Skip to main content

Full text of "On self-culture, intellectual, physical, and moral"

See other formats 


ON    SELF    CULTURE 


Printed  by  R.  &  R.  Clark 

FOE 

EDMONSTON  &  DOUGLAS,  EDINBURGH. 

LONDON      .      .      .      HAMILTON,   ADAMS,   AND  CO. 
CAMBRIDGE   .        .       MACMILLAN   AND   CO. 
GLASGOW   .      .  JAMES   MACLEHOSE. 


ON 


SELF-CULTUBE 

Intellectual,  Physical,  and  Moral 


Fato  JEecum  for  gating  fEen  attti  &tutintts 


BY 

JOHN    STUABT 


PROFESSOR   OF  GREEK   IN   THE   UNIVERSITY   OF  EDINB 


SIXTH  EDITION 


EDINBURGH 
EDMONSTON  AND  DOUGLAS 

1875 

All  rights  reserved 


CONTENTS. 


PACTS 

THE  CULTURE  OF  THE  INTELLECT  .  .  1 
ON  PHYSICAL  CULTURE  ....  39 
ON  MORAL  CULTURE  55 


THE  CULTUEE   OF   THE 
INTELLECT. 

Es  1st  immer  gut  etwas  zu  wissen. — GOETHE. 


THE  CULTURE  OF  THE  INTELLECT. 


1.  IN  modern  times  instruction  is  communicated 
chiefly  by  means  of  BOOKS.  Books  are  no  doubt 
very  useful  helps  to  knowledge,  and  in  some 
measure  also,  to  the  practice  of  useful  arts  and 
accomplishments,  but  they  are  not,  in  any  case, 
the  primary  and  natural  sources  of  culture,  and, 
in  my  opinion,  their  virtue  is  not  a  little  apt  to 
be  overrated,  even  in  those  branches  of  acquire- 
ment where  they  seem  most  indispensable.  They 
are  not  creative  powers  in  any  sense ;  they  are 
merely  helps,  instruments,  tools ;  and  even  as 
tools  they  are  only  artificial  tools,  superadded 
to  those  with  which  the  wise  prevision  of  Nature 
has  equipped  us,  like  telescopes  and  micro- 
scopes, whose  assistance  in  many  researches  re- 
veals unimagined  wonders,  but  the  use  of  which 
should  never  tempt  us  to  undervalue  or  to  neglect 
the  exercise  of  our  own  eyes. .  The  original  and 
proper  sources  of  knowledge  are  not  books,  but 
life,  experience,  personal  thinking,  feeling,  and 
acting.  When  a  man  starts  with  these,  books 
can  fill  up  many  gaps,  correct  much  that  is  in- 
B 


2  THE  CULTURE  OF 

accurate,  and  extend  much  that  is  inadequate  ; 
but,  without  living  experience  to  work  on,  books 
are  like  rain  and  sunshine  fallen  on  unbroken 
soil. 

"  The  parchment  roll  is  that  the  holy  river, 
From  which  one  draught  shall  slake  the  thirst  for  ever? 
The  quickening  power  of  science  only  he 
Can  know,  from  whose  own  soul  it  gushes  free." 

This  is  expressed,  no  doubt,  somewhat  in  a 
poetical  fashion,  but  it  contains  a  great  general 
truth.  As  a  treatise  on  mineralogy  can  convey 
no  real  scientific  knowledge  to  a  man  who  has 
never  seen  a  mineral,  so  neither  can  works  of 
literature  and  poetry  instruct  the  mere  scholar 
who  is  ignorant  of  life,  nor  discourses  on  music 
him  who  has  no  experience  of  sweet  sounds,  nor 
gospel  sermons  him  who  has  no  devotion  in  his 
soul  or  purity  in  his  life.  All  knowledge  which 
comes  from  books  comes  indirectly,  by  reflection, 
and  by  echo  ;  true  knowledge  grows  from  a 
living  root  in  the  thinking  soul ;  and  whatever 
it  may  appropriate  from  without,  it  takes  by 
living  assimilation  into  a  living  organism,  not 
by  mere  borrowing. 

II.  I  therefore  earnestly  advise  all  young  men 
to  commence  their  studies,  as  much  as  possible, 
by  direct  OBSERVATION  of  FACTS,  and  not  by  the 
mere  inculcation  0f  statements  from  books.  A 
useful  book  was  written  with  the  title, — Row 
to  Observe.  These  three  words  might  serve  as  a 
motto  to  guide  us  in  the  most  important  part 
of  our  early  education — a  part,  unfortunately, 


THE  INTELLECT.  3 

only  too  much  neglected.  All  the  natural  sciences 
are  particularly  valuable,  not  only  as  supplying 
the  mind  with  the  most  rich,  various,  and  beauti- 
ful furniture,  but  as  teaching  people  that  most 
useful  of  all  arts,  how  to  use  their  eyes.  It  is 
astonishing  how  much  we  all  go  about  with  our 
eyes  open,  and  yet  seeing  nothing.  This  is  be- 
cause the  organ  of  vision,  like  other  organs, 
requires  training ;  and  by  lack  of  training  and 
the  slavish  dependence  on  books,  becomes  dull 
and  slow,  and  ultimately  incapable  of  exercising 
its  natural  function.  Let  those  studies,  there- 
fore, both  in  school  and  college,  be  regarded  as 
primary,  that  teach  young  persons  to  know  what 
they  are  seeing,  and  to  see  what  they  otherwise 
would  fail  to  see.  Among  the  most  useful  are, 
Botany,  Zoology,  Mineralogy,  Geology,  Che- 
mistry, Architecture,  Drawing,  and  the  Fine 
Arts.  How  many  a  Highland  excursion  and  con- 
tinental tour  have  been  rendered  comparatively 
useless  to  young  persons  well  drilled  in  their 
books,  merely  from  the  want  of  a  little  element- 
ary knowledge  in  these  sciences  of  observation. 

