Quiz: An Essay on the History of Civil Society

All 30 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. Which country does Ferguson cite as the only republic established in a great kingdom on the ruins of monarchy?

   Switzerland Sweden The United Provinces Poland
2. 2. On what basis does Ferguson distinguish the “savage” from the “barbarian”?

   Whether property, especially in herds, is a principal object of care Whether the people can read and write their own language and laws Whether they live in the tropics or the temperate zone Whether they are ruled by a hereditary king or by elected chiefs
3. 3. What example does Ferguson give of the human cost of projects of sudden settlement?

   Settlers sent out to Louisiana by Law’s company, who died of fever Highlanders cleared to make room for sheep Peasants driven to St Petersburg who perished for want of subsistence Colonists shipped to the Cape of Good Hope
4. 4. According to Ferguson, where do manufactures prosper most?

   Where workers receive a liberal education Where the mind is least consulted Where each worker makes a whole product Where guild apprenticeships are longest
5. 5. How, in Ferguson’s contrast, did the Carthaginian provide for war?

   He lent profits to hire an army abroad He took up his own sword, as the Roman did He paid tribute to his enemies to avoid a war He relied on the fleets of his allies in Sicily and Spain
6. 6. What does Ferguson fear if claims to equal justice end by making every class servile and mercenary?

   The monarchy will be abolished Commerce will return to barter “We make a nation of helots, and have no free citizens” “The poor will seize the property of the rich, and divide it”
7. 7. According to Ferguson, how do nations arrive at their establishments?

   They copy the plans of wise legislators They adopt them by an original social contract, agreed among the founders They receive them from conquering empires They stumble on them, not by design
8. 8. How does Ferguson contrast ancients and moderns?

   The ancients were selfish and private; the moderns are public-spirited and patriotic The ancients lacked any idea of the public good; the moderns invented it with the state To the ancients the public was everything; to many modern Europeans the individual is Both ancients and moderns valued commerce above politics and private wealth above honour
9. 9. What curse did hunting nations on the borders of Siberia wish on their enemies?

   To have to live like a Tartar, breeding and tending cattle To become merchants in a Chinese city To lose their horses and be forced to till the ground To be driven into the frozen sea
10. 10. How does Ferguson say men should be estimated?

    By their deeds, not by their knowledge By the extent of their learning in the ancient and modern languages By their wealth and the rank of their families By the antiquity and renown of their nation
11. 11. What, according to Ferguson, gives laws any real effect in preserving liberty?

    The influence of men resolved to be free The authority of a benevolent sovereign The independence of a professional judiciary The precision of written statutes
12. 12. What does Ferguson call “the key-stone of civil liberty”?

    The law requiring Parliament to meet every year and vote supplies anew The statute requiring every prisoner to be produced and the cause of commitment declared The right of every subject to trial by a jury of his peers, in civil and criminal cases alike The right of the people to bear arms in defence of their own liberties and laws
13. 13. Where does Ferguson say we should look for the features of Europe’s own ancestors?

    In philosophical conjecture about the state of nature In the national legends of each European people In the present state of rude nations described by travellers In the chronicles of medieval monks
14. 14. What astonished the American chief who spoke with the governor of Jamaica?

    That the English used muskets instead of bows That most of the crowd were merchants who took no part in the war That the governor’s troops had no horses That the King of Spain was the governor’s ally and paid for his soldiers
15. 15. What does Ferguson conclude from Kolben’s report that the Khoikhoi steal cattle and women from one another?

    Property in cattle must be abolished before war can end among them The thefts are effects of a hostile intention, not the cause of war The Khoikhoi had no wars, only crimes The thefts show that all wars arise from scarcity of cattle and of wives
16. 16. Following Montesquieu, what principle does Ferguson assign to aristocracy?

    Moderation Virtue Honour Fear
17. 17. Where does Ferguson say the state of nature is to be found?

    Among the solitary savages of the American forests, before any society was formed In the golden age described by the ancient poets Nowhere, since humans were created already civilised and placed in society by divine command Here, wherever humans employ their talents, Britain as much as the Straits of Magellan
18. 18. What did Spinola say on hearing that Sir Francis Vere had died of having nothing to do?

    That Vere had deserved a better death in battle That this was enough to kill a general That idleness was the privilege of victors That he envied Vere’s repose
19. 19. Which separation does Ferguson call “an attempt to dismember the human character”?

    Separating the farmer from the merchant Separating the clergy from the state Separating the clothier from the tanner, and the smith from the weaver Separating the arts of policy and war from the citizen
20. 20. Why does Ferguson reject the comparison of nations to individual human lives?

    Nations are protected by divine providence from decay Nations never decline except by foreign conquest A society renews its members every generation Individuals do not all age at the same fixed rate
21. 21. What does Ferguson conclude about natural advantages and the seat of arts and commerce?

    Fertile land and a gentle climate are always the home of the arts Only island nations, with many harbours, can develop commerce Arts flourish wherever the climate is hottest Moderate difficulties stimulate industry more than natural blessings
22. 22. Why did the Persian satrap order his furs and carpets withdrawn?

    The Spartans demanded them as a tribute for peace They were needed for a sacrifice His own king had forbidden such display to his satraps He saw the Spartan king lying on the grass with his soldiers
23. 23. In the imaginary traveller’s letter, what happened to the loud-voiced tanner?

    He was sent to command the army He was pressed into the ranks as a recruit He was banished from the city He was made one of the two kings
24. 24. What was Athens to Sparta, in Ferguson’s image?

    A colony and dependant, subject to its laws As steel is to flint in the production of fire An ally against Persia, nothing more A model of government to be copied
25. 25. How does Ferguson interpret the household property held by women among North American peoples?

    As a reward for women’s skill in war As proof that women ruled the tribe and chose its chiefs As a mark of subjection, a burden warriors refuse As a survival of an earlier matriarchy, now in decline
26. 26. Where does Ferguson say man is sometimes found “a detached and a solitary being”?

    In the ancient Greek cities In the savage tribes of North America In a commercial state In the early Roman republic
27. 27. Why, according to Ferguson, is the term “self-love” improper for the concern with interest?

    Because interest is always benevolent, aiming at the good of a man’s family and friends Because humans have no instinct of self-preservation, only the habits taught by society Because interest is a partial offshoot of self-preservation; the term only shifts words Because only animals act from self-love, while men are moved by reason and duty
28. 28. By what means, according to Ferguson, does despotism come to accomplish its own destruction?

    Conquest by a free republic lying on its frontier The reforms of a virtuous prince and his ministers National poverty and suppressed commerce A revolt of the nobility against the prince’s ministers
29. 29. What happened at Athens, according to Ferguson, when state and war became separate professions?

    The poets and orators of the city reached their greatest heights Sparta adopted the same system They were worse administered, and men ceased to be citizens Athens became richer and better defended
30. 30. What does Ferguson predict a colony of untaught children, left to form a society, would do?

    Live as solitary animals, without language, until a lawgiver came Remain at peace forever, having learned no vices from their elders Repeat what societies everywhere have done: talk, play, quarrel and divide Die out within a generation for want of instruction in the arts