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61.: 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.


61.

From ADAM FERGUSON

  • Address: To Mr Adam Smith, Professor of Philosophy in The College of Glasgow.

MS., GUL Gen. 1035/142; Scott 255–6.

Dear Sir

Two or three days before I got your letter I happened to be applyed to by Mr Alexander Merchant here,1 to recommend a young man if I knew any fit to be tutor to his Son. I immediately carryed your letter to him and he is perfectly Satisfyed with the recommendation and I am well Satisfyed that as far as relates to Mr Alexander himself and his family your friend2 will have every reason to applaud his good fortune in meeting with him. He has very right Ideas with respect to his Children and very noble ones with respect to the person whom he trusts with the charge of them. He told me when he first mentioned this Subject that it would be a pleasure to him to meet with such a Young Man as he coud forward through life and that he woud not scruple to risk of his fortune in doing it if his Subject was promising. The only difficulty with Mr Alexander with respect to your Friend is that his view to Physic may carry him away from him sooner than he woud wish. And it may be a difficulty with your friend that the two boys of whom the charge is proposed to him are so young the one being eight and the other six but they are equally advanced being to begin the Latin together. He proposes that they shall attend the Public School while they have the advantage of a Tutor at home. He leaves the terms to you or me and will be inclined to increase them as the boys advance especially if that will induce a person to his mind to continue with him the full time. Remember me affectionately to J. Black and all friends with you. Youll please let me know your friends resolution when he had determined himself. I am Dear Sir

Your most affectionate humble Servant

Adam Ferguson

[1 ]Perhaps William or Robert Alexander, the ‘sons’ represented in William Alexander and Sons, bankers and merchants in Edinburgh who held for many years the Scottish contract from the French Farmers General of Tobacco. Robert Alexander was a candidate in the notorious Anstruther Burghs parliamentary election of 1776 (HP i. 499).

[2 ]Not identified.