In 1759 Ferguson succeeded Dr John Stewart as professor of natural philosophy in the university of Edinburgh. In 1764 he was transferred to the chair of moral philosophy, and within little more than a year after he published his Essay on the History of Civil Society, which was received with much approbation, and wa≡ translated into several European languages. Soon afterwards he began to collect materials for a history of the Roman commonwealth. Whilst thus engaged, he was solicited by the guardians of Charles, earl of Chesterfield, to superintend that young nobleman’s education, which had been much neglected. He joined his young charge at Geneva in May 1774, and remained with him for about a year. In his absence he had very nearly been deprived of his office in the university, the town-council having, as patrons, proposed to declare the chair vacant. In 1776 Ferguson published a pamphlet on the American revolution in opposition to Dr Price’s “Observations on the nature of civil liberty,” in which he sympathized with the views of the British legislature. When the Government resolved to send out commissioners to quiet the disorders in the colonies, he was appointed secretary. They failed to accomplish the object of their mission, but the Government obtained through them fuller information regarding the state and temper of the Americans than they had previously possessed.

In 1780 Ferguson had a paralytic attack, which was one of the most remarkable on record, for, by an abstemious diet, he continued to enjoy almost uninterrupted good health for more than thirty years, while his mental powers were not impaired. In 1783 his great work, the History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic, appeared in 3 vols. 4to; it was very popular, and went through several editions. In it Ferguson gives, in a connected and elegant form, a narration of the great facts of Roman history for a period of five hundred years. He was led to undertake this work from a conviction that the history of that remarkable people during the period of their greatness was a practical illustration of those ethical and political doctrines which were the object of his peculiar study.

No longer able to undergo the fatigue of public teaching, Ferguson in 1785 resigned his chair in the university, in which he was succeeded by Dugald Stewart, then professor of mathematics. He now proceeded to revise his academic lectures, and in 1792 they were published under the title of Principles of Moral and Political Science.

In his ethical system Ferguson treats man throughout as a social being, and illustrates his doctrines by political examples. As a believer in the progression of the human race, he placed the principle of moral approbation in the attainment of perfection. His speculations have been carefully criticized by Cousin, who thus expresses himself with reference to this theory :—“We find in his method the wisdom and circumspection of the Scottish school, with something more masculine and decisive in the results. The principle of perfection is a new one, at once more rational and comprehensive than benevolence and sympathy, which in our view places Ferguson as a moralist above all his predecessors.” By this principle Ferguson endeavours to reconcile all moral systems. With Hobbe3 and Hume he admits the power of self-interest or utility, and makes it enter into morals as the law of self-preservation. Hutcheson's theory of universal benevolence and Smith’s idea of sympathy he combines under the law of society. But, as these laws are the means rather than the end of human destiny, they are subordinate to a supreme end, and this supreme end is perfection. In the political part of his system Ferguson follows Montesquieu, and pleads the cause of well-regulated liberty and free government.

When in his seventieth year, Ferguson, intending to prepare a new edition of his Roman history, resolved to visit Italy. He visited some of the principal cities of Europe, and passed part of the winter of 1793 at Rome. He was generally well received, and was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin, of the Etruscan Society of Antiquaries at Cortona, and of the Arcadia at Rome. From 1795 he resided successively at the old castle of Neidpath near Peebles, at Hallyards on Manor water, and at St Andrews, where he died February 22, 1816.

Besides the works above mentioned, Ferguson is the author of Analysis of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy, Edinburgh, 1766; Institutes of Moral Philosophy, 1769, 1773, 1785, translated and used as a text-book in several foreign universities; and a few minor publications. See a biographical sketch by J. Small, in Trans, of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. xxiii.

FERGUSON, James (1710-1776), an eminent mechanist and astronomer, was born near Keith in Banffshire in 1710, of parents in very humble circumstances. He first learned to read by overhearing his father teach his elder brother, and with the help of an old woman was “able,” he says in his autobiography, “to read tolerably well before his father thought of teaching him.” After receiving further instruction in reading from his father, who also taught him to write, he was sent for three months to the grammar-school at Keith. His taste for mechanics was about this time accidentally awakened on seeing his father making use of a lever to raise a part of the roof of his house—an exhibition of seeming strength which at first “excited his terror as well as wonder.” On discovering how the seeming wonder was effected, he began experiments with the view of improving on the simple lever his father had made use of; and although he soon learned that all his inventions had been anticipated, he was so well pleased to find his principles confirmed that his passion for the study of mechanics was increased rather than diminished. As soon as his age permitted he was sent to a neighbouring farm to keep sheep, where in the day time he amused himself by making models of mills and other machines, and at night in studying the stars. Afterwards, as a servant with a miller, and then with a doctor, he met with hardships which rendered his constitution feeble through life. Being compelled by his weak health to return home, he there amused himself with making a wooden clock. When slightly recovered he showed this and some other inventions to a neighbouring gentleman, who engaged him to clean his clocks, and also desired him to make his house his home. He there, at the suggestion of a lady visitor, commenced to draw patterns for needle work, and his success in this art led him to think of becoming a painter. Through the assistance of the same lady he was at length sent to Edinburgh, where, having obtained some instruction in drawing, he began to take portraits in miniature, by which means, while engaged in his scientific studies, he supported himself and his family for many years. On account of the success of his Astronomiccd Rotula, he determined, in 1743, to leave Edinburgh for London, where he published some curious astronomical tables and calculations, and afterwards gave public lectures on experimental philosophy. These he repeated in most of the principal towns in England. His deep interest in his subject, his clear explanations, his ingeniously constructed diagrams, and his mechanical apparatus rendered him one of the most successful of popular lecturers on scientific subjects. It is, however, as the inventor and improver of astronomical and other scientific apparatus, and as a striking instance of self-education, that he claims a place among the most remarkable men of science of his country. His manners were unaffected and courteous, and his life simple, studious, and irreproachable. In 1763 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1770 a member of the American Philosophical Society. During the latter years of his life he was in receipt of a pension of £50 from the privy purse. He died in London 17th November 1776.

Ferguson’s principal publications are Astronomical Tables, 1763; Lectures on Select Subjects (1st ed. 1761, edited by Sir David Brewster in 1805); Astronomy explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles (1756, edited by Sir Dâvid Brewster in 1811); and Select Mechanical Exercises, with a Short Account of the Life of the Author, written by himself ∖ 1773). This autobiography is included in an Extended Life by E. Henderson, LL.D (1st ed. 1867, 2d 1870), which also contains a full description of Ferguson’s principal inventions, accompanied with illustrations. See also The Story of the Peasant-Boy Philosopher, by Henry Mayhew (1857).