerical titles, for I am a downright layman."f 



Shortly after this, Ferguson returned to Edinburgh, where he renewed his 

 acquaintance with the friends of his youth. As David Hume had at this time 

 given up his appointment of Keeper of the Advocates' Library, he became a 

 candidate for the ofl&ce, and was appointed Hume's successor as Librarian and 

 Clerk to the Faculty on the 8th of January 1757. 



While he was connected with that Library, Ferguson became a member of 

 the Select Society, which had been instituted in 1754 by Mr Allan Ramsay, 

 the eminent artist. The meetings of the Society were held weekly in one of the 

 inner apartments of the Library, and were for the purpose of literary discussion, 



* 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 per- 

 sonal qualities to external circumstances, that showed a very thorough acquaintance with the doc- 

 trines of Plato and Aristotle. Mr Bisset (his father's successoi-), 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 he 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 enter- 

 , tained 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 Adam Ferguson." — 

 Histor. Mag. (1799) vol. i. p. 44. 



f This interesting letter is in the possession of the Rev. Mr Cunningham, Prestonpans. 



VOL. XXIII. PART III. 8 A 



