diff options
Diffstat (limited to '39203-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 39203-h/39203-h.htm | 3171 |
1 files changed, 3171 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/39203-h/39203-h.htm b/39203-h/39203-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c1a998 --- /dev/null +++ b/39203-h/39203-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3171 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of An Edinburgh Eleven, by J. M. Barrie</title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h4 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +p.title { text-align: center; text-indent: 0; + font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 3em; } + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%} +hr.full {width: 95%;} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:smaller; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; } + + hr.pg { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 85%;} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, An Edinburgh Eleven, by J. M. Barrie</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: An Edinburgh Eleven</p> +<p> Pencil Portraits from College Life</p> +<p>Author: J. M. Barrie</p> +<p>Release Date: March 19, 2012 [eBook #39203]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN EDINBURGH ELEVEN***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by David Edwards, Diane Monico,<br /> + and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> + from page images generously made available by<br /> + Internet Archive<br /> + (<a href="http://www.archive.org">http://www.archive.org</a>)</h4> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/edinburghelevenp00barrrich"> + http://www.archive.org/details/edinburghelevenp00barrrich</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<hr class="pg" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>AN EDINBURGH ELEVEN</h1> +<hr class="chap" /> + + + +<h1> +AN EDINBURGH ELEVEN</h1> + +<h2>PENCIL PORTRAITS FROM<br /> +COLLEGE LIFE</h2> + +<p class="title"><small>BY</small><br /> + +<big>J. M. BARRIE</big><br /> +<br /> +<small>AUTHOR OF<br /> + +"THE LITTLE MINISTER," "A WINDOW IN THRUMS," "WHEN A MAN'S<br /> +SINGLE," "AULD LICHT IDYLLS," ETC.</small><br /> +<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> +NEW YORK<br /> + +<big>LOVELL, CORYELL & COMPANY</big><br /> +<small><span class="smcap">5 and 7 East Sixteenth Street</span></small><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="toc"> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">I. <span class="smcap">Lord Rosebery</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">II. <span class="smcap">Professor Masson</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">III. <span class="smcap">Professor Blackie</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">IV. <span class="smcap">Professor Calderwood</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">V. <span class="smcap">Professor Tait</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">VI. <span class="smcap">Professor Fraser</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">VII. <span class="smcap">Professor Chrystal</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">VIII. <span class="smcap">Professor Sellar</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">IX. <span class="smcap">Mr. Joseph Thomson</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">X. <span class="smcap">Robert Louis Stevenson</span>,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XI. <span class="smcap">Rev. Walter C. Smith</span>, D.D.,</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="LORD_ROSEBERY" id="LORD_ROSEBERY"></a>LORD ROSEBERY.</h2> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.<br /><br /> + +LORD ROSEBERY.</h2> + + +<p>The first time I ever saw Lord Rosebery was +in Edinburgh when I was a student, and I flung +a clod of earth at him. He was a peer; those +were my politics.</p> + +<p>I missed him, and I have heard a good many +journalists say since then that he is a difficult +man to hit. One who began by liking him and +is now scornful, which is just the reverse process +from mine, told me the reason why. He +had some brochures to write on the Liberal +leaders, and got on nicely till he reached Lord +Rosebery, where he stuck. In vain he walked +round his lordship, looking for an opening. +The man was naturally indignant; he is the +father of a family.</p> + +<p>Lord Rosebery is forty-one years of age, and +has missed many opportunities of becoming the +bosom friend of Lord Randolph Churchill.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +They were at Eton together and at Oxford, and +have met since. As a boy, the Liberal played +at horses, and the Tory at running off with +other boys' caps. Lord Randolph was the more +distinguished at the university. One day a +proctor ran him down in the streets smoking in +his cap and gown. The undergraduate remarked +on the changeability of the weather, +but the proctor, gasping at such bravado, demanded +his name and college. Lord Randolph +failed to turn up next day at St. Edmund Hall +to be lectured, but strolled to the proctor's +house about dinner-time. "Does a fellow, name +of Moore, live here?" he asked. The footman +contrived not to faint. "He do," he replied, +severely; "but he are at dinner." "Ah! take +him in my card," said the unabashed caller. +The Merton books tell that for this the noble +lord was fined ten pounds.</p> + +<p>There was a time when Lord Rosebery would +have reformed the House of Lords to a site +nearer Newmarket. As politics took a firmer +grip of him, it was Newmarket that seemed a +long way off. One day at Edinburgh he realized<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +the disadvantage of owning swift horses. +His brougham had met him at Waverley Station +to take him to Dalmeny. Lord Rosebery +opened the door of the carriage to put in some +papers, and then turned away. The coachman, +too well bred to look round, heard the door +shut, and, thinking that his master was inside, +set off at once. Pursuit was attempted, but +what was there in Edinburgh streets to make +up on those horses? The coachman drove seven +miles, until he reached a point in the Dalmeny +parks where it was his lordship's custom to +alight and open a gate. Here the brougham +stood for some minutes, awaiting Lord Rosebery's +convenience. At last the coachman became +uneasy and dismounted. His brain reeled +when he saw an empty brougham. He could +have sworn to seeing his lordship enter. There +were his papers. What had happened? With +a quaking hand the horses were turned, and, +driving back, the coachman looked fearfully +along the sides of the road. He met Lord Rosebery +travelling in great good humor by the +luggage omnibus.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> + +<p>Whatever is to be Lord Rosebery's future, +he has reached that stage in a statesman's career +when his opponents cease to question his capacity. +His speeches showed him long ago a +man of brilliant parts. His tenure of the Foreign +Office proved him heavy metal. Were the +Gladstonians to return to power, the other +Cabinet posts might go anywhere, but the Foreign +Secretary is arranged for. Where his predecessors +had clouded their meaning in words +till it was as wrapped up as a Mussulman's +head, Lord Rosebery's were the straightforward +despatches of a man with his mind made +up. German influence was spoken of; Count +Herbert Bismarck had been seen shooting Lord +Rosebery's partridges. This was the evidence: +there has never been any other, except that +German methods commended themselves to the +minister rather than those of France. His relations +with the French government were cordial. +"The talk of Bismarck's shadow behind +Rosebery," a great French politician said lately, +"I put aside with a smile; but how about the +Jews?" Probably few persons realize what a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +power the Jews are in Europe, and in Lord +Rosebery's position he is a strong man if he +holds his own with them. Any fears on that +ground have, I should say, been laid by his +record at the Foreign Office.</p> + +<p>Lord Rosebery had once a conversation with +Prince Bismarck, to which, owing to some oversight, +the Paris correspondent of the <i>Times</i> +was not invited. M. Blowitz only smiled good-naturedly, +and of course his report of the proceedings +appeared all the same. Some time +afterward Lord Rosebery was introduced to +this remarkable man, who, as is well known, +carries Cabinet appointments in his pocket, +and complimented him on his report. "Ah, it +was all right, was it?" asked Blowitz, beaming. +Lord Rosebery explained that any fault it had +was that it was all wrong. "Then if Bismarck +did not say that to you," said Blowitz, regally, +"I know he intended to say it."</p> + +<p>The "Uncrowned King of Scotland" is a title +that has been made for Lord Rosebery, whose +country has had faith in him from the beginning. +Mr. Gladstone is the only other man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +who can make so many Scotsmen take politics +as if it were the Highland Fling. Once when +Lord Rosebery was firing an Edinburgh audience +to the delirium point, an old man in the +hall shouted out, "I dinna hear a word he says, +but it's grand, it's grand!" During the first +Midlothian campaign Mr. Gladstone and Lord +Rosebery were the father and son of the Scottish +people. Lord Rosebery rode into fame on +the top of that wave, and he has kept his place +in the hearts of the people, and in oleographs +on their walls, ever since. In all Scottish matters +he has the enthusiasm of a Burns dinner, +and his humor enables him to pay compliments. +When he says agreeable things to Scotsmen +about their country, there is a twinkle in his +eye and in theirs to which English scribes cannot +give a meaning. He has unveiled so many +Burns statues that an American lecturess explains: +"Curious thing, but I feel somehow I +am connected with Lord Rosebery. I go to a +place and deliver a lecture on Burns; they collect +subscriptions for a statue, and he unveils +it." Such is the delight of the Scottish students<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +in Lord Rosebery that he may be said to +have made the triumphal tour of the northern +universities as their lord-rector; he lost the +post in Glasgow lately through a quibble, but +had the honor with the votes. His address to +the Edinburgh undergraduates on "Patriotism" +was the best thing he ever did outside politics, +and made the students his for life. Some of +them had smuggled into the hall a chair with +"Gaelic chair" placarded on it, and the lord-rector +unwittingly played into their hands. +In a noble peroration he exhorted his hearers +to high aims in life. "Raise your country," he +exclaimed [cheers]; "raise yourselves [renewed +cheering]; raise your university [thunders of +applause]." From the back of the hall came a +solemn voice, "Raise the chair!" Up went the +Gaelic chair.</p> + +<p>Even Lord Rosebery's views on imperial federation +can become a compliment to Scotland. +Having been all over the world himself, and +felt how he grew on his travels, Lord Rosebery +maintains that every British statesman +should visit India and the colonies. He said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +that first at a semi-public dinner in the country—and +here I may mention that on such occasions +he has begun his speeches less frequently +than any other prominent politician with a +statement that others could be got to discharge +the duty better; in other words, he has several +times omitted this introduction. On his return +to London he was told that his colleagues in +the Administration had been seeing how his +scheme would work out. "We found that if +your rule were enforced, the Cabinet would consist +of yourself and Childers." "This would be +an ideal cabinet," Lord Rosebery subsequently +remarked in Edinburgh, "for it would be entirely +Scottish," Mr. Childers being member +for a Scottish constituency.</p> + +<p>The present unhappy division of the Liberal +party has made enemies of friends for no leading +man so little as for Lord Rosebery. There +are forces working against him, no doubt, in +comparatively high places, but the Unionists +have kept their respect for him. His views +may be wrong, but he is about the only Liberal +leader, with the noble exception of Lord Hartington,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +of whom troublous times have not rasped +the temper. Though a great reader, he is not +a literary man like Mr. Morley, who would, however, +be making phrases where Lord Rosebery +would make laws. Sir William Harcourt has +been spoken of as a possible prime minister, +but surely it will never come to that. If Mr. +Gladstone's successor is chosen from those who +have followed him on the home-rule question, +he probably was not rash in himself naming +Lord Rosebery.</p> + +<p>Lord Rosebery could not now step up without +stepping into the premiership. His humor, +which is his most obvious faculty, has been a +prop to him many a time ere now, but, if I was +his adviser, I should tell him that it has served +its purpose. There are a great many excellent +people who shake their heads over it in a man +who has become a power in the land. "Let us +be grave," said Dr. Johnson once to a merry +companion, "for here comes a fool." In an unknown +novel there is a character who says of +himself that "he is not stupid enough ever to +be a great man." I happen to know that this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +reflection was evolved by the author out of +thinking over Lord Rosebery. It is not easy +for a bright man to be heavy, and Lord Rosebery's +humor is so spontaneous that if a joke is +made in their company he has always finished +laughing before Lord Hartington begins. Perhaps +when Lord Rosebery is on the point of +letting his humor run off with him in a public +speech, he could recover his solemnity by thinking +of the <i>Examiner</i>.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PROFESSOR_MASSON" id="PROFESSOR_MASSON"></a>PROFESSOR MASSON.</h2> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.<br /><br /> + +PROFESSOR MASSON.