topics.

"A FIRST ENGLISH GRAMMAR."

315

How far teachers in using the grammar carried the pupils through this preliminary part, I never exactly ascertained. It was quite possible to dispense with it and accept the definitions of the parts of speech and so on, explaining these in the usual fashion of all grammars. To ease the teacher's labour and increase the grammatical discipline, a key was drawn up exclusively by Minto, and grammar and key were brought out together, and at once reproduced in America through Henry Holt & Co. of New York. Publication took place in January, 1872.

Winter Session, 1872-73, and Recess following.

The

The first months of 1873 were associated with the final stages of Mind and Body and the forwarding of Grote's Minor Works. In the month of March, occurred the first election of a School Board in Aberdeen, under Lord Young's Education Act. The contest turned almost exclusively on the point of religious education, and became very hot. religious sects concurred in adopting a set of candidates pledged to the maintenance of religious teaching; while, to secure the support of the Episcopalians, they agreed to drop the Shorter Catechism. The secular party put forward six candidates, who were all defeated with the exception of myself. I was able to attend only the first meeting before going abroad, and was the proposer of Dr. Pirie as chairman.

Immediately afterwards, we set out for London. During a few days' stay there, I saw Mill once at

his rooms in Albert Mansions, and, again, at a reception given by Lord and Lady Amberley. Leaving London, we started for Italy; going through Paris and the Mont Cenis Tunnel to Turin, thence to Genoa, and by the Apennines to Spezzia. The next visit was to Florence, where we stayed a week. Besides the usual sights of the place, we had the opportunity of seeing the anatomical models in wax that had been manufactured under the auspices of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Thence we went to Bologna, Padua, and Venice-which last was reached on Wednesday, the 7th of May. On Saturday, I called for letters at the Post Office and was blocked by the difficulty of not producing a passport. I was told there were several telegrams; but they were refused, and only got through being delivered at the hotel. These were all forwarded from London by Minto, and contained successively the illness and the death of Mill; the news, of course, having been sent from Avignon to London. I at once resolved to make our way homewards, and take Avignon on the route, by Milan and Nice. Spending a night at Nice, I talked with Dr. Gurney, who had attended Mill. When we reached Avignon, we called at Mill's cottage and saw Miss Helen Taylor. We also called on the physician who had attended Mill, and on the Protestant pastor who was present at the funeral and

gave a prayer.

TRAVELLING ABROAD.

317

Finally, proceeding by Lyons to Paris, we saw Madame Digweed, Mill's second surviving sister.

The French Assembly was then meeting at Versailles, in the theatre of the great palace ; and there, we were introduced by M. Littré to a sitting. He was at that time Deputy of the Seine. M. Thiers, President of the Republic, sat among the members in the second front bench his deposition followed the same week.

Arriving in London, in the beginning of June, I took the chair at a soiree given at James Heywood's to discuss the proposal for a testimonial to Mill. This had been mooted by Arthur Arnold, and his forwardness gave umbrage to Mill's more intimate friends; with the result that my business as chairman was to soothe the irritation expressed by various individuals on that point. Still, being once mooted, it seemed on the whole advisable to proceed with the proposal; and a special meeting for the purpose took place in Willis's rooms, Roebuck being in the chair. In consequence, however, of some disagreeable remarks with reference to Arnold's forwardness, Roebuck withdrew his name from the Committee and took no further share in the movement.

I returned to Aberdeen, in the end of June, and began to take part in the School Board proceedings.

Professor Black, who was on the Board, was chiefly instrumental in organizing the schools, partly by adopting existing schools and partly by commencing the erection of new ones. Being appointed Chairman of the Grammar School Committee, I had the principal share in trying to reform its management; but the attempt was abortive, for want of funds. I introduced one motion, and only one, on the subject of secular teaching, with the solitary support of the Roman Catholic priest.

This year saw the commencement of the revision of the third edition of The Emotions and the Will.

Darwin's Expression of the Emotions came out in the Autumn of 1872, and I immediately perused and analyzed it. This was followed by a very full review of the whole which was put into print and appended to the current (third) edition of the Senses. Darwin had gone carefully into the minutest details of expression, comparing the modes throughout the accessible races of mankind.

The problem herein presented is somewhat complex, consisting of matters that are fairly within our range, and others that are beyond our reach; it being a necessary clearance of our way to separate the one from the other. Darwin has, seemingly, failed to draw the proper line-as I wish to show.

The accessible part of the inquiry consists in assigning to our various emotional states-pleasurable and painful— the prevailing modes of manifestation or expression. So great is the general uniformity throughout mankind, that this attempt is fairly within our province-indeed, it is roughly appreciated and understood by every one, and the

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THIRD EDITION OF 'THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL". 319

knowledge is acted on for a variety of purposes. When a scientific treatment is superadded, it means a more careful analysis of our emotional states, on the one hand, and of our organs of expression, on the other, together with a precise rendering of their characteristic modes. We may, moreover, endeavour to generalize-to reduce to general laws the different manifestations, showing a common bond running through the great variety of details. This applies not merely to pleasures and pains, as such, but to emotional forms that have distinctive characters-such as the exultation of victory, the stare of astonishment, the prostration of fear, and so on. General laws of mind and body are sought with a view to comprehend the leading kinds of emotion.

While Darwin has applied successfully this form of legitimate research, he has ventured a step farther, and involved himself in speculations that pass beyond our grasp. This is more particularly shown in his endeavouring to account for the characteristic movements of the eyes and mouth in expressing emotional states. He would fain ascertain how these peculiar movements first began; what were the generating causes of the opposing attitudes of the mouth in pleasure and in pain, in love and in anger. The hypothesis framed by him for this end must be pronounced a total failure. It halts in the special point, if in no other, that it presumes to give priority to our volitional framework over emotional expression strictly so called. We assume, and Darwin would admit as much, that the volitional and the emotional movements are distinct facts of our constitution; while to say which was prior, which could be given as the producing cause of the other, is entirely beyond us. It is one of those problems of beginnings that we are never likely to solve. What Darwin endeavours to account for, in the characteristic movements and attitudes of the face, must be simply assumed; its origin being beyond our power to reach.