From Introduction: "ADAM FERGUSON was born at Logierait, in the highlands of Scotland, on the 20th of June, 1723, and was the son of a Presbyterian clergyman. In'the autumn of 1738 he entered the University of St. Andrew's, where, four years after, he took the degree of Master of Arts, and he passed some time subsequently in the study of theology. In 1745, he was selected by Lord John Murray, commander of the forty-second Highland regiment, as his miltary chaplain, to qualify himself for which office he received ordination, although he had not studied divinity the full period of six years. He remained with the regiment until 1757, when he succeeded the celebrated David Hume as keeper of the Advocates' Library, but resigned that office in the following year. In 1759, he was elected Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh; though we are told that he had not made physical science a principal object of his inquiries, nor, indeed, studied it much more than most young men do in the common course of academical instruction. Five months of preparation, however, enabled him to enter upon this office, the duties of which he performed in a manner that secured his popularity. About 1762, he founded a society known by the name of " The Poker," for procuring from the government the establishment of a militia in Scotland, and, to forward its views, wrote a satirical pamphlet, entitled 1" The History of Sister Peg."