</h2> + + +<p>Though a man might, to my mind, be better +employed than in going to college, it is his own +fault if he does not strike on some one there +who sends his life off at a new angle. If, as I +take it, the glory of a professor is to give elastic +minds their proper bent, Masson is a name +his country will retain a grip of. There are +men who are good to think of, and as a rule we +only know them from their books. Something +of our pride in life would go with their fall. +To have one such professor at a time is the +most a university can hope of human nature; so +Edinburgh need not expect another just yet. +These, of course, are only to be taken as the +reminiscences of a student. I seem to remember +everything Masson said, and the way he +said it.</p> + +<p>Having, immediately before taken lodgings in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +a crow's nest, my first sight of Masson was +specially impressive. It was the opening of +the session, when fees were paid, and a whisper +ran round the quadrangle that Masson had +set off home with three hundred one-pound +notes stuffed into his trouser pockets. There +was a solemn swell of awestruck students to +the gates, and some of us could not help following +him. He took his pockets coolly. When +he stopped it was at a second-hand bookstall, +where he rummaged for a long time. Eventually +he pounced upon a dusty, draggled little +volume, and went off proudly with it beneath +his arm. He seemed to look suspiciously at +strangers now, but it was not the money but +the book he was keeping guard over. His +pockets, however, were unmistakably bulging +out. I resolved to go in for literature.</p> + +<p>Masson, however, always comes to my memory +first knocking nails into his desk or trying +to tear the gas-bracket from its socket. He +said that the Danes scattered over England, +taking such a hold as a nail takes when it is +driven into wood. For the moment he saw his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +desk turned into England; he whirled an invisible +hammer in the air, and down it came on +the desk with a crash. No one who has sat +under Masson can forget how the Danes nailed +themselves upon England. His desk is thick +with their tombstones. It was when his mind +groped for an image that he clutched the +bracket. He seemed to tear his good things +out of it. Silence overcame the class. Some +were fascinated by the man; others trembled +for the bracket. It shook, groaned, and yielded. +Masson said another of the things that made +his lectures literature; the crisis was passed; +and everybody breathed again.</p> + +<p>He masters a subject by letting it master +him; for though his critical reputation is built +on honesty, it is his enthusiasm that makes his +work warm with life. Sometimes he entered +the class-room so full of what he had to say that +he began before he reached his desk. If he +was in the middle of a peroration when the bell +rang, even the back benches forgot to empty. +There were the inevitable students to whom +literature is a trial, and sometimes they call attention<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +to their sufferings by a scraping of the +feet. Then the professor tried to fix his eyeglass +on them, and when it worked properly +they were transfixed. As a rule, however, it +required so many adjustments that by the time +his eye took hold of it he had remembered that +students were made so, and his indignation +went. Then, with the light in his eye that +some photographer ought to catch, he would +hope that his lecture was not disturbing their +conversation. It was characteristic of his passion +for being just that, when he had criticised +some writer severely he would remember that +the back benches could not understand that +criticism and admiration might go together, +unless they were told so again.</p> + +<p>The test of a sensitive man is that he is careful +of wounding the feelings of others. Once, +I remember, a student was reading a passage +aloud, assuming at the same time such an attitude +that the professor could not help remarking +that he looked like a teapot. It was +exactly what he did look like, and the class +applauded. But next moment Masson had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +apologized for being personal. Such reminiscences +are what make the old literature class-room +to thousands of graduates a delight to +think of.</p> + +<p>When the news of Carlyle's death reached +the room, Masson could not go on with his lecture. +Every one knows what Carlyle has said +of him; and no one who has heard it will ever +forget what he has said of Carlyle. Here were +two men who understood each other. One of +the Carlylean pictures one loves to dwell on +shows them smoking together, with nothing +breaking the pauses but Mrs. Carlyle's needles. +Carlyle told Masson how he gave up smoking +and then took to it again. He had walked +from Dumfriesshire to Edinburgh to consult a +doctor about his health, and was advised to +lose his pipe. He smoked no more, but his +health did not improve, and then one day he +walked in a wood. At the foot of a tree lay a +pipe, a tobacco pouch, a match-box. He saw +clearly that this was a case of Providential +interference, and from that moment he smoked +again. There the professor's story stops. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +have no doubt, though, that he nodded his +head when Carlyle explained what the pipe +and tobacco were doing there. Masson's "Milton" +is, of course, his great work, but for sympathetic +analysis I know nothing to surpass +his "Chatterton." Lecturing on Chatterton one +day, he remarked, with a slight hesitation, that +had the poet mixed a little more in company +and—and smoked, his morbidness would not +have poisoned him. That turned my thoughts +to smoking, because I meant to be a Chatterton, +but greater. Since then the professor has +warned me against smoking too much. He +was smoking at the time.</p> + +<p>This is no place to follow Masson's career, +nor to discuss his work. To reach his position +one ought to know his definition of a man of +letters. It is curious, and, like most of his departures +from the generally accepted, sticks to +the memory. By a man of letters he does not +mean the poet, for instance, who is all soul, so +much as the strong-brained writer whose guardian +angel is a fine sanity. He used to mention +John Skelton, the Wolsey satirist, and Sir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +David Lindsay, as typical men of letters from +this point of view, and it is as a man of letters +of that class that Masson is best considered. +In an age of many whipper-snappers in criticism, +he is something of a Gulliver.</p> + +<p>The students in that class liked to see their +professor as well as hear him. I let my hair +grow long because it only annoyed other people, +and one day there was dropped into my +hand a note containing sixpence and the words: +"The students sitting behind you present their +compliments, and beg that you will get your +hair cut with the enclosed, as it interferes with +their view of the professor."</p> + +<p>Masson, when he edited <i>Macmillan's</i>, had +all the best men round him. His talk of Thackeray +is specially interesting, but he always holds +that in conversation Douglas Jerrold was unapproachable. +Jerrold told him a good story of +his seafaring days. His ship was lying off +Gibraltar, and for some hours Jerrold, though +only a midshipman, was left in charge. Some +of the sailors begged to get ashore, and he let +them, on the promise that they would bring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +him back some oranges. One of them disappeared, +and the midshipman suffered for it. +More than twenty years afterward Jerrold +was looking in at a window in the Strand when +he seemed to know the face of a weatherbeaten +man who was doing the same thing. Suddenly +he remembered, and put his hand on the other's +shoulder. "My man," he said, "you have been +a long time with those oranges!" The sailor +recognized him, turned white, and took to his +heels. There is, too, the story of how Dickens +and Jerrold made up their quarrel at the Garrick +Club. It was the occasion on which Masson +first met the author of "Pickwick." Dickens +and Jerrold had not spoken for a year, and +they both happened to have friends at dinner +in the strangers' room, Masson being Jerrold's +guest. The two hosts sat back to back, but +did not address each other, though the conversation +was general. At last Jerrold could stand +it no longer. Turning, he exclaimed, "Charley, +my boy, how are you?" Dickens wheeled +round and grasped his hand.</p> + +<p>Many persons must have noticed that, in appearance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +Masson is becoming more and more +like Carlyle every year. How would you account +for it? It is a thing his old students +often discuss when they meet, especially those +of them who, when at college, made up their +minds to dedicate their first book to him. The +reason they seldom do it is because the book +does not seem good enough.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PROFESSOR_JOHN_STUART_BLACKIE" id="PROFESSOR_JOHN_STUART_BLACKIE"></a>PROFESSOR JOHN STUART BLACKIE.</h2> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.<br /><br /> + +PROFESSOR JOHN STUART BLACKIE.</h2> + + +<p>Lately I was told that Blackie—one does +not say Mr. Cromwell—is no longer professor +of Greek in Edinburgh University. What +nonsense some people talk! As if Blackie were +not part of the building! In his class one day +he spoke touchingly of the time when he would +have to join Socrates in the Elysian fields. A +student cheered—no one knows why. "It +won't be for some time yet," added John +Stuart.</p> + +<p>Blackie takes his ease at home, in a dressing-gown +and straw hat. This shows that his plaid +really does come off. "My occupation nowadays," +he said to me recently, "is business, +blethers, bothers, beggars, and backgammon." +He has also started a profession of going to public +meetings, and hurrying home to write letters +to the newspapers about them. When the editor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +shakes the manuscript, a sonnet falls out. I +think I remember the professor's saying that +he had never made five shillings by his verses. +To my mind they are worth more than that.</p> + +<p>Though he has explained them frequently, +there is still confusion about Blackie's politics. +At Manchester they thought he was a Tory, +and invited him to address them, on that understanding. +"I fancy I astonished them," the +professor said to me. This is quite possible. +Then he was mistaken for a Liberal. The fact is +that Blackie is a philosopher, who follows the +golden mean. He sees this himself. A philosopher +who follows the golden mean is thus a +man who runs zig-zag between two extremes. +You will observe that he who does this is some +time before he arrives anywhere.</p> + +<p>The professor has said that he has the strongest +lungs in Scotland. Of the many compliments +that might well be paid him, not the least +worthy would be this: that he is as healthy +mentally as physically. Mrs. Norton begins a +novel with the remark that one of the finest +sights conceivable is a well-preserved gentleman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +of middle age. It will be some time yet before +Blackie reaches middle age, but there must be +something wrong with you if you can look at +him without feeling refreshed. Did you ever +watch him marching along Princes Street on a +warm day, when every other person was broiling +in the sun? His head is well thrown back, +the staff, grasped in the middle, jerks back and +forward like a weaver's shuttle, and the plaid +flies in the breeze. Other people's clothes are +hanging limp. Blackie carries his breeze with +him.</p> + +<p>A year or two ago Mr. Gladstone, when at +Dalmeny, pointed out that he had the advantage +over Blackie in being of both Highland +and Lowland extraction. The professor, however, +is as Scotch as the thistle or his native +hills, and Mr. Gladstone, quite justifiably, considers +him the most outstanding of living +Scotsmen. Blackie is not quite sure himself. +Not long ago I heard him read a preface to a +life of Mr. Gladstone that was being printed at +Smyrna in modern Greek. He told his readers +to remember that Mr. Gladstone was a great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +scholar and an upright statesman. They would +find it easy to do this if they first remembered +that he was Scottish.</p> + +<p>The <i>World</i> included Blackie in its list of +"Celebrities at Home." It said that the door +was opened by a red-headed lassie. That was +probably meant for local color, and it amused +every one who knew Mrs. Blackie. The professor +is one of the most genial of men, and will +show you to your room himself, talking six languages. +This tends to make the conversation +one-sided, but he does not mind that. He still +writes a good deal, spending several hours in +his library daily, and his talk is as brilliant as +ever. His writing nowadays is less sustained +than it was, and he prefers flitting from one +subject to another, to evolving a great work. +When he dips his pen into an ink-pot, it at once +writes a sonnet—so strong is the force of habit. +Recently he wrote a page about Carlyle in a +little book issued by the Edinburgh students' +bazaar committee. In this he reproved Carlyle +for having "bias." Blackie wonders why people +should have bias.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> + +<p>Some readers of this may in their student +days have been invited to the Greek professor's +house to breakfast, without knowing why they +were selected from among so many. It was not, +as they are probably aware, because of their +classical attainments, for they were too thoughtful +to be in the prize-list; nor was it because of +the charm of their manners or the fascination +of their conversation. When the professor +noticed any physical peculiarity about a student, +such as a lisp, or a glass eye, or one leg +longer than the other, or a broken nose, he was +at once struck by it, and asked him to breakfast. +They were very lively breakfasts, the eggs +being served in tureens; but sometimes it was +a collection of the maimed and crooked, and +one person at the table—not the host himself—used +to tremble lest, making mirrors of each +other, the guests should see why they were +invited.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, instead of asking a student to +breakfast, Blackie would instruct another student +to request his company to tea. Then the +two students were told to talk about paulo-post<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +futures in the cool of the evening, and to +read their Greek Testament and to go to the +pantomime. The professor never tired of giving +his students advice about the preservation +of their bodily health. He strongly recommended +a cold bath at six o'clock every morning. +In winter, he remarked genially, you can +break the ice with a hammer. According to +himself, only one enthusiast seems to have +followed his advice, and he died.