Page:(1856, Jul) Letter from Professor Ferrier.pdf/7

 wonder: In all your essays in the cognate and collateral fields of literary criticism, &c., those who know the general movement of your mind can easily detect a certain philosophic largeness and scientific basis, which betray you; and it is almost necessary that a literature mastered by such a habit of mind should be the prompt and precise servant of the habit in its more peculiar exercises.

Will you permit me to add, as my own expectation and that of all your friends here, that now having completed your philosophic scheme, with ampler resources of scholarship and literary accomplishment, you will grow to still higher distinction in that faculty of free and eloquent exposition, and that sympathetic power of inspiring enthusiasm in youth, which complete the function of an academic teacher. I have the honour to be,

Your very faithful Servant,

THOMAS AIRD.

June 24, 1856.

,—I beg to thank you most sincerely for the honour you have done me in sending me the second edition of your work on Metaphysics. Absence from England upon a distant tour has prevented me from acknowledging your present, or replying to your letter; and the same cause makes me ignorant whether the distinguished appointment you seek is, or is not,