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PROFESSOR FERRIER AND THE HIGHER

PHILOSOPHY

AUTHORITIES.

1. Lectures on Greek Philosophy, and other Philosophical Remains of James Frederick Ferrier, B.A. Oxon., LL.D., late Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of St Andrews. Edited by Sir Alexander Grant, Bart., LL.D., Director of Public Instruction in Bombay, and E. L. Lushington, M.A., Professor of Greek in the University of Glasgow. Two vols. Edinburgh and London: 1866.

2. Institutes of Metaphysic: the Theory of Knowing and Being. By James F. Ferrier, B.A. Oxon. Second Edition. Edinburgh and London: 1861.

PROFESSOR FERRIER AND THE HIGHER

PHILOSOPHY.

PROFESSOR FERRIER of St Andrews is well

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worthy of being remembered both as a man and a teacher. The Institutes of Metaphysic,' published in his lifetime, had secured for him, if not a wide reputation, yet an undoubted recognition as a thinker from all sides of the philosophical world. The two volumes of Lectures and Philosophical Remains,' if they do not add anything to his philosophical doctrine, or excite among those who have been interested in it any higher opinion of his speculative ability, yet serve to enhance his general reputation, while they bring before us a mind singularly devoted to abstract studies, and singularly gifted with the power of illuminating them and rendering them attractive. They serve also to show clearly the relation which his speculations bore to the previous Scottish philosophy against which they were a reaction. Without entering into any detailed review of his metaphysical opinions, we shall endeavour in the following paper to

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fix his position as a thinker and writer, and to offer a brief estimate of him in both capacities. The powers exhibited in these 'Remains,' and in the Institutes of Metaphysic,' demand a more general acknowledgment than they have yet received.

In the introductory notice prefixed to the volumes of 'Remains,' written by Professor Lushington with much taste and graceful feeling, we learn the few particulars of Professor Ferrier's life deserving to be recorded. He was born into an intellectual and literary circle. His grandfather was an intimate

friend of Sir Walter Scott; his aunt was the wellknown authoress of Marriage,''Destiny,' and 'The Inheritance.' Professor Wilson was his uncle, and was afterwards connected with him by still closer ties. He may be said to have come by birthright, therefore, into the possession of much that was characteristic and valuable in the old intellectual life of Edinburgh, and the influence of this inheritance is very obvious in some features of his own intellectual culture. He was born in 1808, and received his early education in the Manse of Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire. Here, too, he was fortunate. Dr Duncan of Ruthwell was one of many Scottish clergymen who, while not learned in any special manner, are yet full of the mental vigour and vivacity which learning does not always give. He was the originator of Savings Banks in the south of Scotland. He was also a close observer of nature, and gave some of the fruits of his observations to the world in a series of interesting volumes on the 'Seasons.' In the family of this clergyman there was first awakened in Mr Ferrier's mind the lively interest and affection which he never lost for

Virgil, Ovid, and the Latin poets in general: he often spoke in later life of the new source of delight then opened to him in these authors. He afterwards attended the Edinburgh High School, and was for some time domiciled with Dr Burney at Greenwich. He then went to the Edinburgh University for two sessions, from 1825 to 1827, and finally to Oxford, which he entered as a fellow-commoner of Magdalen, and where he took the degree of B.A. in 1831.

Up to this period there is no evidence of his being specially interested in metaphysical studies. Edinburgh had lost Dr Thomas Brown in 1820, and had not yet gained Sir William Hamilton. Oxford had not begun to develop that philosophical earnestness which in recent years has marked its schools. It may be doubted, indeed, whether Oxford exercised any definite intellectual influence on Professor Ferrier. He had imbibed his love for the Latin poets before he went there, and his devotion to Greek Philosophy was an after-growth with which he never associated his Magdalen studies. To one who visited the college with him many years afterwards, and to whom he pointed out with admiration its noble walks and trees, his associations with the place seemed to be mainly those of amusement. There is a reason to think that few of those who knew him at Magdalen would have afterwards recognised him in the laborious student at St Andrews, who for weeks together scarcely crossed the threshold of his study; and yet, to all who knew him well, there was nevertheless a clear connection between the gay gownsman and the hardworking professor.

His love of metaphysical research seems to have

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