</p> + +<p>In Blackie's class-room there used to be a demonstration +every time he mentioned the name +of a distinguished politician. Whether the +demonstration took the professor by surprise +or whether he waited for it, will never perhaps +be known. But Blackie at least put out the +gleam in his eye, and looked as if he were +angry. "I will say Beaconsfield," he would +exclaim (cheers and hisses). "Beaconsfield" +(uproar). Then he would stride forward, and, +seizing the railing, announce his intention of +saying Beaconsfield until every goose in the +room was tired of cackling. ("Question.") +"Beaconsfield." ("No, no.") "Beaconsfield."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +("Hear, hear," and shouts of "Gladstone.") +"Beaconsfield." ("Three cheers for Dizzy.") +Eventually the class would be dismissed as—(1) +idiots, (2) a bear garden, (3) a flock of sheep, +(4) a pack of numskulls, (5) hissing serpents. +The professor would retire, apparently fuming, +to his anteroom, and five minutes afterward +he would be playing himself down the North +Bridge on imaginary bagpipes. This sort of +thing added a sauce to all academic sessions. +There was a notebook also, which appeared +year after year. It contained the professor's +jokes of a former session, carefully classified by +an admiring student. It was handed down +from one year's men to the next; and thus, if +Blackie began to make a joke about haggis, the +possessor of the book had only swiftly to turn +to the H's, find what the joke was, and send it +along the class quicker than the professor could +speak it.</p> + +<p>In the old days the Greek professor recited a +poem in honor of the end of the session. He +composed it himself, and, as known to me, it +took the form of a graduate's farewell to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +alma mater. Sometimes he would knock a +map down as if overcome with emotion, and at +critical moments a student in the back benches +would accompany him on a penny trumpet. +Now, I believe, the Hellenic Club takes the +place of the class-room. All the eminent persons +in Edinburgh attend its meetings, and +Blackie, the Athenian, is in the chair. The +policeman in Douglas Crescent looks skeered +when you ask him what takes place on these +occasions. It is generally understood that +toward the end of the meeting they agree to +read Greek next time.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PROFESSOR_CALDERWOOD" id="PROFESSOR_CALDERWOOD"></a>PROFESSOR CALDERWOOD.</h2> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.<br /><br /> + +PROFESSOR CALDERWOOD.</h2> + + +<p>Here is a true story that the general reader +may jump, as it is intended for Professor Calderwood +himself. Some years ago an English +daily paper reviewed a book entitled "A Handbook +of Moral Philosophy." The professor +knows the work. The "notice" was done by +the junior reporter, to whom philosophical +treatises are generally intrusted. He dealt +leniently, on the whole, with Professor Calderwood, +even giving him a word of encouragement +here and there. Still the criticism was +severe. The reviewer subsequently went to +Edinburgh University, and came out 144th in +the class of moral philosophy.</p> + +<p>That student is now, I believe, on friendly +terms with Professor Calderwood, but has never +told him this story. I fancy the professor +would like to know his name. It may perhaps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +be reached in this way: He was the young +gentleman who went to his classes the first day +in a black coat and silk hat, and was cheered +round the quadrangle by a body of admiring +fellow-students, who took him for a professor.</p> + +<p>Calderwood contrives to get himself more in +touch with the mass of his students than some +of his fellow-professors, partly because he puts +a high ideal before himself, and to some extent +because his subject is one that Scottish students +revel in. Long before they join his class +they know that they are moral philosophers; +indeed, they are sometimes surer of it before +they enrol than afterward. Their essays begin +in some such fashion as this: "In joining +issue with Reid, I wish to take no unfair advantage +of my antagonist;" or, "Kant is sadly at +fault when he says that——" or, "It is strange +that a man of Locke's attainments should have +been blind to the fact——" When the professor +reads out these tit-bits to the class, his eyes +twinkle. Some students, of course, are not such +keen philosophers as others. Does Professor +Calderwood remember the one who was never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +struck by anything in moral philosophy until +he learned by accident that Descartes lay in +bed till about twelve o'clock every morning? +Then it dawned on him that he, too, must have +been a philosopher all his life without knowing +it. One year a father and son were in the class. +The father got so excited over volition and the +line that divides right from wrong that he +wrenched the desk before him from its sockets +and hit it triumphantly, meaning that he and +the professor were at one. He was generally +admired by his fellow-students, because he was +the only one in the class who could cry out +"Hear, hear," and even "Question," without +blushing. The son, on the other hand, was +<i>blasé</i>, and would have been an agnostic, only +he could never remember the name. Once a +week Calderwood turns his class into a debating +society, and argues things out with his +students. This field-day is a joy to them. Some +of them spend the six days previous in preparing +posers. The worst of the professor is that +he never sees that they are posers. What is +the use of getting up a question of the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +subtle kind, when he answers it right away? +It makes you sit down quite suddenly. There +is an occasional student who tries to convert +liberty of speech on the discussion day into +license, and of him the professor makes short +work. The student means to turn the laugh +on Calderwood, and then Calderwood takes advantage +of him, and the other students laugh +at the wrong person. It is the older students, +as a rule, who are most violently agitated +over these philosophical debates. One with a +beard cracks his fingers, after the manner of a +child in a village school that knows who won +the battle of Bannockburn, and feels that he +must burst if he does not let it out at once. A +bald-headed man rises every minute to put a +question, and then sits down, looking stupid. +He has been trying so hard to remember what +it is that he has forgotten. There is a legend +of two who quarrelled over the Will and fought +it out on Arthur's Seat.</p> + +<p>One year, however, a boy of sixteen or so, +with a squeaky voice and a stammer, was Calderwood's +severest critic. He sat on the back<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +bench, and what he wanted to know was something +about the infinite. Every discussion day +he took advantage of a lull in the debate to +squeak out, "With regard to the infinite," and +then could never get any further. No one ever +discovered what he wanted enlightenment on +about the infinite. He grew despondent as the +session wore on, but courageously stuck to his +point. Probably he is a soured man now. For +purposes of exposition, Calderwood has a blackboard +in his lecture-room, on which he chalks +circles that represent the feelings and the will, +with arrows shooting between them. In my +class there was a boy, a very little boy, who had +been a dux at school and was a dunce at college. +He could not make moral philosophy +out at all, but did his best. Here were his complete +notes for one day: "Edinburgh University; +Class of Moral Philosophy; Professor Calderwood; +Lecture 64; Jan. 11. 18—You rub out +the arrow, and there is only the circle left."</p> + +<p>Professor Calderwood is passionately fond of +music, as those who visit at his house know. +He is of opinion that there is a great deal of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +moral philosophy in "The Dead March in +Saul." Once he said something to that effect in +his class, adding enthusiastically that he could +excuse the absence of a student who had been +away hearing "The Dead March in Saul." +After that he received a good many letters from +students, worded in this way: "Mr. McNaughton +(bench 7) presents his compliments to Professor +Calderwood, and begs to state that his +absence from the class yesterday was owing to +his being elsewhere, hearing 'The Dead March +in Saul.'" "Dear Professor Calderwood: I regret +my absence from the lecture to-day, but +hope you will overlook it, as I was unavoidably +detained at home, practising 'The Dead +March in Saul.' Yours truly, Peter Webster." +"Professor Calderwood: Dear Sir,—As +I was coming to the lecture to-day, I heard +'The Dead March in Saul' being played in the +street. You will, I am sure, make allowance +for my non-attendance at the class, as I was too +much affected to come. It is indeed a grand +march. Yours faithfully, John Robbie." "The +students whose names are subjoined thank the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +professor of moral philosophy most cordially +for his remarks on the elevating power of +music. They have been encouraged thereby +to start a class for the proper study of the impressive +and solemn march to which he called +special attention, and hope he will excuse +them, should their practisings occasionally prevent +their attendance at the Friday lectures." +Professor Calderwood does not lecture on "The +Dead March in Saul" now.</p> + +<p>The class of moral philosophy is not for the +few, but the many. Some professors do not +mind what becomes of the nine students, so +long as they can force on every tenth. Calderwood, +however, considers it his duty to carry +the whole class along with him; and it is, as a +consequence, almost impossible to fall behind. +The lectures are not delivered, in the ordinary +sense, but dictated. Having explained the subject +of the day with the lucidity that is this +professor's peculiar gift, he condenses his remarks +into a proposition. It is as if a minister +ended his sermon with the text. Thus: +"Proposition 34: Man is born into the world—(You<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +have got that? See that you have all +got it.) Man is born into the world with a +capacity—with a capacity——" (Anxious student: +"If you please, professor, where did you +say man was born into?") "Into the world, with +a capacity to distinguish——" ("With a what, +sir?")—"with a capacity to distinguish——" +(Student: "Who is born into the world?") +"Perhaps I have been reading too quickly. +Man is born into the world, with a capacity to +distinguish between—distinguish between——" +(student shuts his book, thinking that completes +the proposition)—"distinguish between right +and wrong—right—and wrong. You have all +got Proposition 34, gentlemen?"</p> + +<p>Once Calderwood was questioning a student +about a proposition, to see that he thoroughly +understood it. "Give an illustration," suggested +the professor. The student took the +case of a murderer. "Very good," said the +professor. "Now give me another illustration." +The student pondered for a little. "Well," he +said at length, "take the case of another murderer."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> + +<p>Professor Calderwood has such an exceptional +interest in his students that he asks every +one of them to his house. This is but one of +many things that makes him generally popular; +he also invites his ladies' class to meet +them. The lady whom you take down to supper +suggests Proposition 41 as a nice thing to +talk about, and asks what you think of the +metaphysics of ethics. Professor Calderwood +sees the ladies into the cabs himself. It is the +only thing I ever heard against him.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PROFESSOR_TAIT" id="PROFESSOR_TAIT"></a>PROFESSOR TAIT.</h2> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.<br /><br /> + +PROFESSOR TAIT.</h2> + + +<p>Just as I opened my desk to write enthusiastically +of Tait, I remembered having recently +deciphered a pencil note about him, in my own +handwriting, on the cover of Masson's "Chronological +List," which I still keep by me. I +turned to the note to see if there was life in it +yet. "Walls," it says, "got 2s. for T. and T. at +Brown's, 16 Walker Street." I don't recall +Walls, but T. and T. was short for "Thomson +and Tait's Elements of Natural Philosophy" +(elements!), better known in my year as the +"Student's First Glimpse of Hades." Evidently +Walls sold his copy, but why did I take +such note of the address? I fear T. and T. is +one of the "Books Which Have Helped Me." +This somewhat damps my ardor.</p> + +<p>When Tait was at Cambridge, it was flung in +the face of the mathematicians that they never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +stood high in Scriptural knowledge. Tait and +another were the two of whom one must be first +wrangler, and they agreed privately to wipe +this stigma from mathematics. They did it by +taking year about the prize which was said to +hang out of their reach. It is always interesting +to know of professors who have done well +in Biblical knowledge. All Scottish students +at the English universities are not so successful. +I knew a Snell man who was sent back +from the Oxford entrance exam., and he always +held himself that the Biblical questions had +done it.