Besides Pringle, the other masters in St Leonard's College were, John Craigie, admitted Professor of Philosophy in 1691, Ninian Young, Professor of Hu Inanity, and Henry Rymer, Professor of Philosophy, both admitted in 1709, and David Young, Professor of Philosophy, admitted in 1716. Before the end of the Session 1739, Charles Gregory, Professor of Ma thematics, resigned in favour of his son, David, who, though a very ordinary man, was the most popular teacher of geometry ever known in that University, which had many years before numbered among its Professors the inventor of the reflecting telescope.
The method of teaching in St Leonard's College at this period did not materially differ from that which had been pursued in the former century. The Pro fessors, in general, followed the beaten track in which they had been guided by their predecessors; and the tasks which they exacted from the students were little more than exercises of memory. A young man of slender abilities might easily distinguish himself as much as his most ingenious associates, who might be apt to underrate acquifements which were more ac cessible to plodding industry than to original talents. We have good reason to believe that Ferguson acquired little more at this seminary than a high admiration of the Grecian and Roman literature, to the beauties of which he was more nearly introduced than he had hi therto been ; and that his advances in the knowledge of philosophy were all made at a subsequent period. Even under the vigilant and severe inspection of Prin cipal Tullideph, the discipline of the College was by no means good ; and, in Mr Pringle's class particularly, some of the young gentlemen conducted themselves so improperly as to have narrowly escaped the disgrace of being refused their degrees, after they had under gone the usual trials. Mr Ferguson obtained the de gree of Master of Arts on the 4th of May 1742, when he had nearly completed his nineteenth year. The Regent under whom he finished his course of 'physi cal study was Mr David Young, whose text-book was Keill's hdroduciio ad veram Phu:learn.
The minister of Logierait had attempted to induce some of his other sons to follow his own profession ; but, as they had all testified a disinclination to this line of life, he determined to breed his youngest son to the church; and, accordingly, he was sent to the Divinity Hall at St Andrews, in November 1742, when the theological department of study was super intended by Principal Murison and Professors Shaw and Campbell; the last of whom, a man of talents and learning, was well known by his writings ; but, like several of his predecessors in the same chair, he scarcely ever lectured at all. Mr Ferguson studied also a year or pwo at . Edinburgh under Professors Gowdie and Curving; but his attention appears to have been given chiefly to pursuits not immediately connected with his clerical views.
In the year 1745, when he had attended Divinity only one-half of the usual period, an appointment was offered to him, which he could not hold with out ordination. It was represented to the General Assembly, that Lord John Murray, Colonel of the Highland Regiment (the 42d), was desirous of hav ing a chaplain of the communion of the Church of Scotland possessed of the Irish language; and that Mr Adam Ferguson, though he had not studied divi. nity the full period of six years, was pitched upon for that office, provided the Assembly would allow the Presbytery of Dunkeld to take him on trials. The Assembly, in respect of the young man's capa city and good character, authorised the Presbytery to ordain him on ,passing his first trials; and, according ly, he was ordained at Dunkeld, on the 2d of July 1745. A few days afterwards he joined the regiment, in which he continued to serve till 1757; about the beginning of which year he was elected keeper of the Advocates' Library, on the resignation of the ce lebrated David Hume. About a year after, Mr Fer guson was succeeded in this office by Mr William Wallace, junior, advocate.
In the course of the year 1767, Mr Ferguson ren dered himself conspicuous by the interest which he took in the success of the Tragedy of Douglas, writ ten by his friend Mr Home. He published a defence of the morality of stage plays, which, though its me rit is not of the highest order, was admitted by the opposite party to be " the only piece on that side that was written with any tolerable degree of discre tion." After Mr Home resigned his living in June 1757, Mr Ferguson and he retired to country lodg ings at Braid, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, where they spent a few months in a course of labo rious study, enlivened by the intercourse of friend ship. As Mr Ferguson's campaigning habits had re conciled him to a migratory life, it is not easy to trace him through all his changes of residence. Dur ing his father's lifetime he had great satisfaction in making occasional excursions to the Highlands, and thinking aloud in his solitary walks, amidst the lakes and forests of Rannoch, or on the summit of his na tive mountains, where one of the most magnificent prospects in nature was displayed before his eyes. It was here that the lofty enthusiasm of his spirit was nursed and matured; and it was not so much in the intercourse with polished society, as in the wilds of Athol, that he acquired that 'dignity and ease of manner for which he was distinguished above most of the literary men of his country. To use his own eipressive words: " If I had not been in the Highlands of Scotland, I might be of their mind who think the inhabitants of Paris and Versailles the only polite people in the world. It is truly wonderful to see persons of and age, who never travelled beyond the nearest mountain, possess themselves per fectly, perform acts of kindness with an aspect or dignity, and a perfect discernment of what is proper to oblige. This is seldom to be seen in our cities or in our capital ; but a person among the mountains, who thinks himself nobly born, considers courtesy as the test of his rank. He never saw a superior, and does not know what it is to be embarrassed. He has an ingenuous deference for those who have seen more of the world than himself; but never saw the neglect of others assumed as a mark of superiority." In the year 1759, be was elected Professor of Na tural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, in the room of Dr John Stewart. He had not made physical science the principal object of his inquiries; and, indeed, he had not studied it much more at tentively than most young men do in the common routine of academical instruction. But with only four months to prepare for the labours of the win ter, he qualified himself so well as to give universal satisfaction. He conducted this branch of education five years, and by adapting his lectures to the capaci ties of the young, contrived to render the study more interesting than it had been commonly considered. At this time he was a member of the well-known Se lect Society of Edinburgh, instituted in 1754, for the purpose of promoting philosophical discussion, and training the members to the practice of public speak ing. The ardour of this society did not begin to lan guish till the year 1762, when another association, equally celebrated, was formed by the literary circle of Edinburgh; the design of which was to rouse the country to demand from the Legislature the establish ment of a militia in Scotland. Mr Ferguson may al most be considered as the founder of this society; and it was at his suggestion that it received a name (The Poker) which was sufficiently significant in the ears of the initiated, bin utterly unintelligible by strangers. His satirical pamphlet, entitled, The History of Sister Peg, was intended to forward the object of this pa triotic society; and it is perhaps the only production connected with that cause, which, at this distance of time, is capable of exciting any interest.