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the business, "Dr. Glennie's assistant". Matters now came to a point. Dr. Glennie had to obtain forthwith from Dr. Pirie an open avowal of his accepting the office of assistant for the session ; and so the matter ended.

We now know that Dr. Pirie himself had an eye to the Chair, when it should become vacant. This was not suspected by any of his colleagues on the present occasion. Probably, he had been consulted by Dr. Glennie, with a view to his finding an assistant, and without supposing that he would do the work himself. Most likely, his own ulterior views made him think it not a bad move to occupy the chair in the capacity of assistant for one session. How he conducted the work, I never heard. He would evidently be under no obligation to adhere to the lectures whenever he had anything to put in their place. I had reason to know that he had been occupying his mind with psychological studies some time previously. What had been kept a dead secret was, that Robertson, on obtaining the Edinburgh chair, had entered into a compact with Pirie to support him as Glennie's successor. This secret was not in fact disclosed until the vacancy occurred. Dr. Cruickshank's supposition was that Dr. John Forbes would probably be a candidate; but he had no one else in his mind as a rival to myself.

Winter Session, 1844-45.

Having now no certain prospect for the winter, I paid a visit to Blake at Monymusk, where he resided as parish schoolmaster. I stayed there about a month, and was greatly invigorated by the air of the place. In the way of composition, I began an essay on Beauty, to offer to some magazine, such as Blackwood. Blake and I had a good deal of reading in company, of which I remember best Robinson's Travels in the Holy Land. From this book I derived the impression of the scenery of Palestine that I have retained ever since.

I returned to Aberdeen in the second week of November. Almost immediately after arriving, I was walking in George Street and met Dr. B. Williamson. As I was going northward, he told me to reverse my steps, because my services would immediately be wanted. On asking what he meant, I was told of the death of Dr. Knight after a very short illness. He had just opened his class when he caught a chill and took brain fever, to which he succumbed. I saw Dr. Cruickshank, of course; and he considered that I was the proper person to conduct the class, and said the Senatus would approve of the appointment. However, it fell to the family to make the arrangement

DEATH OF DR. KNIGHT.

and provide the remuneration.

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The appointment,

no doubt, was a bitter pill to the Glennie connexion; but they could not help themselves, and their lawyer, John Duguid Milne, arranged matters for them. I had the use of Dr. Knight's own lectures, which were very much to the purpose, and could be readily followed, as I had myself attended them six years before. Between them and my own notes of lecturing at the Mechanics' Institution, which of course were still more familiar, I contrived to get through the course and to manage the experiments tolerably well, although far from deftly. It was a much harder session than any of the Moral Philosophy ones. I was urged by Cruickshank and others to put in an application for the Chair, which added to the burden of the first two or three weeks. It was, however, conferred upon David Gray, head of the Inverness Academy.

As no special reason could be assigned for this appointment in the shape of credentials and influence on the part of Gray, my failure was considered due to representations to the effect that I was not a member of the Established Church. According to information received by Dr. Cruickshank, from what he considered a reliable source, had it not been for this circumstance, I should certainly have succeeded. Dr. Cruickshank's informant was, in all likelihood, his friend Robertson,

who, in his capacity of Secretary to the Bible Board, had ready access to the Lord Advocate ; but whether he was the medium of conveying the damaging fact I cannot tell. His profession to Cruickshank was that, for his own part, he had no wish that I should be kept out of a Natural Philosophy Chair; although, as I found afterwards, it was quite different with the Moral Philosophy Chair. It was generally said that Dr. Glennie had been applied to by the Lord Advocate and had written in a very damaging fashion,-no doubt as the consequence of the irritation caused by what happened at the end of the previous session.

I had it on good authority that Ramsay of the Aberdeen Journal, seemingly from pure malignity, for he had no party to promote, sent to Sir James Graham a copy of the speech that I gave at the Reform Banquet in 1836.

Early in March, a vacancy occurred in the Logic Chair of St. Andrews, by the death of Dr. James Hunter. Professor Blackie made inquiries for me of Dr. John Reid, the professor of Anatomy, and learned what candidates were in the field. They were a very formidable array-Spalding and Ferrier of Edinburgh, Craik of London, and John Cook, minister of Laurencekirk. I entered the list simply with the handing in of testimonials, being unable to make a personal canvass. Masson

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exerted himself in Edinburgh, both in the way of inquiries and in gaining recommendations from Edinburgh friends, including Chalmers, Candlish, Dunlop, and Hugh Miller, who were all at that time favourable to my pretensions. It was understood from the first that Spalding was the strongest candidate; and I never entertained any great hopes in the matter. The appointment took place on the 20th of April; Spalding being elected.

In the course of the session, I prepared an essay "On the Impediments to the Progress of Truth, which arise from the abuse of Language". This was a subject propounded for the Blackwell Prize several years before. The prize was biennial; but only one essay was given in at the prescribed time, and that had been considered unworthy of the prize. The subject was propounded again, with the addition of another year's income to the value, making £30. Several essays were given in at the second period fixed, but still failed to meet with the approval of the judges. It was repeated for the third time, the value being now £40; essays to be ready in March, 1845. As composed, my essay simply consisted of an accumulation of logical fallacies connected with the abuse of language, which had been growing during my logical studies of former years. The prize was adjudged in my favour on the 6th of May, 1846, and the essay