</p> + +<p>Turner is said by medicals to be the finest +lecturer in the university. He will never be +that so long as Tait is in the natural philosophy +chair. Never, I think, can there have been +a more superb demonstrator. I have his burly +figure before me. The small twinkling eyes +had a fascinating gleam in them; he could concentrate +them until they held the object looked +at; when they flashed round the room he seemed +to have drawn a rapier. I have seen a man fall +back in alarm under Tait's eyes, though there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +were a dozen benches between them. These +eyes could be merry as a boy's, though, as when +he turned a tube of water on students who +would insist on crowding too near an experiment, +for Tait's was the humor of high spirits. +I could conceive him at marbles still, and feeling +annoyed at defeat. He could not fancy +anything much funnier than a man missing his +chair. Outside his own subject he is not, one +feels, a six-footer. When Mr. R. L. Stevenson's +memoir of the late Mr. Fleeming Jenkin was +published, Tait said at great length that he did +not like it; he would have had the sketch by a +scientific man. But though scientists may be +the only men nowadays who have anything to +say, they are also the only men who can't say +it. Scientific men out of their sphere know for +a fact that novels are not true. So they draw +back from novelists who write biography. Professor +Tait and Mr. Stevenson are both men of +note, who walk different ways, and when they +meet neither likes to take the curbstone. If +they were tied together for life in a three-legged +race, which would suffer the more?</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<p>But if Tait's science weighs him to the earth, +he has a genius for sticking to his subject, and +I am lost in admiration every time I bring back +his lectures. It comes as natural to his old +students to say when they meet, "What a lecturer +Tait was!" as to Englishmen to joke +about the bagpipes. It is not possible to draw +a perfect circle, Chrystal used to say, after +drawing a very fine one. To the same extent +it was not possible for Tait never to fail in his +experiments. The atmosphere would be too +much for him once in a session, or there were +other hostile influences at work. Tait warned +us of these before proceeding to experiment, +but we merely smiled. We believed in him as +though he were a Bradshaw announcing that +he would not be held responsible for possible +errors.</p> + +<p>I had forgotten Lindsay—"the mother may +forget her child." As I write, he has slipped +back into his chair on the professor's right, +and I could photograph him now in his brown +suit. Lindsay was the imperturbable man who +assisted Tait in his experiments, and his father<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +held the post before him. When there were +many of us together, we could applaud Lindsay +with burlesque exaggeration, and he treated +us good-humoredly, as making something considerable +between us. But I once had to face +Lindsay alone, in quest of my certificate; and +suddenly he towered above me, as a waiter may +grow tall when you find that you have not +money enough to pay the bill. He treated me +most kindly; did not reply, of course, but got +the certificate, and handed it to me as a cashier +contemptuously shovels you your pile of gold. +Long ago I pasted up a crack in my window +with the certificate, but it said, I remember, +that I had behaved respectably—so far as I had +come under the eyes of the professor. Tait +was always an enthusiast.</p> + +<p>We have been keeping Lindsay waiting. +When he had nothing special to do, he sat indifferently +in his chair, with the face of a precentor +after the sermon has begun. But though +it was not very likely that Lindsay would pay +much attention to talk about such playthings +as the laws of nature, his fingers went out in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +the direction of the professor when the experiments +began. Then he was not the precentor; +he was a minister in one of the pews. Lindsay +was an inscrutable man, and I shall not dare to +say that he even half-wished to see Tait fail. +He only looked on, ready for any emergency; +but if the experiment would not come off, he +was as quick to go to the professor's assistance +as a member of Parliament is to begin when he +has caught the Speaker's eye. Perhaps Tait +would have none of his aid, or pushed the +mechanism for the experiment from him—an intimation +to Lindsay to carry it quickly to the +ante-room. Do you think Lindsay read the instructions +so? Let me tell you that your mind +fails to seize hold of Lindsay. He marched +the machine out of Tait's vicinity as a mother +may push her erring boy away from his father's +arms, to take him to her heart as soon as the +door is closed. Lindsay took the machine to +his seat, and laid it before him on the desk, +with well-concealed apathy. Tait would flash +his eye to the right to see what Lindsay was +after, and there was Lindsay sitting with his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +arms folded. The professor's lecture resumed +its way, and then out went Lindsay's hands to +the machine. Here he tried a wheel; again he +turned a screw; in time he had the machine +ready for another trial. No one was looking +his way, when suddenly there was a whizz—bang, +bang. All eyes were turned upon Lindsay, +the professor's among them. A cheer +broke out as we realized that Lindsay had done +the experiment. Was he flushed with triumph? +Not a bit of it; he was again sitting with his +arms folded. A Glasgow merchant of modest +manners, when cross-examined in a law court, +stated that he had a considerable monetary interest +in a certain concern. "How much do you +mean by a 'considerable monetary interest'?" +demanded the contemptuous barrister who was +cross-examining him. "Oh," said the witness, +humbly, "a maiter o' a million an' a half—or, +say, twa million." That Glasgow man in the +witness-box is the only person I can think of, +when looking about me for a parallel to Lindsay. +While the professor eyed him and the +students deliriously beat the floor, Lindsay<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +quietly gathered the mechanism together and +carried it to the ante-room. His head was not +flung back nor his chest forward, like one who +walked to music. In his hour of triumph he +was still imperturbable. I lie back in my chair +to-day, after the lapse of years, and ask myself +again, How did Lindsay behave after he entered +the ante-room, shutting the door behind +him? Did he give way? There is no one to +say. When he returned to the class-room he +wore his familiar face; a man to ponder over.</p> + +<p>There is a legend about the natural philosophy +class-room, the period long antecedent to +Tait. The professor, annoyed by a habit students +had got into of leaving their hats on his +desk, announced that the next hat placed there +would be cut in pieces by him in presence of +the class. The warning had its effect, until one +day when the professor was called for a few +minutes from the room. An undergraduate, to +whom the natural sciences, unrelieved, were a +monotonous study, slipped into the ante-room, +from which he emerged with the professor's +hat. This he placed on the desk, and then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +stole in a panic to his seat. An awe fell upon +the class. The professor returned, but when +he saw the hat he stopped. He showed no +anger. "Gentlemen," he said, "I told you what +would happen if you again disobeyed my +orders." Quite blandly he took a pen-knife +from his pocket, slit the hat into several pieces, +and flung them into the sink. While the hat +was under the knife, the students forgot to +demonstrate; but as it splashed into the sink, +they gave forth a true British cheer. The end.</p> + +<p>Close to the door of the natural philosophy +room is a window that in my memory will ever +be sacred to a janitor. The janitors of the university +were of varied interest, from the merry +one who treated us as if we were his equals, and +the soldier who sometimes looked as if he would +like to mow us down, to the Head Man of All, +whose name I dare not write, though I can +whisper it. The janitor at the window, however, +sat there through the long evenings while +the Debating Society (of which I was a member) +looked after affairs of state in an adjoining +room. We were the smallest society in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +the university and the longest-winded, and I +was once nearly expelled for not paying my +subscription. Our grand debate was, "Is the +policy of the government worthy the confidence +of this society?" and we also read about +six essays yearly on "The Genius of Robert +Burns"; but it was on private business that we +came out strongest. The question that agitated +us most was whether the meetings should +be opened with prayer, and the men who +thought they should would not so much as +look at the men who thought they should not. +When the janitor was told that we had begun +our private business, he returned to his window +and slept. His great day was when we could not +form a quorum, which happened now and then.</p> + +<p>Gregory was a member of that society—what +has become of Gregory? He was one of those +men who professors say have a brilliant future +before them, and who have not since been heard +of. Morton, another member, was of a different +stamp. He led in the debate on "Beauty +of the Mind v. Beauty of the Body." His writhing +contempt for the beauty that is only skin-deep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +is not to be forgotten. How noble were +his rhapsodies on the beauty of the mind! +And when he went to Calderwood's to supper, +how quick he was to pick out the prettiest girl, +who took ten per cent in moral philosophy, +and to sit beside her all the evening! Morton +had a way of calling on his friends the night +before a degree examination to ask them to put +him up to as much as would pull him through.</p> + +<p>Tait used to get greatly excited over the rectorial +elections, and, if he could have disguised +himself, would have liked, I think, to join in +the fight round the Brewster statue. He would +have bled for the Conservative cause, as his +utterances on university reform have shown. +The reformers have some cause for thinking +that Tait is a greater man in his class room than +when he addresses the graduates. He has said +that the less his students know of his subject +when they join his class, the less, probably, they +will have to unlearn. Such views are behind +the times that feed their children on geographical +biscuits in educational nurseries with astronomical +ceilings and historical wall-papers.</p> + + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PROFESSOR_CAMPBELL_FRASER" id="PROFESSOR_CAMPBELL_FRASER"></a>PROFESSOR CAMPBELL FRASER.</h2> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.<br /><br /> + +PROFESSOR CAMPBELL FRASER.</h2> + + +<p>Not long ago I was back in the Old University—how +well I remember pointing it out as +the jail to a stranger, who had asked me to +show him round. I was in one of the library +ante-rooms, when some one knocked, and I +looked up, to see Campbell Fraser framed in +the doorway. I had not looked on that venerable +figure for half a dozen years. I had forgotten +all my metaphysics. Yet it all came +back with a rush. I was on my feet, wondering +if I existed strictly so called.</p> + +<p>Calderwood and Fraser had both their followings. +The moral philosophers wore an air +of certainty, for they knew that if they stuck +to Calderwood he would pull them through. +You cannot lose yourself in the back garden. +But the metaphysicians had their doubts. +Fraser led them into strange places, and said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +he would meet them there again next day. +They wandered to their lodgings, and got into +difficulties with their landlady for saying that +she was only an aggregate of sense phenomena. +Fraser was rather a hazardous cure for weak intellects. +Young men whose anchor had been +certainty of themselves went into that class +floating buoyantly on the sea of facts, and came +out all adrift—on the sea of theory—in an open +boat—rudderless—one oar—the boat scuttled. +How could they think there was any chance +for them, when the professor was not even sure +of himself? I see him rising in a daze from his +chair and putting his hands through his hair. +"Do I exist," he said, thoughtfully, "strictly +so called?" The students (if it was the beginning +of the session) looked a little startled. +This was a matter that had not previously disturbed +them. Still, if the professor was in +doubt, there must be something in it. He began +to argue it out, and an uncomfortable silence +held the room in awe. If he did not exist, +the chances were that they did not exist either. +It was thus a personal question. The professor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +glanced round slowly for an illustration. +"Am I a table?" A pained look travelled over +the class. Was it just possible that they were +all tables? It is no wonder that the students +who do not go to the bottom during their first +month of metaphysics begin to give themselves +airs strictly so called. In the privacy of their +room at the top of the house, they pinch themselves +to see if they are still there.</p> + +<p>He would, I think, be a sorry creature who +did not find something to admire in Campbell +Fraser. Metaphysics may not trouble you, as +it troubles him, but you do not sit under the +man without seeing his transparent honesty +and feeling that he is genuine. In appearance +and in habit of thought he is an ideal philosopher, +and his communings with himself have +lifted him to a level of serenity that is worth +struggling for. Of all the arts professors in +Edinburgh, he is probably the most difficult to +understand, and students in a hurry have called +his lectures childish. If so, it may be all the +better for them. For the first half of the hour, +they say, he tells you what he is going to do,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +and for the second half he revises. Certainly +he is vastly explanatory, but then he is not so +young as they are, and so he has his doubts. +They are so cock-sure that they wonder to see +him hesitate. Often there is a mist on the +mountain when it is all clear in the valley.</p> + +<p>Fraser's great work is his edition of Berkeley, +a labor of love that should live after him. +He has two Berkeleys, the large one and the +little one, and, to do him justice, it was the little +one he advised us to consult. I never read +the large one myself, which is in a number of +monster tomes, but I often had a look at it in +the library, and I was proud to think that an +Edinburgh professor was the editor. When +Glasgow men came through to talk of their +professors, we showed them the big Berkeley, +and after that they were reasonable. There +was one man in my year who really began the +large Berkeley, but after a time he was missing, +and it is believed that some day he will be +found flattened between the pages of the first +volume.