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



exercises, and which gladden every village and place, from the cottages of the 

 Isle of Skye to the palaces of London, 



" I think a still greater scene opens by this commercial intercourse, if our 

 rivals in Europe wished but for a proper share in it. It would embrace much of 

 the repose of the universe, the happy communications of all the inhabitants of 

 the globe from the sources of the Mississippi to those of the Ganges, and from 

 west to east, till the east and the west are united. 



" I have at this moment at Calcutta ambassadors from Tidore, in the eastern 

 seas, from Thibet, from all the states of India, and from Timur Shaw, who is 

 crossing the Attock ; and as Manilla is opening her trade, I hope to hear direct 

 from Lima before I leave India, and to make the Incas of Peru acquainted with 

 the Brahmin Rajahs on the banks of the Ganges. 



" Curious are, besides, the treasures in literature and the oblivious history of 

 nations that are dawning upon us from the researches of Sir William Jones and 

 others, in Shanscrit, Arabic, and Persian. Even Anacreon and Euclid's best and 

 happiest labours may have been long asleep in the translations of this country. 

 And what seems to complete our prospect of elegant and useful information, is 

 that the present Governor of Chinsura, who was for seven years in Japan, has 

 brought in the wonders of that country. Their Encyclopaedia is in his hands, 

 and in some of the arts of life and of government, those islanders of Asia, those 

 Ano;lo-Asiaticks, have left all other nations far behind. 



" While devoting all my moments that are my own to such general consider- 

 ations, I have perused, and am perusing again, your story of the Roman State and 

 their rule of India — I'hanks ! thanks ! my dear friend, but one ambition remains 

 — it is to converse with you at your town over these affairs. Has life in reserve 

 for us this happiness ? or is our expectation of it enough ? May I be able to 

 meet you there worthy in every respect of your esteem as of your affection, — and 

 is it possible to go through the remaining acts of my service here with progressive 

 dignity and success. Hitherto all is as you could wish. But all may not be at 

 the farm as you wish.* I know the feu-duty embarrasses you, and the dignitas 

 without the otium may be there. Receive, then, the inclosed bill upon my 

 masters, the India Company. Let the amount of it be sunk to discharge the 

 annual feu-duty of the farm during your life, Mrs Ferguson's, and the lives of all 

 your children and their descendants. It will be a future business to buy off the 

 feu-dut}' altogether ; at present I can send you no more. And should fate have de- 

 prived me of the future happiness of knowing that you can be conscious of this 

 little attention, those nearest and dearest to you I must consider as what remains 

 to me of you. To them I address this letter ; also, in such event, John Fletcher, 

 Home, M'Pherson. Ferguson will keep a room for me, or any remembrance of 



* Ferguson, for several years after his marriage, had cultivated the farm of Bankhead, near 

 Currie, at a considerable sacrifice of his private means. 



