found at the court of the king of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. of France. Ferrier was, in the latter part of his life, a protectant. His diplomatic correspondence exists in manuscript in the imperial library at Paris.—J. A., D.
FERRIER, James F., LL.D., professor of moral philosophy in the university of St. Andrews, nephew and son-in-law of the late Professor John Wilson of Edinburgh university and of Blackwood's Magazine. Dr. Ferrier was educated (partly at Oxford, where he graduated B.A.) for the Scottish bar, but is known as a writer on philosophy. Some metaphysical essays from his pen, which were published in Blackwood, attracted attention to the writer; and the chair of moral philosophy in the university of St. Andrews becoming vacant, he was appointed to it in 1845. On the death of his distinguished relative in 1852, Professor Ferrier became a candidate for the chair of moral philosophy in the university of Edinburgh, but was unsuccessful. He was also an unsuccessful candidate for the chair of logic and metaphysics in the same university, vacant by the death of Sir William Hamilton. The reputation of Ferrier as a philosopher rests chiefly on his "Institutes of Metaphysics, the theory of Knowing and Being," published in 1854—a work which is characterized by much acuteness of thought and no little learning. The avowed aim of the author was to shake to the foundation the distinctive principles of the Scottish philosophy, and to prove that the common dicta of consciousness are to be repudiated as false, instead of being accepted as the source and groundwork of all true mental science. How far this object has been gained, readers will judge differently; but there can be no doubt in regard to the vigour and elegance of the work. Dr. Ferrier died 11th June, 1864.—J. B. J.
FERRIER, Jean, a French jesuit, was born at Rhodes in 1619, and died in 1670. He obtained the rectorship of the college of Toulouse, where for a considerable number of years he taught philosophly, ethics, and theology. In the year of his death he was appointed successor to father Annat in the office of confessor to the grande monarque. Ferrier wrote "Responsio ad Objectiones Vincentiarias," &c. Of a course of theology which he designed to put forth only one volume appeared. But his most considerable production was that entitled "On Probability." It was levelled against the Jansenists, of whom its author was one of the ablest opponents of his age.—R. M., A.
FERRIER, Jeremie, a distinguished preacher and professor of divinity at Nîmes, was born about the middle of the 16th century. In the earlier part of his life he was an adherent of the reformed doctrine, and at a public disputation in 1602, he maintained that Pope Clement VIII. was properly the Antichrist; but some circumstances excited the suspicions of the protestants against him, and they began to regard him as a spy and a traitor employed by Louis XIII., and his minister Cardinal Richelieu. The popular indignation against Ferrier became at last so great, that a tumult was occasioned, in the course of which his house was plundered, and he himself narrowly escaped a violent death by fleeing to a burial vault, in which he lay concealed for several days. Shortly after this occurrence, which seems to have taken place in 1613, he declared his adherence to the Church of Rome; and having removed to Paris, he published in 1614 a work on the points in dispute between protestants and papists, in which he repudiated the doctrines which he had before defended. Whether Ferrier was an agent of the king and Richelieu before his formal avowal of having embraced popery, it is difficult to say; but it is certain that afterwards he enjoyed much of their confidence, and was employed in several important political affairs. Ferrier was the reputed author of a political work of great temporary notoriety, entitled "Catholique d'Etat," containing a clever answer to certain attacks made by the partizans of Spain on the alliance which France had entered into with the protestant powers in the Thirty Years' war. He died in September, 1626.—J. B. J.