</p> + +<p>The "Selections" was the text-book we used<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +in the class. It is sufficient to prove that Berkeley +wrote beautiful English. I am not sure +that any one has written such English since. +We have our own "stylists," but how self-conscious +they are after Berkeley! It is seven +years since I opened my "Selections," but I see +that I was once more of a metaphysician than +I have been giving myself credit for. The book +is scribbled over with posers in my handwriting +about dualism and primary realities. Some +of the comments are in short-hand, which I +must at one time have been able to read, but +all are equally unintelligible now. Here is one +of my puzzlers: "Does B here mean impercipient +and unperceived subject or conscious and +percipient subject?" Observe the friendly B. +I dare say further on I shall find myself referring +to the professor as F. I wonder if I ever +discovered what B meant. I could not now tell +what I meant, myself.</p> + +<p>As many persons are aware, the "Selections" +consist of Berkeley's text with the professor's +notes thereon. The notes are explanatory of +the text, and the student must find them an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +immense help. Here, for instance, is a note: +"Phenomenal or sense dependent existence can +be substantiated and caused only by a self-conscious +spirit, for otherwise there could be +no propositions about it expressive of what is +conceivable; on the other hand, to affirm that +phenomenal or sense dependent existence, +which alone we know, and which alone is conceivable, +is, or even represents, an inconceivable +non-phenomenal or abstract existence, would +be to affirm a contradiction in terms." There +we have it.</p> + +<p>As a metaphysician I was something of a disappointment. +I began well, standing, if I recollect +aright, in the three examinations, first, +seventeenth, and seventy-seventh. A man who +sat beside me—man was the word we used—gazed +at me reverently when I came out first, +and I could see by his eye that he was not sure +whether I existed properly so called. By the +second exam. his doubts had gone, and by the +third he was surer of me than of himself. He +came out fifty-seventh, this being the grand +triumph of his college course. He was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +same whose key translated <i>cras donaberis +hædo</i> "To-morrow you will be presented with +a kid," but who, thinking that a little vulgar, +refined it down to "To-morrow you will be presented +with a small child."</p> + +<p>In the metaphysics class I was like the fountains +in the quadrangle, which ran dry toward +the middle of the session. While things were +still looking hopeful for me, I had an invitation +to breakfast with the professor. If the +fates had been so propitious as to forward me +that invitation, it is possible that I might be a +metaphysician to this day, but I had changed +my lodgings, and, when I heard of the affair, all +was over. The professor asked me to stay behind +one day after the lecture, and told me that +he had got his note back with "Left: no address" +on it. "However," he said, "you may +keep this," presenting me with the invitation +for the Saturday previously. I mention this +to show that even professors have hearts. That +letter is preserved with the autographs of +three editors, none of which anybody can read.</p> + +<p>There was once a medical student who came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +up to my rooms early in the session, and I +proved to him in half an hour that he did not +exist. He got quite frightened, and I can still +see his white face as he sat staring at me in the +gloaming. This shows what metaphysics can +do. He has recovered, however, and is sheep-farming +now, his examiners never having asked +him the right questions.</p> + +<p>The last time Fraser ever addressed me was +when I was capped. He said, "I congratulate +you, Mr. Smith," and one of the other professors +said, "I congratulate you, Mr. Fisher." +My name is neither Smith nor Fisher, but no +doubt the thing was kindly meant. It was +then, however, that the professor of metaphysics +had his revenge on me. I had once spelt +Fraser with a "z."</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PROFESSOR_CHRYSTAL" id="PROFESSOR_CHRYSTAL"></a>PROFESSOR CHRYSTAL.</h2> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.<br /><br /> + +PROFESSOR CHRYSTAL.</h2> + + +<p>When Chrystal came to Edinburgh, he rooted +up the humors of the class-room as a dentist +draws teeth. Souls were sold for keys that +could be carried in the waistcoat pocket. Ambition +fell from heights, and lay with its eye +on a certificate. By night was a rush of ghosts, +shrieking for passes. Horse-play fled before +the Differential Calculus in spectacles.</p> + +<p>I had Chrystal's first year, and recall the +gloomy student sitting before me who hacked +"All hope abandon, ye who enter here" into a +desk that may have confined Carlyle. It took +him a session, and he was digging his own +grave, for he never got through; but it was +something to hold by, something he felt sure +of. All else was spiders' webs in chalk.</p> + +<p>Chrystal was a fine hare for the hounds who +could keep up with him. He started off the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +first day with such a spurt that most of us were +left behind mopping our faces, and saying, +"Here's a fellow," which is what Mr. Stevenson +says Shakespeare would have remarked about +Mr. George Meredith. We never saw him +again. The men who were on speaking acquaintance +with his symbols revelled in him as students +love an enthusiast who is eager to lead +them into a world toward which they would +journey. He was a rare guide for them. The +bulk, however, lost him in labyrinths. They +could not but admire their brilliant professor; +but while their friend the medallist and he kept +the conversation to themselves, they felt like +eavesdroppers hearkening to a pair of lovers. +It is "beautiful," they cried, "but this is no +place for us; let us away."</p> + +<p>A good many went, but their truancy stuck +in their throats like Otway's last roll. The +M.A. was before them. They had fancied it in +their hands, but it became shy as a maiden +from the day they learned Chrystal's heresy +that Euclid is not mathematics, but only some +riders in it. This snapped the cord that had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +tied the blind man to his dog, and the M.A. +shot down the horizon. When Rutherford +delivered his first lecture in the chair of institutes +of medicine, boisterous students drowned +his voice, and he flung out of the room. At +the door he paused to say, "Gentleman, we +shall meet again at Philippi." A dire bomb +was this in the midst of them, warranted to go +off, none able to cast it overboard. We too had +our Philippi before us. Chrystal could not be +left to his own devices.</p> + +<p>I had never a passion for knowing that when +circles or triangles attempt impossibilities it is +absurd; and <i>x</i> was an unknown quantity I was +ever content to walk round about. To admit +to Chrystal that we understood <i>x</i> was only a +way he had of leading you on to <i>y</i> and <i>z</i>. I +gave him his chance, however, by contributing +a paper of answers to his first weekly set of +exercises. When the hour for returning the +slips came round, I was there to accept fame—if +so it was to be—with modesty; and if it was +to be humiliation, still to smile. The professor +said there was one paper, with an owner's name<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +on it, which he could not read, and it was handed +along the class to be deciphered. My presentiment +that it was mine became a certainty when +it reached my hand; but I passed it on pleasantly, +and it returned to Chrystal, a Japhet +that never found its father. Feeling that the +powers were against me, I then retired from the +conflict, sanguine that the teaching of my mathematical +schoolmaster, the best that could be, +would pull me through. The Disowned may +be going the round of the class-room still.</p> + +<p>The men who did not know when they were +beaten returned to their seats, and doggedly +took notes, their faces lengthening daily. Their +note-books reproduced exactly the hieroglyphics +of the blackboard, and, examined at +night, were as suggestive as the photographs of +persons one has never seen. To overtake Chrystal +after giving him a start was the presumption +that is an offshoot from despair. There +was once an elderly gentleman who for years +read the <i>Times</i> every day from the first page +to the last. For a fortnight he was ill of a +fever; but, on recovering, he began at the copy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +of the <i>Times</i> where he had left off. He struggled +magnificently to make up on the <i>Times</i>, +but it was in vain. This is an allegory for the +way these students panted after Chrystal.</p> + +<p>Some succumbed and joined the majority—literally; +for to mathematics they were dead. +I never hear of the old university now, nor +pass under the shadow of the walls one loves +when he is done with them, without seeing myself +as I was the day I matriculated, an awestruck +boy, passing and repassing the gates, +frightened to venture inside, breathing heavily +at sight of janitors, Scott and Carlyle in the air. +After that I see nothing fuller of color than +the meetings that were held outside Chrystal's +door. Adjoining it is a class-room so little +sought for that legend tells of its door once +showing the notice, "There will be no class +to-day, as the student is unwell." The crowd +round Chrystal's could have filled that room. +It was composed of students hearkening at the +door to see whether he was to call their part of +the roll to-day. If he did, they slunk in; if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +not, the crowd melted into the streets, this refrain +in their ears:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I'm plucked, I do admit;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I'm spun, my mother dear:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet do not grieve for that<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which happens every year.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I've waited very patiently,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I may have long to wait;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But you've another son, mother,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And he will graduate."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>A professor of mathematics once brought a +rowdy student from the back benches to a seat +beside him, because: "First, you'll be near the +board; second, you'll be near me; and, third, +you'll be near the door." Chrystal soon discovered +that students could be too near the +door, and he took to calling the roll in the middle +of the hour, which insured an increased +attendance. It was a silent class, nothing +heard but the patter of pencils, rats scraping +for grain, of which there was abundance, but +not one digestion in a bench. To smuggle in a +novel up one's waistcoat was perilous, Chrystal's +spectacles doing their work. At a corner +of the platform sat the assistant, with a constable's +authority, but, not formed for swooping,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +uneasy because he had legs, and where to put +them he knew not. He got through the hour +by shifting his position every five minutes; and, +sitting there waiting, he reminded one of the +boy who, on being told to remain so quietly +where he was that he could hear a pin drop, +held his breath a moment, then shouted, "Let +it drop!" An excellent fellow was this assistant, +who told us that one of his predecessors +had got three months.</p> + +<p>A jest went as far in that class as a plum in +the midshipmen's pudding, and, you remember, +when the middies came on a plum they +gave three cheers. In the middle of some brilliant +reasoning, Chrystal would stop to add 4, 7, +and 11. Addition of this kind was the only +thing he could not do, and he looked to the +class for help—"20," they shouted, "24," "17," +while he thought it over. These appeals to +their intelligence made them beam. They +woke up as a sleepy congregation shakes itself +into life when the minister says, "I remember +when I was a little boy——"</p> + +<p>The daring spirits—say, those who were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +going into their father's office, and so did not +look upon Chrystal as a door locked to their +advancement—sought to bring sunshine into +the room. Chrystal soon had the blind down +on that. I hear they have been at it recently, +with the usual result. To relieve the monotony, +a student at the end of bench ten dropped a marble, +which toppled slowly downward toward the +professor. At every step it took, there was a +smothered guffaw; but Chrystal, who was working +at the board, did not turn his head. When +the marble reached the floor, he said, still with +his back to the class, "Will the student at the +end of bench ten, who dropped that marble, +stand up?" All eyes dilated. He had counted +the falls of the marble from step to step. Mathematics +do not obscure the intellect.</p> + +<p>Twenty per cent was a good percentage in +Chrystal's examinations; thirty sent you away +whistling. As the M.A. drew nigh, students +on their prospects might have been farmers discussing +the weather. Some put their faith in +the professor's goodness of heart, of which symptoms +had been showing. He would not, all at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +once, "raise the standard"—hated phrase until +you are through, when you write to the papers +advocating it. Courage! was it not told of the +Glasgow Snell competition that one of the +competitors, as soon as he saw the first paper, +looked for his hat and the door; that he was +forbidden to withdraw until an hour had +elapsed, and that he then tackled the paper +and ultimately carried off the Snell? Of more +immediate interest, perhaps, was the story of +the quaking student, whose neighbor handed +him in pencil, beneath the desk, the answer to +several questions. It was in an M.A. exam., +and the affrighted student found that he could +not read his neighbor's notes. Trusting to fortune, +he inclosed them with his own answers, +writing at the top, "No time to write these out +in ink, so inclose them in pencil." He got +through: no moral.