610 MR small's biographical SKETCH OF PROF. ADAM FERGUSON. 



Writing to the author, in February 1767, he says :— " Dear Ferguson, — I hap- 

 pen'd yesterday to visit a person three hours after a copy of your Performance was 

 open'd for the first time in London. It was by Lord Mansfield. I accept the 

 omen of its future success. He was extremely pleas'd with it ; said it was per- 

 fectly well wrote; assured me that he would not stop a moment till he had 

 finished it, and recommended it strongly to the Perusal of the Archbishop of 

 York who was present. Tho' I set out with reluctance, I do not repent my 

 journey. Direct to me at Miss Elliot's, in Brewer's Street. I have not seen 

 Smith ; Judge of my hurry."* 



In another letter to Ferguson he says, 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 ex- 

 press the same sentiment ; and what is above all, Caddell, I am told, is already 

 projecting a second edition of the same quarto size." f 



Writing to Dr Blair, Huisie further remarks, — " I hear good things said of 

 Ferguson's book every day. Lord Holderness showed me a letter from the 

 Archbishop of York, where his Grace says, that in many things it surpasses 

 Montesquieu. My friend, Mr Dodwell, says, that it is an admirable book, 

 elegantly wrote, and with great purity of language. Pray tell to Ferguson and 

 to others all these things." X 



Writing to Principal Robertson from London, on the 19th March, Hume makes 

 the following interesting statement : — " Ferguson's book goes on here with great 

 success. A few days ago I saw Mrs Montague § who has just finished it with 

 great pleasure. I asked her, Whether she was satisfied with the style ? Whether 

 it did not savom* somewhat of the country? 'Oyes,' she said, 'a good deal; 

 it seems almost impossible that any one could write such a style except a 

 Scotchman.' " i| 



Dr Beattie of Aberdeen, writing to the Poet Gray, on 30th March, states, — 

 " A Professor at Edinburgh has published an Essay on the History of Civil Society, 

 but I have not seen it. It is a fault common to almost all our Scottish authors 

 that they are too metaphysical. I wish they would learn to speak more to the 

 heart and less to the understanding ; but alas, this is a talent which heaven only 

 can bestow ; whereas the philosophical spirit (as we call it) is merely artificial, 

 and level to the capacity of every man who has much patience, a little learning, 

 and no taste."^ 



* His hurry was so great that he apparently had not time to sign the letter. It is in the pos- 

 session of D. Laing, Esq. 



•j" Encyc. Brit. Suppl. vol. iv. art. Ferguson. 



I Life of Hume, by Burton, vol. ii. p. 386. 



§ The elegant author of an Essay on the genius of Shakespeare, 



II Stewart's Works, vol. x. p. 223. 

 % Gray's Works, vol. ii. p. 295. 



