of
_Waller's Poems_ (1729).
FERGUSON, ADAM (1723-1816).--Philosopher and historian, _s._ of the
parish minister of Logierait, Perthshire, studied at St. Andrews and
Edin. Univ., in the latter of which he was successively Professor of
Mathematics, and Moral Philosophy (1764-1785). As a young man he was
chaplain to the 42nd Regiment, and was present at the Battle of Fontenoy.
In 1757 he was made Keeper of the Advocates' Library. As a Prof. of
Philosophy he was highly successful, his class being attended by many
distinguished men no longer students at the Univ. In 1778-9 he acted as
sec. to a commission sent out by Lord North to endeavour to reach an
accommodation with the American colonists. F.'s principal works are
_Essay on the History of Civil Society_ (1765), _Institutes of Moral
Philosophy_ (1769), _History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman
Republic_ (1782), and _Principles of Moral and Political Science_ (1792),
all of which have been translated into French and German. F. spent his
later years at St. Andrews, where he _d._ in 1816 at the age of 92. He
was an intimate friend of Sir Walter Scott.
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