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 very unusual terms for my essays.

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. The main object failed; but 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.

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 nature, and must be urged home upon that line. However, instead 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

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the Will I was vastly pleased and excited by this addition to my psychological stores. I took care to embody all my latest views of illustration and composition,-by which the result must have greatly surpassed, in point of workmanship, the essay of the year before. I had, in consequence, much higher hopes of being successful on this occasion. I was soon un

deceived. The prize fell to a senior student, W. G. Blaikie,-who, no doubt, excelled in the way of putting the case. so as to reach the ordinary mind; against which, all my profound psychological theories wanted weight and impressiveness.

I

I was still engaged in pursuing the psychology of the intellect, and prepared three lectures for the Mechanics' Institution, entitled "Philosophical Genius, involving also the Theory of Discovery ". It was in this course that I first turned to account the Пepì σrepávov of Demosthenes. had studied very carefully the introduction to the speech, the drawn-out antithesis of the συκοφάντης and the σύμβουλος and the magnificent peroration of the Oath, and both then and afterwards made use of all the three portions, partly as illustrative of the genius of discovery, and partly in the explanation of oratorical art.

Summer Recess, 1839.

Among the important events of the summer, I must rank Dr. Knight's gift of a ticket to attend his Botany Class, which met daily for three months. The interest aroused was very great-opening up an entirely new region of ideas. Besides the interest of the plants themselves, and the botanical excursions in hunting for them, there was the logic of Classification, brought before me for the first time. Also, the physiology of plants introduced me into a new domain, full of high scientific thought in the Natural History world. It was nothing to what a course of Botany would be now; yet, the stimulus was immense. I kept up a feeble plant interest, and was moved to continue the local search, in subsequent years.

Immediately on the close of the winter session, I resumed my acquaintance with John Robertson, with whom I had some intercourse in my early school days. He had now been assisting Mill in the editorship of the London and Westminster Review for about three years, and had not quite ceased, the Review being still in Mill's hands. He sent for me, talked over my intentions and prospects, and explained his own position in London in connexion with Mill, of whom he gave me a glowing delineation, both personally