</p> + +<p>A condemned criminal wondering if he is to +get a reprieve will not feel the position novel +if he has loitered in a university quadrangle +waiting for the janitor to nail up the results of +a degree exam. A queer gathering we were,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +awaiting the verdict of Chrystal. Some compressed +their lips, others were lively as fireworks +dipped in water; there were those who +rushed round and round the quadrangle; only +one went the length of saying that he did not +want to pass. H. I shall call him. I met him +the other day in Fleet Street, and he annoyed +me by asking at once if I remembered the landlady +I quarrelled with because she wore my +socks to church of a Sunday: we found her out +one wet forenoon. H. waited the issue with a +cigar in his mouth. He had purposely, he explained, +given in a bad paper. He could not +understand why men were so anxious to get +through. He had ten reasons for wishing to +be plucked. We let him talk. The janitor +appeared with the fateful paper, and we lashed +about him like waves round a lighthouse, all +but H., who strolled languidly to the board +to which the paper was being fastened. A +moment afterward I heard a shriek: "I'm +through! I'm through!" It was H. His cigar +was dashed aside, and he sped like an arrow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +from the bow to the nearest telegraph office, +shouting "I'm through!" as he ran.</p> + +<p>Those of us who had H.'s fortune now consider +Chrystal made to order for his chair, but +he has never, perhaps, had a proper appreciation +of the charming fellows who get ten per +cent.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PROFESSOR_SELLAR" id="PROFESSOR_SELLAR"></a>PROFESSOR SELLAR.</h2> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.<br /><br /> + +PROFESSOR SELLAR.</h2> + + +<p>When one of the distinguished hunting +ladies who chase celebrities captured Mr. Mark +Pattison, he gave anxious consideration to the +quotation which he was asked to write above +his name. "Fancy," he said with a shudder, +"going down to posterity arm in arm with <i>carpe +diem</i>!" Remembering this, I forbear tying +Sellar to <i>odi profanum vulgus</i>. Yet the name +opens the door to the quotation. Sellar is a +Roman senator. He stood very high at Oxford, +and took a prize for boxing. If you watch him +in the class, you will sometimes see his mind +murmuring that Edinburgh students do not +take their play like Oxford men. The difference +is in manner. A courteous fellow-student +of Sellar once showed his relatives over +Balliol. "You have now, I think," he said at +last, "seen everything of interest except the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +master." He flung a stone at a window, at +which the master's head appeared immediately, +menacing, wrathful. "And now," concluded +the polite youth, "you have seen him also."</p> + +<p>Mr. James Payn, who never forgave the Scottish +people for pulling down their blinds on +Sundays, was annoyed by the halo they have +woven around the name "professor." He knew +an Edinburgh lady who was scandalized because +that mere poet, Alexander Smith, coolly +addressed professors by their surnames. Mr. +Payn might have known what it is to walk in +the shadow of a Senatus Academicus could he +have met such specimens as Sellar, Fraser, +Tait, and Sir Alexander Grant marching down +the Bridges abreast. I have seen them: an inspiriting +sight. The pavement only held three. +You could have shaken hands with them from +an upper window.</p> + +<p>Sellar's treatment of his students was always +that of a fine gentleman. Few got near him; +all respected him. At times he was addressed +in an unknown tongue, but he kept his countenance. +He was particular about students keeping<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +to their proper benches, and once thought +he had caught a swarthy north countryman +straying. "You are in your wrong seat, Mr. +Orr." "Na, am richt eneuch." "You should +be in the seat in front. That is bench 12, and +you are entered on bench 10." "Eh? This is +no bench twal, [counting] twa, fower, sax, aucht, +ten." "There is something wrong." "Oh-h-h, +[with sudden enlightenment] ye've been coontin' +the first dask; we dinna coont the first +dask." The professor knew the men he had to +deal with too well to scorn this one, who turned +out to be a fine fellow. He was the only man +I ever knew who ran his medical and arts classes +together, and so many lectures had he to attend +daily that he mixed them up. He graduated, +however, in both faculties in five years, and the +last I heard of him was that, when applying +for a medical assistantship, he sent his father's +photograph because he did not have one of himself. +He was a man of brains as well as sinew, +and dined briskly on a shilling a week.</p> + +<p>There was a little fellow in the class who was +a puzzle to Sellar, because he was higher sitting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +than standing: when the professor asked him +to stand up, he stood down. "Is Mr. Blank +not present?" Sellar would ask. "Here, sir," +cried Blank. "Then, will you stand up, Mr. +Blank?" (Agony of Blank, and a demonstration +of many feet.) "Are you not prepared, +Mr. Blank?" "Yes, sir. <i>Pastor quum +traharet</i>——" "I insist on your standing up, +Mr. Blank." Several students rise to their feet +to explain, but subside. "Yes, sir. <i>Pastor quum +traharet per</i>——" "I shall mark you 'Not +prepared,' Mr. Blank." (Further demonstration, +and then an indignant squeak from Blank.) +"If you please, sir, I am standing." "But, in +that case, how is it? Ah, oh, ah, yes; proceed, +Mr. Blank." As one man was only called +upon for exhibition five or six times in a year, +the professor had always forgotten the circumstances +when he asked Blank to stand up again. +Blank was looked upon by his fellow-students +as a practical jest, and his name was always +received with the prolonged applause which +greets the end of an after-dinner speech.</p> + +<p>Sellar never showed resentment to the students<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +who addressed him as Professor Sellars.</p> + +<p>One day the professor was giving out some +English to be translated into Latin prose. He +read on—"and fiercely lifting the axe with both +hands——" when a cheer from the top bench +made him pause. The cheer spread over the +room like an uncorked gas. Sellar frowned, but +proceeded—"lifting the axe——" when again +the class became demented. "What does this +mean?" he demanded, looking as if he, too, +could lift the axe. "Axe!" shouted a student +in explanation. Still Sellar could not solve the +riddle. Another student rose to his assistance. +"Axe—Gladstone!" he cried. Sellar sat back +in his chair. "Really, gentlemen," he said, +"I take the most elaborate precautions against +touching upon politics in this class, but sometimes +you are beyond me. Let us continue—'and +fiercely lifting his weapon with both +hands——'"</p> + +<p>The duxes from the schools suffered a little +during their first year, from a feeling that they +and Sellar understood each other. He liked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +to undeceive them. We had one, all head, who +went about wondering at himself. He lost his +bursary on the way home with it, and still he +strutted. Sellar asked if we saw anything peculiar +in a certain line from Horace. We did not. +We were accustomed to trust to Horace's reputation, +all but the dandy. "Eh—ah! professor," +he lisped; "it ought to have been so +and so." Sellar looked at this promising plant +from the schools, and watered him without a +rose on the pan. "Depend upon it, Mr.—ah, +I did not catch your name, if it ought to have +been so and so, Horace would have made it so +and so."</p> + +<p>Sellar's face was proof against wit. It did +not relax till he gave it liberty. You could +never tell from it what was going on inside. +He read without a twitch a notice on his door: +"Found in this class a gold-headed pencil case; +if not claimed within three days will be sold to +defray expenses." He even withstood the battering-ram +on the day of the publication of his +"Augustan Poets." The students could not let +this opportunity pass. They assailed him with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +frantic applause; every bench was a drum to +thump upon. His countenance said nothing. +The drums had it in the end, though, and he +dismissed the class with what is believed to +have verged on a smile. Like the lover who +has got his lady's glance, they at once tried for +more, but no.</p> + +<p>Most of us had Humanity our first year, +which is the year for experimenting. Then is +the time to join the university library. The +pound, which makes you a member, has never +had its poet. You can withdraw your pound +when you please. There are far-seeing men +who work the whole thing out by mathematics. +Put simply, this is the notion. In the beginning +of the session you join the library, and +soon you forget about your pound; you reckon +without it. As the winter closes in, and the +coal-bunk empties; or you find that five shillings +a week for lodgings is a dream that cannot +be kept up; or your coat assumes more and +more the color identified with spring; or you +would feast your friends for once right gloriously; +or next Wednesday is your little sister's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +birthday; you cower, despairing, over a +sulky fire. Suddenly you are on your feet, all +aglow once more. What is this thought that +sends the blood to your head? That library +pound! You had forgotten that you had a +bank. Next morning you are at the university +in time to help the library door to open. You +ask for your pound; you get it. Your hand +mounts guard over the pocket in which it rustles. +So they say. I took their advice and +paid in my money; then waited exultingly to +forget about it. In vain. I always allowed +for that pound, in my thoughts. I saw it as +plainly, I knew its every feature as a schoolboy +remembers his first trout. Not to be hasty, +I gave my pound two months, and then brought +it home again. I had a fellow-student who +lived across the way from me. We railed at +the library-pound theory at open windows over +the life of the street; a beautiful dream, but +mad, mad.</p> + +<p>He was an enthusiast, and therefore happy, +whom I have seen in the Humanity class-room +on an examination day, his pen racing with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +time, himself seated in the contents of an ink +bottle. Some stories of exams. have even a +blacker ending. I write in tears of him who, +estimating his memory as a leaky vessel, did +with care and forethought draw up a crib that +was more condensed than a pocket cyclopædia, +a very Liebig's essence of the classics, tinned +meat for students in the eleventh hour. Bridegrooms +have been known to forget the ring; +this student forgot his crib. In the middle of +the examination came a nervous knocking at +the door. A lady wanted to see the professor +at once. The student looked up, to see his +mother handing the professor his crib. Her +son had forgotten it; she was sure that it was +important, so she had brought it herself.</p> + +<p>Jump the body of this poor victim. There +was no M.A. for him that year; but in our +gowns and sashes we could not mourn for a +might-have-been. Soldiers talk of the Victoria +cross, statesmen of the Cabinet, ladies of a pearl +set in diamonds. These are pretty baubles, +but who has thrilled as the student that with +bumping heart strolls into Middlemass' to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +order his graduate's gown? He hires it—five +shillings—but the photograph to follow makes +it as good as his for life. Look at him, young +ladies, as he struts to the Synod Hall to have +M.A. tacked to his name. Dogs do not dare +bark at him. His gait is springy; in Princes +Street he is as one who walks upstairs. Gone +to me are those student days forever, but I can +still put a photograph before me of a ghost in +gown and cape, the hair straggling under the +cap as tobacco may straggle over the side of a +tin when there is difficulty in squeezing down +the lid. How well the little black jacket looks, +how vividly the wearer remembers putting it +on. He should have worn a dress-coat, but he +had none. The little jacket resembled one with +the tails off, and, as he artfully donned his +gown, he backed against the wall so that no +one might know.</p> + +<p>To turn up the light on old college days is +not always the signal for the dance. You are +back in the dusty little lodging, with its battered +sofa, its slippery tablecloth, the prim +array of books, the picture of the death of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +Nelson, the peeling walls, the broken clock; +you are again in the quadrangle with him who +has been dead this many a year. There are +tragedies in a college course. Dr. Walter Smith +has told in a poem mentioned elsewhere of the +brilliant scholar who forgot his dominie; +some, alas! forget their mother. There are +men—I know it—who go mad from loneliness; +and medallists ere now have crept home to +die. The capping-day was the end of our springtide, +and for some of us the summer was to be +brief. Sir Alexander, gone into the night since +then, flung "I mekemae" at us as we trooped +past him, all in bud, some small flower to blossom +in time, let us hope, here and there.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="MR_JOSEPH_THOMSON" id="MR_JOSEPH_THOMSON"></a>MR. JOSEPH THOMSON.</h2> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX.<br /><br /> + +MR. JOSEPH THOMSON.</h2> + + +<p>Two years hence Joseph Thomson's reputation +will be a decade old, though he is at present +only thirty years of age. When you meet +him for the first time you conclude that he +must be the explorer's son. His identity, however, +can always be proved by simply mentioning +Africa in his presence. Then he draws +himself up, and his eyes glisten, and he is +thinking how glorious it would be to be in the +Masai country again, living on meat so diseased +that it crumbled in the hand like short-bread.