JAMES FREDERICK FERRIER
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or only as playful jests with a grain of truth behind. Here are some of the questions and their answers.
| Question. | | Answer. |
| Your favourite character in history. | | Socrates. |
| The character you most dislike. | | Calvin. |
| Your favourite kind of literature. | | The Arabian Nights. |
| Your favourite author. | | Hegel. |
| Your favourite occupation and amusement. | | Driving with a handsome woman. |
| Those you dislike most. | | Fishing, walking, and dancing. |
| Your favourite topics of conversation. | | Humorous and tender. |
| Those you dislike most. | | Statistical and personal. |
| Your ambition. | | To reach the Truth. |
| Your ideal. | | Always to pay ready money. |
| Your hobby. | | Peacemaking. |
| The virtue you most admire. | | Reasonableness. |
| The vices to which you are most lenient. | | The world, the flesh, and the devil. |
These last two answers are very characteristic of Ferrier's point of view in later days. He was above all reasonable — no ascetic who could not understand the temptations of the world, but one who enjoyed its pleasures, saw the humorous side of life, appreciated the aesthetic, and yet kept the dictates of reason ever before his mind. And his ambition to reach the Truth
' Differed from a host
Of aims alike in character and kind,
Mostly in this — that in itself alone
Shall its reward be, not an alien end
Blending therewith.'
Thus, like Paracelsus, he aspired.
