Among my memoranda of the year, I find reference to two doctrines involved in my theological creed, on which great stress is laid-the power of the ideal, and the force of companionship. The aim, no doubt, was to explain the influences of religion on definite and statable laws of the mind, which, being freshly arrived at, were highly estimated.

Specially stimulating exercises in composition during this recess appear to have been the following :-A lecture on "Reading" to the Mechanics' Institution, which made an effort to impart the latest form of the theory of style, the nature of illustration being the main topic. Then, the improved shape of this device was turned to account in a lecture on "Inventive Genius,"-where, I doubt not, the law of Similarity, so far as then developed, had a leading place. A third discourse related to the "Philosophy of Discovery,"-a topic I long struggled with, and believed that, even at this stage, I had considerably improved upon.

The intellectual revolutions of the year, although believed to have a bearing on religious doctrine, were, as I have said, not favourable to religious warmth, even if they did not have the contrary effect. As I became more of an intellectual being, I was evidently becoming less emotional in the only form that emotion had yet possessed me. I

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had still a very strong desire to keep up a high religious tone, and believed I was succeeding in some respects, while anticipating yet greater results. The Bible heroes were still much in my thoughts, and inspired efforts to imitate them. I had made studies in the nature of duty, and would fain realize them somehow in conduct.

The beginnings of my education theories are traceable to this period. I seem also to have formulated a theory of conversation, in my anxiety to carry principles into practical applications.

The excitement of the recess months appears to have aggravated my previous symptoms of head and stomach derangement. The mental fits of depression accompanying the strain were very much ameliorated by Walker's company, but for which my condition would have been barely

tolerable.

Winter Session, 1838-39.

This was the most fruitful of all my college sessions. The occupation was entirely to my mind-Natural Philosophy and Senior Mathematics, both thoroughly well taught.

Knight's class of Natural Philosophy had He was a most admirable teacher in many ways, although

ample scope-fifteen hours a week.

halting in the purely mathematical parts. This made him all the more full in the portions that were matter of fact and experimental. His genius was cut out for Natural History; the grand disappointment in his life being the failure to obtain the Natural History chair. He threw his matter into clear consecutive arrangement, numbering all his points, as a Naturalist would do; and I derived advantage in the matter of style from seeing the method so fully realized. I had come up prepared with a considerable reading in the subject, and benefited fully by every part of Knight's course. I did not need to work outside the class, except to write the weekly essays: the absorption during the lectures and examinations was enough to make a permanent storage of the course. At the end of the session, I gained the first prize, besides being complimented in unusual terms for my essays.

very

Dr. Cruickshank's senior class was an advance on his junior in point of interest. Higher Algebra, Conic Sections, and Spherics, were the chief items of the course. He gave an admirable summary of the Geometrical Astronomy,-in which Knight was weak. Everything he did was thorough and lucid, while Knight had to be occasionally slipshod in difficult questions.

To the more serious work of the session, I

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added attendance in a voluntary class of Greek. We read portions of Demosthenes, Æschines, and Aristophanes, all which I found interesting, my knowledge of Greek being now more nearly on a par with the reading. I competed for a prize at the end; but it fell to John Cruickshank, the professor's son, whose classical scholarship was unrivalled among us.

This session was made eventful through the institution of an entirely new class, the subject of which was Christian Evidences. The suggestion arose in a Commission for promoting the union of the two colleges. an incidental recommendation was made, at the instance of Dr. Abercrombie, to the effect that a Christian Evidences class should be attached to the curriculum. In Marischal College, the Principal-Dewar undertook to conduct it one hour a week, for students of the third and fourth years. For this purpose, he compiled a text-book, which we got up in order to be examined upon. The students generally treated the subject and the lecturer with utter levity; yet, as it was to count for the Degree, and to be on a level with the other departments of the course, we could not afford altogether to neglect or despise it.

The main object failed; but

To me the occasion was memorable as being my first contact with the Christian Evidences in

a formal and methodical shape. I had read Natural Theology in considerable amount, but had never grappled with the question of the authenticity of the Bible, nor had I ever any doubts suggested to me on the point. What struck me was the insufficiency of the case for the Old Testament; I was not affected in the same way by what was advanced for the New. Having many other trains of thought to occupy me, I refrained from following out the difficulty, and left it among the other unsolved difficulties that had grown up in the course of my religious history.

Next to the college classes, my chief work in this session was to compete for a Prize Essay on "Cruelty to Animals"; £20 being the sum offered. I soon saw that the observance of humane and tender feelings towards animals could not be absolutely enforced as a moral duty, like the ten commandments. It was a voluntary outgrowth of our sympathetic be urged home upon that line. of basing a rhetorical treatment upon our sympathetic constitution, I drew out a full scheme of the laws and conditions of Sympathy, which I developed for the first time, and with great thoroughness and completeness, even as compared with my finished handling in The Emotions and

nature, and must However, instead