6

ing them to the editor of the Times.' The subject had now become familiar, by means of newspapers and pamphlets, to the public concerned, and he met with vigorous co-operation from many sources. His own colleagues in Edinburgh University were at last with him, but for the one exception, his opponent from first to last. He had attained to this important stage, that the academic corporation to which he belonged admitted and cautiously advocated a measure of reform. But his scheme for reform after the German pattern was not so heartily endorsed, nor was he unduly obstinate on that point. Indeed, when the whole matter came to its practical stage, he forbore both influence and interference. His share was, as Dr Guthrie phrased it, "to wake up the country with his trumpet."

The social life interlinked with these activities was rich and varied. Old friendship drew him always closer to George Harvey and Dr John Brown. Sydney Dobell was often in Edinburgh, and sought his cheerful society. Dr George Finlay appeared in the Modern Athens from time to time, laden with the woes of its old and eponymous metropolis. Thus he announced his arrival in the summer of 1857

I am still so confused in my head with the heat of Athens, the dust raised by the change of Ministry, the

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army of occupation, the sweeping of the palace, and our old friend Boreas, that I cannot recollect anything to say to you except that you were never forgotten at the headquarters of marble monuments and marble dust. I hope to be in Edinburgh soon. I remained a week in London talking politics and art, and mixing them up in utter desperation of conveying a meaning to people who, having seen Constantinople, know everything!

Dr John Carlyle was a frequent visitor; with Dr Guthrie and Dean Ramsay he had established the friendliest relations. If he had just lost Sir William Hamilton, the honoured friend of many years, he had gained his philosophic successor, Professor Campbell Fraser, who to a deep and stable concern with ideas added a gentle humour, which played upon the shadowy realities of existence as sunlight plays upon vapour.

Edinburgh was wealthy in possessing, magnetic in attracting, genial souls, and the "light of other days" still sparkled in their intercourse. The Professor had chosen Dr Guthrie to be his pastor in ordinary, and sat Sunday after Sunday in a corner of the big square pew sacred to the elders and to distinguished worshippers - just under the pulpit, where the tall Doctor spake rousing words that moved and swayed the crowd beneath him. For his eloquence,- full of emotion, of simile, of elevation, of conviction, vibrating with love of nature and of man,-Professor

VOL. I.

U

Blackie chose him, and because his large sympathy refused all channels dug by sect, and flowed out into the broad stream whose waters God has designed for the refreshing of all mankind. The plaid, the thick stick, the low-crowned hat, the brown wig worn for some years, the finely cut profile, the devout attitude in prayer, the close attention, were all familiar to the congregation of Free St John's during the latter half of Dr Guthrie's ministry.

Connected also with these years years was the Blackie Brotherhood," instituted by the Professor to bring together, at least once in twelve months, a little group of friends belonging to the inner circle. We find twelve of these upon its first roll-call: Mr Hunter of Craigcrook and his son, Mr Kinnear, Dr Lindsay Alexander, Dr Hanna, Dr Walter C. Smith, Professor Campbell Fraser, Dr John Brown, Mr George Harvey, Mr Noël Paton, Mr D. O. Hill, and Dr Gairdner. Parts in some kind were important to brotherhood, but the essential qualification was moral nobility of character. Poets, painters, philosophers, and divines were only qualified if to their gifts they added the Christian graces of faith, hope, and charity. Atheists and scoffers were classed with bigots and dogmatists, and with the "damnatory orthodox," in disability. Such men

are never poets, nor sing the lyrics of love, nature, and good-fellowship, and they would have been out of place in that kindly company, which had a preference for "moral nobility" tempered by song. Their communion, bodily and prandially, was in one of the Princes Street hotels; spiritually, "in that genial region of fervid and flowery spontaneity in which, as in an earthly Paradise, it was the privilege of the Brotherhood to dwell." The "Blackie Brotherhood" lasted for a quarter of a century, and the gaps which death made in its ranks were filled by men with every worthy attribute. It is impossible now to recover its merry jests and sparkling humour. The "snows of yester-year" endure a winter long; its laughter is but a waft of fragrance which no man can register.

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CHAPTER XIII.

LAYS, LECTURES, AND LYRICS.

1857-1860.

THE minstrel flame, which had nearly flickered out in Athens,-fanned by airs from the western seas at Arran, by pine-scented breezes at Braemar,-blazed up again, and at the end of 1856 he completed a volume of original verse, called 'Lays and Legends of Ancient Greece,' and published by Messrs Blackwood & Sons. Although mainly concerned with the mythical and heroic stories of Greece, there were appended to these the "Braemar Ballads," inspired by a summer sojourn there. Marching alone down the glens and up the mountains, his faculties quickened by movement in the fresh and heather-sweetened air, he covered much ground in his wanderings. As he walked he sang and shouted his lays into