MR small's biographical SKETCH OF PROF. ADAM FERGUSON. 643 



was of material service to him in writing his vivid account of the wars in which 

 the Roman people were so constantly engaged ; and his knowledge of human 

 nature enabled him faithfully to portray the characters of the principal Roman 

 leaders, and to test them by the laws of a high morality. 



The many editions of this work which have been published show the estima- 

 tion in which it has been regarded by the literary world.* The errors and 

 omissions of the first edition were subsequently carefully corrected ; and Fer- 

 guson himself, ten years after it first appeared, visited Italy to inspect the scenes 

 of the more important events which his work describes. 



In 1785, Ferguson, now in his sixty-second year, finding the anxiety at- 

 tendant upon his professorial labours pressing upon his health and spirits, 

 resigned the Professorship of Moral Philosophy. That he might retain his salary, 

 he was, according to the custom of the Town Council, appointed to the Chair of 

 Mathematics in conjunction with a junior professor, Mr Playfair, while Pro- 

 fessor DuGALD Stewart was transferred from the Chair of Mathematics to that 

 of Moral Philosophy. 



Stewart had been the pupil of Ferguson, and owed to his instructions the 

 development of that taste for metaphysical speculation, by which in his lectures 

 and writings he shed so much lustre on the University. 



As Professor of Moral Philosophy, Ferguson amply sustained the reputation 

 of the institution with which he was so long connected. He was manly and 

 impressive as a lecturer, but at the same time persuasive and elegant. In one 

 particular his mode of teaching was peculiar, and not easily imitated. As he 

 had delineated the general plan of his course in his ' Institutes of Moral Philo- 

 sophy,' he had for many years no written lectures, but trusted to his mastery 

 of the subject for the expression of his ideas on the spur of the moment. When 

 his health gave way in 1781, however, he found it necessary to write out his 

 course, which, during the leisure of his retirement, he corrected for the press 

 and published in 1792, 



Amongst the many proofs he received of the value of his professorial instruc- 

 tions, none were more agreeable to him than the attentions shown by Sir John 

 M'Pherson, who had now attained the high position of Governor-General of 

 India. The following letter, which enclosed a munificent gift, is no less creditable 

 to his kindness of heart than to the merits of the veteran Professor: — 



" 12th January 1786. 



" My dear Friend, — When I was but a Company's writer in the Carnatic, I 

 remember I sent you a small bill, which you told me you accepted with pleasure, 

 as it came from me, and you bought French cloth with it, being then on a visit 



* It was translated into French by De Meunier and Gibelin in 1784, also into German and 

 Italian. 



VOL. XXIII. PART III. 8 L 