</p> + +<p>Gatelaw-bridge Quarry, in Dumfriesshire, is +famous for Old Mortality and Thomson, the +latter (when he is at the head of a caravan) +being as hardheaded as if he had been cut out +of it. He went to school at Thornhill, where he +spent great part of his time in reading novels, +and then he matriculated at Edinburgh University,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +where he began to accumulate medals. +Geology and kindred studies were his favorites +there. One day he heard that Keith Johnston, +then on the point of starting for Africa, wanted +a lieutenant. Thomson was at that time equally +in need of a Keith Johnston, and everybody +who knew him saw that the opening and +he were made for each other. Keith Johnston +and Thomson went out together, and Johnston +died in the jungle. This made a man in an +hour of a stripling. Most youths in Thomson's +position at that turning-point of his career +would have thought it judicious to turn back, +and in geographical circles it would have been +considered highly creditable had he brought +his caravan to the coast intact. Thomson, however, +pushed on, and did everything that his +dead leader had hoped to do. From that time +his career has been followed by every one interested +in African exploration, and by his countrymen +with some pride in addition. When +an expedition was organized for the relief of +Emin Pacha, there was for a time some probability +of Thomson's having the command.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + +<p>He and Stanley differed as to the routes that +should be taken, and subsequent events have +proved that Thomson's was the proper one.</p> + +<p>Thomson came over from Paris at that time +to consult with the authorities, and took up +his residence in the most overgrown hotel in +London. His friends here organized an expedition +for his relief. They wandered up and +down the endless stairs looking for him, till, +had they not wanted to make themselves a +name, they would have beaten a retreat. He +also wandered about looking for them, and at +last they met. The leader of the party, restraining +his emotion, lifted his hat, and said, +"Mr. Thomson, I presume?" This is how I +found Thomson.</p> + +<p>The explorer had been for some months in +Paris at that time, and France did him the +honor of translating his "Through Masailand" +into French. In this book there is a picture of +a buffalo tossing Thomson in the air. This +was after he had put several bullets into it, and +in the sketch he is represented some ten feet +from the ground, with his gun flying one way<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +and his cap another. "It was just as if I were +distributing largess to the natives," the traveller +says now, though this idea does not seem +to have struck him at the time. He showed +the sketch to a Parisian lady, who looked at +it long and earnestly. "Ah, M. Thomson," she +said at length, "but how could you pose like +that?"</p> + +<p>Like a good many other travellers, including +Mr. Du Chaillu, who says he is a dear boy, +Thomson does not smoke. Stanley, however, +smokes very strong cigars, as those who have +been in his sumptuous chambers in Bond Street +can testify. All the three happen to be bachelors, +though; because, one of them says, after +returning from years of lonely travel, a man +has such a delight in female society that to +pick and choose would be invidious. Yet they +have had their chance. An African race once +tried to bribe Mr. Du Chaillu with a kingdom +and over eight hundred wives—"the biggest +offer," he admits, "I ever had in one day."</p> + +<p>Among the lesser annoyances to which Thomson +was subjected in Africa was the presence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +of rats in the night-time, which he had to brush +away like flies. Until he was asked whether +there was not danger in this, it never seems to +have struck him that it was more than annoying. +Yet though he and the two other travellers +mentioned (doubtless they are not alone +in this) have put up cheerfully with almost +every hardship known to man, this does not +make them indifferent to the comforts of civilization +when they return home. Du Chaillu +was looking very comfortable in a house-boat +the other day, where his hosts thought they +were "roughing it"—with a male attendant; +and in Stanley's easy-chairs you sink to dream. +The last time I saw Thomson in his rooms in +London he was on his knees, gazing in silent +rapture at a china saucer with a valuable crack +in it.</p> + +<p>If you ask Thomson what was the most dangerous +expedition he ever embarked on, he will +probably reply, "Crossing Piccadilly." The finest +thing that can be said of him is that during +these four expeditions he never once fired a +shot at a native. Other explorers have had to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +do so to save their lives. There were often +occasions when Thomson could have done it, +to save his life to all appearance, too. The +result of his method of progressing is that +where he has gone—and he has been in parts +of Africa never before trod by the white man—he +really has "opened up the country" for +those who care to follow him. Civilization by +bullet has only closed it elsewhere. Yet though +there is an abundance of Scotch caution about +him, he is naturally an impulsive man, more +inclined personally to march straight on than +to reach his destination by a safer if more circuitous +route. Where only his own life is concerned, +he gives you the impression of one who +might be rash; but his prudence at the head of +a caravan is at the bottom of the faith that is +placed in him. According to a story that got +into the papers years ago, M. de Brazza once +quarrelled with Thomson in Africa, and all but +struck him. Thomson was praised for keeping +his temper. The story was a fabrication, but +I fear that if M. de Brazza had behaved like +this, Thomson would not have remembered to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +be diplomatic till some time afterward. A +truer tale might be told of an umbrella, gorgeous +and wonderful to behold, that De Brazza +took to Africa to impress the natives with, and +which Thomson subsequently presented to a +dusky monarch.</p> + +<p>The explorer has never shot a lion, though +he has tracked a good many of them. Once he +thought he had one. It was reclining in a little +grove, and Thomson felt that it was his at +last. With a trusty native he crept forward +till he could obtain a good shot, and then fired. +In breathless suspense he waited for its spring, +and then when it did not spring he saw that he +had shot it through the heart. However, it +turned out only to be a large stone.</p> + +<p>The young Scotchman sometimes thinks of +the tremendous effect it would have had on the +natives had he been the possessor of a complete +set of artificial teeth. This is because he has +one artificial tooth. Happening to take it out +one day, an awe filled all who saw him, and +from that hour he was esteemed a medicine +man. Another excellent way of impressing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +Africa with the grandeur of Britain was to take +a photograph. When the natives saw the +camera aimed at them, they fell to the ground +vanquished.</p> + +<p>When Thomson was recently in this country, +he occasionally took a walk of twenty or thirty +miles to give him an appetite for dinner. This +he calls a stroll. One day he strolled from +Thornhill to Edinburgh, had dinner, and then +went to the Exhibition. In appearance he is +tall and strongly knit rather than heavily built, +and if you see him more than once in the same +week you discover that he has still an interest +in neck-ties. Perhaps his most remarkable +feat consisted in taking a bottle of brandy into +the heart of Africa, and bringing it back +intact.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="ROBERT_LOUIS_STEVENSON" id="ROBERT_LOUIS_STEVENSON"></a>ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.</h2> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X.<br /><br /> + +ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.</h2> + + +<p>Some men of letters, not necessarily the greatest, +have an indescribable charm to which we +give our hearts. Thackeray is the young man's +first love. Of living authors, none perhaps bewitches +the reader more than Mr. Stevenson, +who plays upon words as if they were a musical +instrument. To follow the music is less +difficult than to place the musician. A friend +of mine, who, like Mr. Grant Allen, reviews 365 +books a year, and 366 in leap years, recently +arranged the novelists of to-day in order of +merit. Meredith, of course, he wrote first, and +then there was a fall to Hardy. "Haggard," he +explained, "I dropped from the Eiffel Tower; +but what can I do with Stevenson? I can't +put him before 'Lorna Doone.'" So Mr. Stevenson +puzzles the critics, fascinating them until +they are willing to judge him by the great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +work he is to write by and by when the little +books are finished. Over "Treasure Island" +I let my fire die in winter without knowing +that I was freezing. But the creator of Alan +Breck has now published nearly twenty volumes. +It is so much easier to finish the little +works than to begin the great one, for which +we are all taking notes.</p> + +<p>Mr. Stevenson is not to be labelled novelist. +He wanders the byways of literature without +any fixed address. Too much of a truant to be +classified with the other boys, he is only a +writer of fiction in the sense that he was once +an Edinburgh University student because now +and again he looked in at his classes when he +happened to be that way. A literary man without +a fixed occupation amazes Mr. Henry James, +a master in the school of fiction which tells, in +three volumes, how Hiram K. Wilding trod on +the skirt of Alice M. Sparkins without anything's +coming of it. Mr. James analyzes Mr. +Stevenson with immense cleverness, but without +summing up. That "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. +Hyde" should be by the author of "Treasure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +Island," "Virginibus Puerisque" by the author +of "The New Arabian Nights," "A Child's Garden +of Verses" by the author of "Prince Otto," +are to him the three degrees of comparison of +wonder, though for my own part I marvel more +that the author of "Daisy Miller" should be +Mr. Stevenson's eulogist. One conceives Mr. +James a boy in velveteens looking fearfully at +Stevenson playing at pirates.</p> + +<p>There is nothing in Mr. Stevenson's sometimes +writing essays, sometimes romances, and +anon poems to mark him versatile beyond other +authors. One dreads his continuing to do so, +with so many books at his back, lest it means +weakness rather than strength. He experiments +too long; he is still a boy wondering +what he is going to be. With Cowley's candor +he tells us that he wants to write something by +which he may be forever known. His attempts +in this direction have been in the nature of trying +different ways, and he always starts off +whistling. Having gone so far without losing +himself, he turns back to try another road. +Does his heart fail him, despite his jaunty bearing,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +or is it because there is no hurry? Though +all his books are obviously by the same hand, +no living writer has come so near fame from so +many different sides. Where is the man among +us who could write another "Virginibus Puerisque," +the most delightful volume for the hammock +ever sung in prose? The poems are as +exquisite as they are artificial. "Jekyll and +Hyde" is the greatest triumph extant in Christmas +literature of the morbid kind. The donkey +on the Cevennes (how Mr. Stevenson belabored +him!) only stands second to the "Inland +Voyage." "Kidnapped" is the outstanding +boy's book of its generation. "The Black Arrow" +alone, to my thinking, is second class. +We shall all be doleful if a marksman who can +pepper his target with inners does not reach +the bull's-eye. But it is quite time the great +work was begun. The sun sinks while the +climber walks round his mountain, looking for +the best way up.</p> + +<p>Hard necessity has kept some great writers +from doing their best work, but Mr. Stevenson +is at last so firmly established that if he continues<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +to be versatile it will only be from choice. +He has attained a popularity such as is, as +a rule, only accorded to classic authors or to +charlatans. For this he has America to thank +rather than Britain, for the Americans buy his +books, the only honor a writer's admirers are +slow to pay him. Mr. Stevenson's reputation +in the United States is creditable to that country, +which has given him a position here in +which only a few saw him when he left. Unfortunately, +with popularity has come publicity. +All day the reporters sit on his garden +wall.</p> + +<p>No man has written in a finer spirit of the +profession of letters than Mr. Stevenson, but +this gossip vulgarizes it. The adulation of the +American public and of a little band of clever +literary dandies in London, great in criticism, of +whom he has become the darling, has made Mr. +Stevenson complacent, and he always tended +perhaps to be a thought too fond of his velvet +coat. There is danger in the delight with +which his every scrap is now received. A few +years ago, when he was his own severest and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +sanest critic, he stopped the publication of a +book after it was in proof—a brave act. He +has lost this courage, or he would have rewritten +"The Black Arrow." There is deterioration +in the essays he has been contributing +to an American magazine, graceful and suggestive +though they are. The most charming of +living stylists, Mr. Stevenson is self-conscious +in all his books now and again, but hitherto it +has been the self-consciousness of an artist with +severe critics at his shoulder. It has become self-satisfaction. +The critics have put a giant's +robe on him, and he has not flung it off. He +dismisses "Tom Jones" with a simper. Personally +Thackeray "scarce appeals to us as the +ideal gentleman; if there were nothing else +[what else is there?], perpetual nosing after +snobbery at least suggests the snob." From +Mr. Stevenson one would not have expected the +revival of this silly charge, which makes a cabbage +of every man who writes about cabbages. +I shall say no more of these ill-considered +papers, though the sneers at Fielding call for +indignant remonstrance, beyond expressing a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +hope that they lie buried between magazine +covers. Mr. Stevenson has reached the critical +point in his career, and one would like to see +him back at Bournemouth, writing within high +walls. We want that big book; we think he +is capable of it, and so we cannot afford to let +him drift into the seaweed. About the writer +with whom his name is so often absurdly linked +we feel differently. It is as foolish to rail at +Mr. Rider Haggard's complacency as it would +be to blame Christopher Sly for so quickly believing +that he was born a lord.