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18.: From ADAM FERGUSON - Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith [1740]

Edition used:

Correspondence of Adam Smith, ed. E. C. Mossner and I. S. Ross, vol. VI of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987).

Part of: The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 7 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


18.

From ADAM FERGUSON

  • Address: To Mr Adam Smith, Professor of Philosophy in the College of Glasgow, North Brittain

MS., University of Illinois Libr.; unpubl.

Leipzig, 1 Dec. 1754

Dear Sir

I wrote last from Groninguen1 and told you of Mr. Gordons2 Intention of passing the Winter at this place. The impressions he had got of Groninguen upon the Road woud have made him constantly Dissatisfied at that place, for people sometimes think meanly of themselves at an University of little repute, as in a Coat that is out of Fashion; otherwise I am not well qualified to Judge of the Superiority of this University.3 There are a great Variety of Professors, and all who have got the Degree of Master of Arts here may advertise a College upon any Branch they please, they have scarcely any Vacations. The publick lectures are in German and Strangers are Obliged to have private lessons in Latin for themselves which make the fees very high. Mr. Gordon attends three in Company with Mr. Abercrombie.4 The Civil Law, The Law of Nature and Nations, and Modern History, which are rather too many at once, at least they would be so to one who could give application to books and pursue a Point steadily, but that habit is seldom acquired by People in Mr. Gordons Way; he likes very well to hear about matters of Study but what is called Poring, is not much to his mind. I have no trouble in advising him against Irregularitys, and the whole remittances are very safely entrusted to his own management so that you may call me a very happy Governour, provided you will always keep in mind how far the happiness of a Governour mounts. This is not a place of Conversation to me, there may be agreeable people but I have not yet been able to find them out or relish much through the Medium of bad Latin and bad French. I am already of opinion that Learning is very frequent here, but have not met with any Glimmering of Taste, or very elegant Reflexions: but you must consider me as a stranger who may know more hereafter.

A Gentleman passed some days ago in his way from Paris to Berlin, and told some Storys of Mr. Fontenelle5 : one that he was in Company with a Lady who happend to drop her Fan, he put himself immediatly in motion to take it up, but she prevented him, for he is a hundred years old, upon which he said; Plut a Dieu que Je n’avois que quatre Vingt Ans. Another Lady who it seems had removed lately to his neighbourhood made him a Visit and told him; she expected to see him often for that reason; he replayed that wont be my reason, that will only be my Pretence. I wish you may relish these Bons mots, that come so far as Germany, if not you may make reflections upon the length of time it may take to turn a Frenchman Sour. I saw lately some Smart letters in Manuscript that Passed between Voltaire, and a Church Man of Dignitee in France on account of his Infidelity. They say he is Constantly Complaining of his Health and threatning to Die. A Lady here tells me she saw him in his way from Berlin,6 and that he caressed one of her Children and said he woud be fond of him even if he had been begotten by Maupertuis.7 We Lodge here with a Frenchman, who is a little Foolish, for the sake of learning his Language; he has taught French in this Place for some years, he has translated some of Mr. Humes Works into French and has the Title of secretary to the King of Poland, all which is very fine in a Landlord.8 The King when he has a mind to Flatter a Man cannot give A Title of Nobility but makes many Secretarys and members of the Privy Council.9 The Nobility waste away here to Nothing; for all the Sons share alike in the Estate and Title; all ranks almost have Voluminous Titles, if you was a Professor at Leipzig instead of Glasgow I shoud have directed my Letter, To his Excellency The most learned & Celebrated &c. I should be sorry to have written all this Idleness to a Man who is not well and I hope to hear you don’t Complain this Winter. Make my Compliments to Mrs. Smith10 Miss Douglass11 and other Friends at Glasgow. If Mr. Bagwell and Mr. Reid12 be at Glasgow my Compliments to Both. I woud write to them if I was quite sure of their being there. Mr. Gordon Joins me in Good Wishes. I am Dear Sir Your most affectionate

humble Servant

Adam Ferguson

My Compliments to your Mr. Gordon

[1 ]Dutch University attended by Scots studying Roman law.

[2 ]Not identified but as this letter suggests, he was a young man of good family, known to Smith, who had a relative (‘your Mr. Gordon’) in Smith’s charge at Glasgow.

[3 ]The most famous professor of this period was the philosopher and theologian Christian August Crusius (1715–75).

[4 ]Not identified.

[5 ]Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657–1757), Secretary to the Academy of Sciences, 1697, later its President and historian; his best–known works: Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes (1686), and Histoire des oracles (1687); he also compiled a collection of entertaining stories, Lettres galantes du chevalier d’Her (1685).

[6 ]Voltaire was in Berlin, 1750–3, as a pensioner of Frederick the Great. He parted from the King after quarrelling with Maupertuis.

[7 ]Pierre Moreau de Maupertuis (1698–1759), mathematician. He was made President of the Berlin Academy. Many found him bad–tempered, and Voltaire satirized him in Micromégas. Smith lent Maupertuis’s works to a correspondent in 1762; see Letter 63 from Thomas Wallace, dated 4 Jan. 1762.

[8 ]Eléazar de Mauvillon (1712–79), native of Provence, became a Protestant and went to live in Leipzig 1743; published his translation of Hume’s Political Discourses (1753); wrote historical works, e.g. Histoire de Gustave–Adolphe (1764). He is said to have been a hard and opinionated man who made his family suffer.

[9 ]Frederic August (1696–1763), Elector of Saxony, became King of Poland 1734, took Maria Theresa’s side in the Second Silesian war 1744–5, and was vanquished by Frederick of Prussia, thereafter lived in exile.

[10 ]Adam Smith’s mother.

[11 ]Janet Douglas (d. 1788), Smith’s cousin and housekeeper.

[12 ]Not traced.