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year between. The Degree was not simply a pass; it also comprised a small list of honourable distinction. In my peculiar circumstances, it was important that I should figure well in the distinction list. During the fortnight preceding the examination, a few of us clubbed together for preparation in Classics and other subjects; I working far above my strength, as was unavoidable. I knew that there were one or two subjects where I could not expect to score high. It so happened that the Moral Philosophy examination was the same for prizes and for the Degree; all the other subjects had questions purely for the Degree. I had no difficulty with Christian Evidences, neither did I feel the least anxiety as to Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Moral Philosophy. I was also well up in Greek. The two subjects where I felt shaky, not as regards a bare pass, but with a view to a high position, were Latin and Natural History. I knew that there would be a Latin version, and I had never attained proficiency in writing Latin. I was also pretty sure that the Natural History questions would be more than I could fully

overtake.

The seven days passed, and I was, of course, prostrate and exhausted. The declaration of the result coupled Alexander Cruickshank and me

HONOURS AT END OF SESSION.

83

This was disappointing,

as equal at the top. but not surprising. He being an unfortunate paralytic, although able for a certain amount of college study, could never be qualified for professional occupation, and he devoted his whole time and strength for this session to getting up the work of the Degree subjects. It was some years afterwards that I learned a curious episode in connexion with this decision. It appeared that the mode of reckoning merits in the Degree examinations was not by numerical values, but by a rough mode of assigning verbal designationsas optime, bene, mediocriter, male. From the preserved records of the graduation, I found myself credited with five optimes and two benes -these last being in Latin and in Natural History, as I expected. Alick Cruickshank had seven optimes. It was evident that, in the scientific subjects, he must have fallen considerably behind me; for, in Moral Philosophy, I had the first prize, while he was out of the prize list. This was not all. In the new Christian Evidences department, the examination was purely viva voce. That he was perfectly prepared on the subject, there could be no doubt; but, when under examination, he was so nervous as to be unable to give a distinct answer to any of the questions. By a somewhat inexcusable stretch of favour, he

was, nevertheless, credited by Principal Dewar with an optime. The remarkable incident is to follow. When it was proposed, as a matter of course, to put Cruickshank's name at the head of the Honours List, I being second, his father interposed with warmth. He maintained that the markings were delusive as to the apparent superiority attributed to his son. The effect was a compromise by which we two were bracketed equal.

CHAPTER III.

LITERARY BEGINNINGS: PUBLIC TEACHING: OFFICIAL EMPLOYMENT-1840-1850.

Summer Recess, 1840.

THE summer of this year saw the commencement of my writing for publication. It was through the good offices of John Robertson that I first obtained admission to the Westminster Review. In the beginning of this year, John Mill parted with the London and Westminster Review, handing it over to Henry Cole and W. E. Hickson. One result of the transaction was that Robertson himself was cast adrift, and had to look out for some other openings. Nevertheless, he wished to do something in the way of introducing me to literary work, knowing exactly the nature of my studies and objects of pursuit. In various communications received from him in April, May, and June, he suggested as one opening the Penny Cyclopædia, and advised me to choose topics in alphabetic advance of the published parts. I mentioned "Induction" as

a subject on which I was prepared to write, but to this he answered very naturally that no editor would entrust that subject to a beginner.1 Nothing ever came of the proposal to contribute to the Penny Cyclopædia. More success attended Robertson's offer to procure for me admission to the Westminster, under its new management. In considering suitable subjects, I had alighted upon the novel discoveries of the electrotype and the daguerreotype; on either of which I was prepared to write an expository article, throwing my whole strength into the effort of pure exposition. The editors accepted the offer, and desired me to include both in one article.

The composition of the article occupied six hard weeks in June and July. It had to be given in on the 15th of July. The method of the exposition was to isolate all the steps of the process in the two portions, and to give a clear and emphatic expression to each in such language as would be generally intelligible. Instances of this mode of exposition were, of course, not

The offer of Induction as a subject grew out of the Logical Essays already referred to. In them, however, I had not formulated an inductive method further than to exhibit the necessity of the generalizing operation in formally disposing of any given argument. I was strongly prepossessed, from the very first, by the absolute necessity of an appeal to particulars in establishing any proposition, but had no specific formula for going to work beyond the simple collection and comparison of particulars. In many subsequent essays, I carried out this design with the utmost zeal and emphasis.

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