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law, where he enjoyed access to a tolerably wellstocked library, he made his first attempt at taking likenesses from the life, in a portrait which he drew of that gentleman; "and I found," says he, 66 it was much easier to draw from the life than from any picture whatever, as nature was more striking than any imitation of it." His success in this new profession struck his country patrons as so remarkable, that they determined upon carrying him to Edinburgh, in order that he might be regularly instructed in those parts of the art of which he was still ignorant, Lady Dipple liberally agreeing to allow him to live in her house for two years. But when he came to that city he could find no painter who would consent to take him as an apprentice without a premium-a circumstance which his sanguine friends had not counted upon. In this extremity, not knowing what to do, he was advised, by the Reverend Dr. Keith, to trust to his own genius, and to commence the practice of his intended profession without waiting for any other instruction than what he had already received from nature. It was certainly a bold counsel; but Ferguson, having in truth no other resource, followed it, and succeeded beyond his most sanguine expectations, in a very short time making so much money as to enable him not only to defray his own expenses, but to gratify his kind heart by contributing largely to the support of his now aged parents. He followed this business for twenty-six years.

Yet he does not appear to have ever given his heart to painting, and notwithstanding his success, he even made various attempts to escape from it as a profession altogether. When he had been only about two years in Edinburgh, he was seized with so violent a passion for the study, or at least the practice, of medicine, that he actually returned to his father's, carrying with him with a quantity of pills, plasters,

and other preparations, with the intention of setting up as the Esculapius of the village. But it would not do. Of those who took his medicines very few paid him for them, and still fewer, he acknowledges, were benefited by them. So he applied again to his pencil; but, instead of returning immediately to Edinburgh, fixed his residence for a few months at Inverness. Here he employed his leisure in pursuing his old and favourite study of astronomy; and having discovered by himself the cause of eclipses, drew up a scheme for shewing the motions and places of the sun and moon in the ecliptic on each day of the year, perpetually. This he transmitted to the celebrated Maclaurin, who found it to be very nearly correct, and was so much pleased with it that he had it engraved. It sold very well, and Ferguson was induced once more to return to Edinburgh. He had now a zealous patron in Maclaurin, and one extremely disposed to assist him in his philosophical studies. One day Ferguson having asked the Professor to shew him his Orrery, the latter immediately complied with his request, in so far as to exhibit to him the outward movements of the machine, but would not venture to open it in order to get at the wheelwork, which he had never himself inspected, being afraid that he should not be able to put it to rights again if he should chance to displace any part of it. Ferguson, however, had seen enough to set his ingenious and contriving mind to work; and in a short time he succeeded in finishing an Orrery of his own, and had the honour of reading a lecture on it to Maclaurin's pupils. He some time after made another of ivory (his first had been of wood); and in the course of his life he constructed, he tells us, six more, all unlike each other.

His mind was now becoming every day more attached to philosophical pursuits; and, quite tired,

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as he says, of drawing pictures, in which he never strove to excel, he resolved to go to London, in the hope of finding employment as a teacher of mechanics and astronomy. Having written out a proof of a new astronomical truth which had occurred to him, namely, that the moon must move always in a path concave to the sun, he shewed his proposition and its demonstration to Mr. Folkes, the President of the Royal Society, who thereupon took him the same evening to the meeting of that learned body. This had the effect of bringing him immediately into notice. He soon after published his first work, 'A Dissertation on the Phenomena of the Harvest Moon,' with the description of a new Orrery, having only four wheels. Of this work he says, with his characteristic modesty, Having never had a grammatical education, nor time to study the rules of just composition, I acknowledge that I was afraid to put it to the press; and for the same cause, I ought to have the same fears still." It was, however, well received by the public; and its ingenious author afterwards followed it up by various other productions, most of which became very popular. In 1748 he began to give public lectures on his favourite subjects, which were numerously and fashionably attended, his late Majesty George III., who was then a boy, being occasionally among his auditors. He had till now continued to work at his old profession of a portrait painter; but about this time he at last bade it a final farewell, having secured another, and, in his estimation, a much more agreeable means of providing a subsistence for himself and his family. Soon after the accession of George III., a pension of fifty pounds per annum was bestowed upon him from the privy purse. In 1763 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; the usual fees being remitted, had been done in the cases of Newton and Thomas

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Painted by James Morthoote. R.A2. Engraved by T. Whight

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