Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 2
1786-10-16
We recite two or three times more, in s'Gravesande's, but next quarter, we shall begin upon Ferguson's Astronomy.1 Mr. Williams had a lecture, upon Trigonometry, very few of the Class attended. Charles went to Boston in the morning, and at length, brought the books, which are mostly upon philosophical subjects. Mead was at my Chamber in the evening. About half the Class are gone. I declaimed this Evening, a piece from Blair's Lectures2 vol. 1. p: 14, 15, 16. on the cultivation of taste.
James Ferguson, Astronomy Explained Upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles, And Made Easy to Those Who Have Not Studied Mathematics...., London, 1756. JQA requested of his father a copy of this work in his letter of 30 Aug. (Adams Papers), and his copy, 7th edn., London, 1785, is at MQA.
Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, 2 vols., London, 1783; Harvard had the 3-vol., 2d edn., London, 1785 (
Catalogus Bibliothecae
, 1790, p. 149).