James Frederick Ferrier, the Scottish metaphysician, was born in Edinburgh into a wealthy family of lawyers. After studying at the universities of Edinburgh and Oxford, he spent some months in Germany. He settled in Edinburgh in 1832 as an advocate, becoming active in the intellectual circle of Sir William Hamilton, which included Thomas De Quincey and "Christopher North" of Blackwood's Magazine. Under this stimulus Ferrier contributed to Blackwood's between 1838 and 1843 the eleven long articles that fill most of the second volume of his Lectures and Remains (2 vols., Edinburgh and London, 1866). In 1845 he was appointed professor of moral philosophy and political economy at the University of St. Andrews. Ferrier issued a drastically revised version of his philosophy in the Institutes of Metaphysic (Edinburgh and London, 1854; 2nd ed., 1856). The Institutes was to some extent affected by Ferrier's commitments in the political and ecclesiastical struggles that...