FERRIER, Mary, the author of three novels, which have taken a high and permanent place among works of fiction, was born at Edinburgh in the year 1782. Her father, James Ferrier, was one of the clerks of the court of session, and a colleague in this office of Sir Walter Scott, with whom Miss Ferrier was intimately acquainted. Her first work, "Marriage," appeared in 1818, and was followed by "The Inheritance," in 1824, and by "Destiny, or the Chief's Daughter," in 1831. When the first two of these tales appeared, public attention was absorbed by the brilliant fictions of Scott, which were being issued one after another with marvellous rapidity; but even in these circumstances the high merit of Miss Ferrier's works did not escape notice. Unlike that of Scott, the genius of Miss Ferrier was little attracted by the purely romantic; highly cultivated, and keenly appreciating natural and moral beauty, she sought her materials not from the past, but rather in human life and character as they existed around her. That Sir Walter Scott; had a high opinion of her talents is obvious from the various references which he has made to her. Thus, in the notes to the Legend of Montrose, he speaks of her as "his sister shadow," and of "Marriage" as a "very lively work." In his diary he says, "Edgeworth, Ferrier, Austen, have all given portraits of real society, far superior to anything man, vain man, has produced of the like nature. . . . . . Miss Ferrier comes out to us. This gifted personage, besides having great talents, has conversation the least exigeante of any author, female at least, whom I have ever seen among the long list I have encountered with; simple, full of humour, and exceedingly ready at repartee; and all this without the least affectation of the bluestocking." Mrs. Davy, in her account of a drive with Sir Walter Scott in the neighbourhood of Valetta, says, "He spoke with praise of Miss Ferrier as a novelist." Praise from such a quarter meant fame, and that it was deserved is attested by the fact that Miss Ferrier's productions are at the present day regarded as classic. In her tale of "Marriage," the author deals with the sillinesses, cunning, selfishness, and hypocrisy, observable among men in a somewhat hard and masculine manner; but in her later works there is more tenderness, with no less wit in the dialogue, and no less accuracy and vividness in the delineation. Each of Miss Ferrier's works was an improvement on its predecessor in artistic skill, the story being more naturally constructed, and the conversations and descriptions being less liable to the charge of extravagance and caricature. Miss Ferrier was much esteemed by the literary society of Edinburgh, where she died in November, 1854. A new edition of her works, issued in 1841, was very favourably received.—J. B. J.
FERRIÈRE, Claude de, born at Paris in 1639; died at Reims in 1715; took the degree of doctor of law in Paris, and from thence went to Reims, where he held a professorship of civil and canon law, and afterwards of French law. He published several works, both on Roman law and on the customary law of France. His "Traité des fiefs, suivant les coutumes de France," continues to be of some interest. His son, Claude Joseph, who died about 1748, held a professorship of law in Paris, and wrote and edited several law books.—J. A., D.
FERRO, Scipione Del, a Bolognese, who was professor of mathematics in his native town from the year 1490 to 1526. He co-operated in the solution, formerly unknown, of the equations of the third degree—a point which the Italian mathematicians of that age were the first to master. Some of his pupils, and especially Antonio Maria del Fiore, rose to great reputation through their attainments in mathematics; and the competition which took place between the latter and Tartaglia concerning the aforesaid problems, is an interesting fact in the history of science.—A. S., O.
FERRY, Claude Joseph, was born in 1756, and died in 1845. Ferry was first educated at the military school of Paris, and his studies were afterwards directed by D'Alembert. At the age of thirty he was appointed professor at Mezières. In 1792 he was sent to the convention as deputy from Ardennes. He voted for the death of Louis XVI. In 1793 he was one of the officers sent to the central departments, to devise the best means of resisting the threatened invasion of the kingdom. On his commission expiring, he resumed his duties as professor. At the creation of the polytechnique school, he was appointed examiner, an office of which he was deprived in 1814, as a regicide. Ferry's political principles prevented his assisting Bonaparte, either at the period of the consulate or the Hundred Days. In 1815 he was given a pension, which enabled him to give the close of his life to study. He published some tracts, of temporary interest, on politics and political economy.—J. A., D.
FERRY or FERRIUS, Paul, was born at Metz, in the French department of Moselle, on the 24th of February, 1591. At an early age he was sent to study theology at Montauban, and made such progress that in 1610, when he was only nineteen years old, he became a minister in his native town. Previous to this he had published a volume of poems, in the preface to which he intimated by the words, "Sat ludo nugisque datum," that he
