In the year 1780 he was seized with an attack of apoplexy, which, though not violent, was sufficient to alarm his friends for his safety. This formi dable affection did not, in the slightest degree, im pair the force of his understanding; and so abstemi ous did he afterwards become, as not only to secure himself against the recurrence of the disease, but to enjoy almost uninterrupted health for more than thirty years. As he could not venture to lecture as for merly without the use of written notes, he therefore found it necessary to write out a course of instruction to be read during the remainder of his incumbency. In his endeavours to recover the substance of his lec tures, he availed himself of the notes taken by intelli gent young men, who had studied under him different sessions, and who thus might be expected to have preserved the various modes in which he had stated his doctrines, and the different arguments and illustra tions by which he had happened to supply in one ses sion what might have been omitted in another. But in the prospect of soon relinquishing his office, it was scarcely conceivable, that the compilation which he thus executed could possess all the excellencies which he was capable of imparting to it; more especially as he was now busy in carrying his great historical work through the press. This was the History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic, in three volumes quarto, published in 1783; a book which not only delights by the clearness of its narra tive, and the boldness of its descriptions, but instructs and animates by profound and masterly delineations of character, as well as by the philosophical precision with which it traces the connection of events. It is written in that tone of high-minded enthusiasm, which, if it can only snatch from oblivion whatever is noble and generous in the record of human actions, regards the graces of style as objects merely of secondary ac count, and is chiefly studious of impressing the lessons of wisdom, which may be gathered from the survey of distant ages.
The fatigues and anxieties of public teaching now became oppressive to his spirits, and not altogether favourable to his health; and he therefore deemed it expedient to resign his office in 1784, when he had completed his sixty-first year. Mr Dugald Stewart, then Professor of Mathematics, succeeded to his office; and in order to entitle Dr Ferguson to retain his sa lary, he was conjoined in the Professorship of Mathe matics with the late lamented Mr Playfair. He now proceeded to revise the notes of his lectures on ethics and politics, with•a view to publication; and, in 1792, the work appeared under the title of Principles of Moral and Political Science. Though composed under disadvantageous circumstances, and though it has omitted many of the questions which were treated in his elementary course, it contains an admirable view of the systems both of ancient and modern philoso phers, particularly on the foundations of moral approba tion, and the sources of private happiness and public security. The authors to whose suggestions he was most indebted were Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle, among the Greeks, Cicero and Seneca among the La tins, Epictetus and Antoninus among the later scholars ofthe Grecian school ; and, amongthe moderns, Shaftes bury, Hutcheson, Montesquieu, and Adam Smith. It
has been considered as a blameable omission in this work, that too slight notice is taken of the importance of religious principle ; and the author seems to have been aware that he had exposed himself to this objec tion. No man, however, was ever more anxious to establish the foundations of natural theology, and to strengthen the arguments fbr a future state ; on which subjects the work abounds in passages of un common beauty.
After the publication of this work, Dr Ferguson, now in his 70th year, resolved to pay a visit to the ancient metropolis of the world. He passed a short time at some of the principal cities of Europe, Ber lin, Vienna, Florence, Naples, and Venice, and re sided part of the winter 1793 at Rome, in all of which places his reception was extremely flattering. He was elected a member of the Academy of Ber lin, as well as of other learned societies. Upon his return to Britain in 1794, he took up his residence at Nidpath Castle in Tweeddale, whence he soon removed to Hallyards in Manor Water. In this agreeable retreat he spent the next fourteen years of his life, a longer period than he had ever before resided in any one place. At last, however, when his sight and his hearing had in a great measure failed, he deemed it advisable to settle in a town, where he might occasionally enjoy the conversation of intelligent friends; and his early prepossessions induced him to settle at St. Andrew's. Here his strength gradually declined, but the vigour of his mind continued unimpaired as long as he lived. No man took a more lively interest in the great events which were then passing in the world, or contem plated more anxiously the consequences of the ardu ous struggle which his country sustained. He lived long enough to witness the triumphant issue of the contest, and, after a short illness, he died on the 22d of February 1816, in the 93d year of his age, leaving three sons and three daughters.
In the various situations which it was his lot to occupy, he had uniformly conducted himself with a dignity and decision which bespoke the elevation and force of his mind. As a military chaplain, he happily united the strict decorum of the clerical character with the unembarrassed address of a man of the world; so that he, at the same time, secured the of the officers, and the devoted attach private soldiers. It was while accom panying the army on different expeditions, one of the first of which was an ill-conducted descent on the .coast of Bretagne in 1745, that he applied his mind to the study of the art of war; and it cannot be denied that he excels particularly in the descrip tion of martial evolutions. In private life his con versation was easy and elegant, and among his inti mate friends enlivened by a fascinating gaiety and refinement of humour. He was not very patient of contradiction, and rather apt to testify his contempt of assumed superiority.