THE LIFE

OF

JAMES FERGUSON.

As this is probably the last book I shall ever publish,* I beg leave to prefix to it a short account of myself, and of the manner I first began, and have since prosecuted my studies. For, as my setting out in life from a very low station, and in a remote part of the island, has occasioned some false and, indeed, very improbable particulars to be related of me, I therefore think it the better way, instead of contradicting them one by one, to give a faithful and circumstantial detail of my whole proceedings, from my first obscure beginning to the present time: wherein, if I should insert some particulars of little moment, I hope the good-natured reader Ι will kindly excuse me.

I was born in the year 1710, a few miles from Keith, a little village in Bamffshire, in the north of Scotland; and can with pleasure say, that my parents, though poor, were religious and honest, lived in good repute with all who knew them, and died with good characters.

As my father had nothing to support a large family but his daily labour, and the profits arising from a few acres of land which he rented, it was not to be expected that he could bestow much on the education of his children: yet they were not neglected; for, at his leisure hours, he taught them to read and write. And it

This Life was first published as a Preface to the Author's "Select Mechanical Exercises.''

was while he was teaching my elder brother to read the Scotch catechism that I acquired my reading. Ashamed to ask my father to instruct me, I used, when he and my brother were abroad, to take the catechism, and study the lesson which he had been teaching my brother: and when any difficulty occurred, I went to a neighbouring old woman, who gave me such help as enabled me to read tolerably well before my father had thought of teaching me.

Some time after, he was agreeably surprised to find me reading by myself: he thereupon gave me farther instruction, and also taught me to write; which, with about three months I afterwards had at the grammarschool at Keith, was all the education I ever received. My taste for mechanics arose from an odd accident.— When about seven or eight years of age, a part of the roof of the house being decayed, my father, desirous of mending it, applied a prop and lever to an upright spar to raise it to its former situation; and, to my great astonishment, I saw him, without considering the reason, lift up the ponderous roof, as if it had been a small weight. I attributed this at first to a degree of strength that excited my terror as well as wonder: but thinking farther of the matter, I recollected that he had applied his strength to that end of the lever which was farthest from the prop; and finding, on inquiry, that this was the means whereby the seeming wonder was effected, I began making levers (which I then called bars ;) and by applying weights to them different ways, I found the power gained by my bar was just in proportion to the lengths of the different parts of the bar on either side of the prop. I then thought it was a great pity that, by means of this bar, a weight could be raised but a very little way. On this, I soon imagined, that, by pulling round a wheel, the weight might be raised to any height by tying a rope to the weight, and winding the rope round the axle of the wheel; and that the power gained, must be just as great as the wheel was broader than the axle was thick; and found it to be exactly so, by hanging one weight to a rope put round the wheel, and

another to the rope that coiled round the axle. So that, in these two machines, it appeared very plain, that their advantage was as great, as the space gone through by the working power exceeded the space gone through by the weight and this property I also thought must take place in a wedge for cleaving wood; but then I happened not to think of the screw. By means of a turning lathe which my father had, and sometimes used, and a little knife, I was enabled to make wheels and other things necessary for my purpose.

I then wrote a short account of these machines, and sketched out figures of them with a pen, imagining it to be the first treatise of the kind that ever was written: but found my mistake when I afterwards showed it to a gentleman, who told me that these things were known long before, and showed me a printed book in which they were treated of: and I was much pleased when I found that my account (so far as I had carried it) agreed with the principles of mechanics in the book he showed me. And from that time my mind preserved a constant tendency to improve in that science.

But, as my father could not afford to maintain me while I was in pursuit only of these matters, and I was rather too young and weak for hard labour, he put me out to a neighbour to keep sheep, which I continued to do for some years; and in that time I began to study the stars in the night. In the day-time I amused myself by making models of mills, spinning-wheels, and such other things as I happened to see.

I then went to serve a considerable farmer in the neighbourhood, whose name was James Glashan. I found him very kind and indulgent; but he soon cbserved, that in the evenings, when my work was over, I went into a field with a blanket about me; lay down on my back, and stretched a thread with small beads upon it, at arm's length, between my eye and the stars; sliding the beads upon it till they hid such and such stars from my eye, in order to take their apparent distances from one another; and then, laying the thread down on a paper, I marked the stars thereon by the

beads, according to their respective positions, having a candle by me. My master at first laughed at me; but, when I explained my meaning to him, he encouraged me to go on and that I might make fair copies in the day-time of what I had done in the night, he often worked for me himself. I shall always have a respect for the memory of that man.

One day he happened to send me with a message to the reverend Mr John Gilchrist, minister at Keith, to whom I had been known from my childhood. I carried my star-papers to show them to him, and found him looking over a large parcel of maps, which I surveyed with great pleasure, as they were the first I had ever seen. He then told me that the earth is round like a ball, and explained the map of it to me. I requested him to lend me that map, to take a copy of it in the evenings. He cheerfully consented to this, giving me, at the same time, a pair of compasses, a ruler, pens, ink, and paper; and dismissed me with an injunction not to neglect my master's business by copying the map, which I might keep as long as I pleased.

For this pleasant employment my master gave me more time than I could reasonably expect; and often took the threshing-flail out of my hands, and worked himself, while I sat by him in the barn, busy with my compasses, ruler, and pen.

When I had finished the copy, I asked leave to carry home the map: he told me I was at liberty to do so, and might stay two hours to converse with the minister. In my way thither, I happened to pass by the school at which I had been before, and saw a genteel-looking man (whose name I afterwards learnt was Cantley) painting a sun-dial on the wall. I stopt awhile to observe him, and the schoolmaster came out, and asked me what parcel it was that I had under my arm. I showed him the map, and the copy I had made of it, wherewith he appeared to be very well pleased, and asked me whether I should not like to learn of Mr Cantley to make sun-dials. Mr Cantley looked at the copy of the

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map, and commended it much; telling the schoolmaster (Mr John Skinner) that it was a pity I did not meet with notice and encouragement. I had a good deal of conversation with him, and found him to be quite affable and communicative; which made me think I should be extremely happy if I could be farther acquainted with him.

I then proceeded with the map to the minister, and showed him the copy of it.-While we were conversing together, a neighbouring gentleman, Thomas Grant, Esq, of Achoynaney, happened to come in, and the minister immediately introduced me to him, showing him what I had done. He expressed great satisfaction, asked me some questions about the construction of maps, and told me, if that I would go and live at his house, he would order his butler, Alexander Cantley, to give me a great deal of instruction. Finding that this Cantley was the man whom I had seen painting the sun-dial, and of whom I had already conceived a very high opinion, I told squire Grant, that I should rejoice to be at his house as soon as the time was expired for which I was engaged with my present master. He very politely offered to put one in my place; but this I declined.

When the term of my servitude was out, I left my good master, and went to the gentleman's house, where I quickly found myself with a most humane, good family. Mr Cantley, the butler, soon became my friend, and continued so till his death. He was the most extraordinary man that I ever was acquainted with, or perhaps ever shall see; for he was a complete master of arithmetic, a good mathematician, a master of music on every known instrument except the harp, understood Latin, French, and Greek, let blood extremely well, and could even prescribe as a physician upon any urgent occasion. He was what is generally called self-taught; but, I think, he might with much greater propriety have been termed God Almighty's scholar.

He immediately began to teach me decimal arithmetic and algebra; for I had already learnt vulgar arithmetic, at my leisure hours, from books. He then