The Scottish Philosophy [153]
of his friends he was made professor of natural philosophy in the University of Edinburgh in 1759, and David Hume remarked: "Ferguson had more genius than any of them, as he had made himself so much master of a difficult science, viz., natural philosophy, which he had never studied but when at college, in three months, so as to be able to teach it." In 1760, he was elected to an office more congenial to him, that of professor of pneumatics and moral philosophy, as successor to Mr. Balfour, who took the chair of the law of nature and nations. In less than two years he published his " Essay on the History of Civil Society," a work on which he had been engaged for a considerable time. It was conceived in the manner of Montesquieu, but dwelt on elements at work in the formation of civil society which the French author had overlooked. Part I. treats of the " General Characteristics of Human Nature." Works on social economy proceed very much on the principle that man is mainly swayed by a desire to promote his own interests, and they furnish no analysis of the other interests which men look to. They do not consider that man has social and conscientious feelings, by which many are influenced quite as much as by self-love; and that he is as often swayed by caprice, vanity, and passion, as by a cold-hearted selfishness. Ferguson perceived this. Mankind, we are told, are devoted to interest, and this in all commercial nations is undoubtedly true. But it does not follow that they are by their natural dispositions averse to society and mutual affection. {257} Speaking of those who deny moral sentiment, he says that they are fond of detecting the fraud by which moral restraints have been imposed; "as if to censure a fraud were not already to take a part on the side of morality." "The foreigner who believed that Othello on the stage was enraged for the loss of his handkerchief was not more mistaken than the reasoner who imputes any of the more vehement passions of men to the impressions of mere profit or loss." So, after discussing the question of the state of nature, he treats of the principles of self-preservation, of union among mankind, of war and dissension, of intellectual powers, of moral sentiment, of happiness, of national felicity. In unfolding these, be insists that mankind should be studied in groups or in society. He then traces these principles in the history of rude nations, of policy and arts, the advancement of civil and commercial arts, the decline of nations, corruption of political slavery. The tone of the work is healthy and liberal, but is filled with common-place thought and observation. I find a sixth edition published in 1793. After this it was not much heard of The French Revolution gave men more earnest questions to think of. But these disquisitions, and still more effectively the publication of the " Wealth of Nations," in 1776, kindled a taste for social inquiries in the University of Edinburgh and in the capital of Scotland.
The smallness of his salary, only L100 a year, tempted him to undertake the charge of the education of Charles, Earl of Chesterfield, nephew to the earl who wrote on manners, and he had the benefit of a continental tour with his pupil. He waited upon Voltaire at Ferney, where, he tells us, " I encouraged every attempt at conversation, even jokes against Moses, Adam, and Eve, and the rest of the prophets, till I began to be considered as a person who, though true to my own faith, had no ill-humor to the freedom of fancy in others." His description is graphic: " I found the old man in a state of perfect indifference to all authors except two sorts, -- one, those who wrote panegyrics, and those who wrote invectives on himself. There is a third kind, whose names he has been used to repeat fifty or sixty years without knowing any thing of them, -- such as Locke, Boyle, Newton, &c. I forget his competitors for fame, of whom he is always either silent or speaks {258} slightingly. The fact is, that he reads little or none; his mind exists by reminiscence, and by doing over and over what
The smallness of his salary, only L100 a year, tempted him to undertake the charge of the education of Charles, Earl of Chesterfield, nephew to the earl who wrote on manners, and he had the benefit of a continental tour with his pupil. He waited upon Voltaire at Ferney, where, he tells us, " I encouraged every attempt at conversation, even jokes against Moses, Adam, and Eve, and the rest of the prophets, till I began to be considered as a person who, though true to my own faith, had no ill-humor to the freedom of fancy in others." His description is graphic: " I found the old man in a state of perfect indifference to all authors except two sorts, -- one, those who wrote panegyrics, and those who wrote invectives on himself. There is a third kind, whose names he has been used to repeat fifty or sixty years without knowing any thing of them, -- such as Locke, Boyle, Newton, &c. I forget his competitors for fame, of whom he is always either silent or speaks {258} slightingly. The fact is, that he reads little or none; his mind exists by reminiscence, and by doing over and over what