James Frederick Ferrier, son of John Ferrier, W.S., grandson of James Ferrier, an intimate friend of Sir Walter Scott, was born in Edinburgh, June 16, 1808. His mother, Margaret, was sister of Professor John Wilson; his aunt, Susan Ferrier, honoured by the high praise and the friendship of Scott, was the authoress of ' Marriage,' ' Destiny,' and ' The Inheritance.' He received his early education in the manse of Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, where he lived in the family of the Rev. Dr Duncan. Here first was awakened in his mind the lively interest and affection which he never lost for Virgil, Ovid, and the Latin poets in general: he often spoke in later life of the new source of delight then opened to him in these authors. He also retained through after years a warm attachment both to his earliest place of instruction and to the two sons of his earliest teacher. He studied later at the Edinburgh High School, and under Dr Burney at Greenwich. He attended Edinburgh University for sessions 1825-26 and 1826-27. He went as a fellow-commoner to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1831; and became an advocate at Edinburgh in 1832. Of his pursuits for the next five or six years there is little direct evidence, but to this period belongs mainly the foundation of his strong passion for metaphysical research. It was probably the desire of studying more effectively the German masters of speculative thought that led him to spend several months of the year 1834 at Heidelberg.
