MR SMALL S BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PROF. ADAM FERGUSON. 635 



never mentioned, or alluded to in these volumes. But this was not my own 

 observation, it had before occurred to others ;* only that I have occasionally in 

 ray researches found abundant proof that the wolf existed in England long after 

 the Norman Conquest, and much later in Scotland ; and in Anglo-Saxon poetry, 

 I find such reference to the wolf, as would naturally happen in a country where 

 it abounded, and was the only animal of terror. 



" Little did I imagine that this writer would quote my name at length, and 

 assign whole sentences to me, without ever asking my consent, or allowing me to 

 revise what I might have inaccurately let fall in conversation. Yet this he has 

 done, and till I saw his pamphlet in print, I never knew or suspected that I was 

 to make such a figure in it. 



" Thus the matter stands : I never in my life had the most distant suspicion 

 that you were privy to the imposition, if it was one ; and as for Mr Ferguson, he 

 may also have been free from any share of the deception, which may have origi- 

 nated only from the reciter himself; but the lines were certainly recited in his 

 presence, as I perfectly well remember, although he may have entirely forgot the 

 occurrence. 



" Thus far I had written, before I saw the advertisement published by Mr 

 Ferguson. As he hath committed himself to me, I am now compelled to give my 

 testimony to the public. I perfectly well remember the transaction, though Mr 

 Ferguson may have forgot it ; we may both be sincere, though my recollection 

 may, in this case, have been better than his. 



" As I have been unwillingly forced into this controversy, I shall desire to get 

 out of it as soon as I can ; and if not again attacked, it is not my intention to 

 push the matter any farther. Upon the whole, I hope you will think the adver- 

 tisement which follows is written with temper and decency, and such as may 

 have a tendency to compose the dispute, so far as I am engaged in it. 



" As for yourself, my good friend, I hope it will make no breach in our friend- 

 ship. I know your generous and enlarged heart can extend its regard to persons 

 who may differ from you in points of the most sacred importance ; even (as our 

 Liturgy expresses it) to all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics. And though, on 

 this question, I may have the misfortune to be one of the latter, yet I hope you 

 will still allow me to subscribe myself, your ever affectionate friend, 



" Thomas Percy." 



" P.S. — Pray write to me without delay, under cover, to his Grace the Duke 

 of Northumberland, at Alnwick Castle, in Northumberland. Mrs Percy joins 

 with me in respects to you and Mrs Blair. 



" P.S. — I have some notion that the student who was produced to me by Mr 

 ' Ferguson was (the Indian) Mr Macpherson, then (I believe) his pupil. Perhaps 



* See Johnson's Life by Boswell, vol. ii. page 303. 

 VOL. XXIII. PART III. 8 I 