</p> + +<p>The key-note of all Mr. Stevenson's writings +is his indifference, so far as his books are concerned, +to the affairs of life and death on which +their minds are chiefly set. Whether man has +an immortal soul interests him as an artist not +a whit: what is to come of man troubles him as +little as where man came from. He is a warm, +genial writer, yet this is so strange as to seem +inhuman. His philosophy is that we are but +as the light-hearted birds. This is our moment +of being; let us play the intoxicating game of +life beautifully, artistically, before we fall dead<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +from the tree. We all know it is only in his +books that Mr. Stevenson can live this life. +The cry is to arms; spears glisten in the sun; +see the brave bark riding joyously on the waves, +the black flag, the dash of red color twisting +round a mountain-side. Alas! the drummer lies +on a couch beating his drum. It is a pathetic +picture, less true to fact now, one rejoices to +know, than it was recently. A common theory +is that Mr. Stevenson dreams an ideal life to +escape from his own sufferings. This sentimental +plea suits very well. The noticeable thing, +however, is that the grotesque, the uncanny, +holds his soul; his brain will only follow a +colored clew. The result is that he is chiefly +picturesque, and, to those who want more than +art for art's sake, never satisfying. Fascinating +as his verses are, artless in the perfection +of art, they take no reader a step forward. +The children of whom he sings so sweetly are +cherubs without souls. It is not in poetry that +Mr. Stevenson will give the great book to the +world, nor will it, I think, be in the form of +essays. Of late he has done nothing quite so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +fine as "Virginibus Puerisque," though most +of his essays are gardens in which grow few +weeds. Quaint in matter as in treatment, they +are the best strictly literary essays of the day, +and their mixture of tenderness with humor +suggests Charles Lamb. Some think Mr. Stevenson's +essays equal to Lamb's, or greater. To +that I say, no. The name of Lamb will for +many a year bring proud tears to English eyes. +Here was a man, weak like the rest of us, who +kept his sorrows to himself. Life to him was +not among the trees. He had loved and lost. +Grief laid a heavy hand on his brave brow. +Dark were his nights; horrid shadows in the +house; sudden terrors; the heart stops beating +waiting for a footstep. At that door comes +Tragedy, knocking at all hours. Was Lamb +dismayed? The tragedy of his life was not +drear to him. It was wound round those who +were dearest to him; it let him know that life +has a glory even at its saddest, that humor and +pathos clasp hands, that loved ones are drawn +nearer, and the soul strengthened in the presence +of anguish, pain, and death. When Lamb<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +sat down to write, he did not pull down his +blind on all that is greatest, if most awful, in +human life. He was gentle, kindly; but he did +not play at pretending that there is no cemetery +round the corner. In Mr. Stevenson's exquisite +essays one looks in vain for the great +heart that palpitates through the pages of +Charles Lamb.</p> + +<p>The great work, if we are not to be disappointed, +will be fiction. Mr. Stevenson is said +to feel this himself, and, as I understand, +"Harry Shovel" will be his biggest bid for +fame. It is to be, broadly speaking, a nineteenth-century +"Peregrine Pickle," dashed with +Meredith, and this in the teeth of many admirers +who maintain that the best of the author +is Scottish. Mr. Stevenson, however, knows +what he is about. Critics have said enthusiastically—for +it is difficult to write of Mr. Stevenson +without enthusiasm—that Alan Breck is as +good as anything in Scott. Alan Breck is certainly +a masterpiece, quite worthy of the greatest +of all story-tellers, who, nevertheless, it +should be remembered, created these rich side<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +characters by the score, another before dinner-time. +English critics have taken Alan to their +hearts, and appreciate him thoroughly; the +reason, no doubt, being that he is the character +whom England acknowledges as the Scottish +type. The Highlands, which are Scotland to +the same extent as Northumberland is England, +present such a character to this day, but no +deep knowledge of Mr. Stevenson's native country +was required to reproduce him. An artistic +Englishman or American could have done it. +Scottish religion, I think, Mr. Stevenson has +never understood, except as the outsider misunderstands +it. He thinks it hard because +there are no colored windows. "The color of +Scotland has entered into him altogether," says +Mr. James, who, we gather, conceives in Edinburgh +Castle a place where tartans glisten in +the sun, while rocks re-echo bagpipes. Mr. +James is right in a way. It is the tartan, the +claymore, the cry that the heather is on fire, +that are Scotland to Mr. Stevenson. But the +Scotland of our day is not a country rich in +color; a sombre gray prevails. Thus, though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +Mr. Stevenson's best romance is Scottish, that +is only, I think, because of his extraordinary +aptitude for the picturesque. Give him any +period in any country that is romantic, and he +will soon steep himself in the kind of knowledge +he can best turn to account. Adventures +suit him best, the ladies being left behind; and +so long as he is in fettle it matters little whether +the scene be Scotland or Spain. The great thing +is that he should now give to one ambitious +book the time in which he has hitherto written +half a dozen small ones. He will have to take +existence a little more seriously—to weave broadcloth +instead of lace.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="REV_WALTER_C_SMITH_DD" id="REV_WALTER_C_SMITH_DD"></a>REV. WALTER C. SMITH, D.D.</h2> + + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI.<br /><br /> + +REV. WALTER C. SMITH, D.D.</h2> + + +<p>During the four winters another and I were +in Edinburgh, we never entered any but Free +churches. This seems to have been less on account +of a scorn for other denominations than +because we never thought of them. We felt +sorry for the "men" who knew no better than +to claim to be on the side of Dr. Macgregor. +Even our Free kirks were limited to two, St. +George's and the Free High. After all, we must +have been liberally minded beyond most of our +fellows, for, as a rule, those who frequented +one of these churches shook their heads at the +other. It is said that Dr. Whyte and Dr. Smith +have a great appreciation of each other. They, +too, are liberally minded.</p> + +<p>To contrast the two leading Free Church +ministers in Edinburgh as they struck a student +would be to become a boy again. The one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +is always ready to go on fire, and the other is +sometimes at hand with a jug of cold water. Dr. +Smith counts a hundred before he starts, while +the minister of Free St. George's is off at once +at a gallop, and would always arrive first at his +destination if he had not sometimes to turn +back. He is not only a Gladstonian, but Gladstonian; +his enthusiasm carries him on as steam +drives the engine. Dr. Smith being a critic, with +a faculty of satire, what would rouse the one +man makes the other smile. Dr. Whyte judges +you as you are at the moment; Dr. Smith sees +what you will be like to-morrow. Some years +ago the defeated side in a great Assembly fight +met at a breakfast to reason itself into a belief +that it had gained a remarkable moral victory. +Dr. Whyte and Dr. Smith were both present, +and the former was so inspiriting that the +breakfast became a scene of enthusiasm. Then +Dr. Smith arose and made a remark about a +company of Mark Tapleys—after which the +meeting broke up.</p> + +<p>I have a curious reminiscence of the student +who most frequently accompanied me to church<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +in Edinburgh. One Sunday when we were +on our way up slushy Bath Street to Free St. +George's he discovered that he had not a penny +for the plate. I suggested to him to give twopence +next time; but no, he turned back to our +lodgings for the penny. Some time afterward +he found himself in the same position when we +were nearing the Free High. "I'll give twopence +next time," he said cheerfully. I have +thought this over since then, and wondered if +there was anything in it.</p> + +<p>The most glorious privilege of the old is to +assist the young. The two ministers who are +among the chief pillars of the Free Church in +Edinburgh are not old yet, but they have had +a long experience, and the strength and encouragement +they have been to the young is the +grand outstanding fact of their ministries. +Their influence is, of course, chiefly noticeable +in the divinity men, who make their Bible +classes so remarkable. There is a sort of Freemasonry +among the men who have come under +the influence of Dr. Smith. It seems to have +steadied them—to have given them wise rules<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +of life that have taken the noise out of them, +and left them undemonstrative, quiet, determined. +You will have little difficulty, as a +rule, in picking out Dr. Smith's men, whether +in the pulpit or in private. They have his +mark, as the Rugby boys were marked by Dr. +Arnold. Even in speaking of him, they seldom +talk in superlatives: only a light comes into +their eye, and you realize what a well-founded +reverence is. I met lately in London an Irishman +who, when the conversation turned to Scotland, +asked what Edinburgh was doing without +Dr. Smith (who was in America at the time). +He talked with such obvious knowledge of Dr. +Smith's teaching, and with such affection for +the man, that by and by we were surprised to +hear that he had never heard him preach nor +read a line of his works. He explained that he +knew intimately two men who looked upon +their Sundays in the Free High, and still more +upon their private talks with the minister, as +the turning-point in their lives. They were +such fine fellows, and they were so sure that +they owed their development to Dr. Smith,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +that to know the followers was to know something +of the master. This it is to be a touchstone +to young men.</p> + +<p>There are those who think Dr. Smith the +poet of higher account than Dr. Smith the +preacher. I do not agree with them, though +there can be no question that the author of +"Olrig Grange" and Mr. Alexander Anderson +are the two men now in Edinburgh who have +(at times) the divine afflatus. "Surfaceman" is +a true son of Burns. Of him it may be said, +as it never can be said of Dr. Smith, that he +sings because he must. His thoughts run in +harmonious numbers. The author of "Olrig +Grange" is the stronger mind, however, and his +lines are always pregnant of meaning. He is +of the school of Mr. Lewis Morris, but an immeasurably +higher intellect if not so fine an +artist: indeed, though there are hundreds of +his pages that are not poetry, there are almost +none that could not be rewritten into weighty +prose. Sound is never his sole object. Good +novels in verse are a mistake, for it is quite +certain they would be better in prose. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +novelist has a great deal to say that cannot be +said naturally in rhythm, and much of Dr. +Smith's blank verse is good prose in frills. It +is driven into an undeserved confinement.</p> + +<p>The privilege of critics is to get twelve or +twenty minor poets in a row, and then blow them +all over at once. I remember one who despatched +Dr. Smith with a verse from the book +under treatment. Dr. Smith writes of a poet's +verses, "There is no sacred fire in them, Nor +much of homely sense and shrewd;" and when +the critic came to these lines he stopped reading: +he declared that Dr. Smith had passed +judgment on himself. This is a familiar form +of criticism, but in the present case it had at +least the demerit of being false. There is so +much sacred fire about Dr. Smith's best poetry +that it is what makes him a poet; and as for +"homely sense and shrewd," he has simply +more of it than any contemporary writer of +verse. It is what gives heart to his satire, and +keeps him from wounding merely for the +pleasure of drawing blood. In conjunction +with the sacred fire, the noble indignation that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +mean things should be, the insight into the +tragic, it is what makes "Hilda" his greatest +poem. Without it there could not be pathos, +which is concerned with little things; nor +humor, nor, indeed, the flash into men and +things that makes such a poem as "Dr. Linkletter's +Scholar" as true as life, as sad as death. +If only for the sake of that noble piece of writing, +every Scottish student should have "North-Country +Folk" in his possession. The poem is +probably the most noteworthy thing that has +been said of northern university life.</p> + + + + +<hr class="full" /> + + +<p class="transnote">Transcriber's Note:<br /><br /> + +Minor punctuation errors were corrected.<br /><br /> + +The following typographical errors were corrected:<br /><br /> + +Page <a href="#Page_50">50</a>: Changed Calderwod to Calderwood.<br /><br /> + +Page <a href="#Page_111">111</a>: Changed civiliaztion to civilization.<br /><br /> + +Page <a href="#Page_128">128</a>: Changed litle to little.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="pg" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN EDINBURGH ELEVEN***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 39203-h.txt or 39203-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/9/2/0/39203">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/2/0/39203</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution.</p> + + + +<pre> +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a> + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a> + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> |