III.  Observation  is  good,  and  accurate  obser- 
vation is  better ;  but,  on  account  of  the  vast 
variety  of  objects  in  the  universe,  the  observing 
faculty  would  be  overwhelmed  and  confounded, 
did  we  not  possess  some  sure  method  of  sub- 
mitting their  multitude  to  a  certain  regulative 
principle  placing  them  under  the  control  of  our 
minds.  This  regulative  principle  is  what  we 
call  CLASSIFICATION,  and  is  discoverable  by 
human  reason,  because  it  clearly  exists  every- 


4  THE  CULTURE  OF 

where  in  a  world  which  is  the  manifestation  of 
Divine  reason.  This  classification  depends  on 
the  fundamental  unity  of  type  which  the  Divine 
reason  has  imposed  on  all  things.  This  unity 
manifests  itself  in  the  creation  of  points  of  like- 
ness in  things  apparently  the  most  different ; 
and  it  is  these  points  of  likeness  which,  when 
seized  by  a  nicely  observant  eye,  enable  it  to 
distribute  the  immense  variety  of  things  in  the 
world  into  certain  parcels  of  greater  or  less  com- 
pass, called  genera  and  species,  which  submit 
themselves  naturally  to  the  control  of  a  com- 
paring and  discriminating  mind.  The  first  busi- 
ness of  the  student,  therefore,  is,  in  all  that  he 
sees,  to  observe  carefully  the  points  of  likeness, 
and,  along  with  these,  also  the  most  striking 
points  of  difference ;  for  the  points  of  difference  go 
as  necessarily  along  with  the  points  of  likeness, 
as  shadow  goes  along  with  light ;  and  though 
they  do  not  of  themselves  constitute  any  actual 
thing,  yet  they  separate  one  genus  from  another, 
and  one  species  of  the  same  genus  from  another. 
The  classification  or  order  to  be  sought  for  in 
all  things  is  a  natural  order ;  artificial  arrange- 
ments, such  as  that  of  words  in  an  alphabetical 
dictionary,  or  of  flowers  in  the  Linnsean  system 
of  botany,  may  be  useful  helps  to  learners  in  an 
early  stage,  but,  if  exclusively  used,  are  rather 
hindrances  to  true  knowledge.  What  a  young 
man  should  aim  at  is  to  acquire  a  habit  of 
binding  things  together  according  to  their  bonds 
of  natural  affinity ;  and  this  can  be  done  only 
by  a  combination  of  a  broad  view  of  the  general 
effect,  with  an  accurate  observation  of  the  spe- 


THE  INTELLECT.  5 

cial  properties.  The  names  given  by  the  com- 
mon people  to  flowers  are  instances  of  superficial 
similarity,  without  any  attempt  at  discrimina- 
tion, as  when  a  water-lily  seems  by  its  name  to 
indicate  that  it  is  a  species  of  lily,  with  which 
flower  it  has  no  real  connection.  A  botanist,  on 
the  other  hand,  who  has  minutely  observed  the 
character  and  organs  of  plants,  will  class  a  water- 
lily  rather  with  the  papaverous  or  poppy  family, 
and  give  you  very  good  reasons  for  doing  so.  In 
order  to  assist  in  forming  habits  of  observation 
in  this  age  of  locomotion,  I  should  advise  young 
men  never  to  omit  visiting  the  local  museums 
of  any  district,  as  often  as  they  may  have  an 
opportunity ;  and  when  there  to  confine  their 
attention  generally  to  that  one  thing  which  is 
most  characteristic  of  the  locality.  Looking 
at  everything  generally  ends  in  remembering 
nothing. 

IV.  Upon  the  foundation  of  carefully-observed 
and  well-assorted  facts  the  mind  proceeds  to 
build  a  more  subtle  structure  by  the  process 
which  we  call  EEASONING.  We  would  know 
not  only  that  things  are  so  and  so,  but  how 
they  are,  and  for  what  purpose  they  are.  The 
essential  unity  of  the  Divine  Mind  causes  a 
necessary  unity  in  the  processes  by  which 
things  exist  and  grow,  no  less  than  a  unity  in 
the  type  of  their  manifold  genera  and  species  ; 
and  into  both  manifestations  of  Divine 'unity  we 
are,  by  the  essential  unity  of  our  divinely  ema- 
nated human  souls,  compelled  to  enquire.  Our 
human  reason,  as  proceeding  from  the  Divine 


6  THE  CULTURE  OF 

reason,  is  constantly  employed  in  working  out 
a  unity,  or  consistency  of  plan,  to  speak  more 
popularly,  in  the  processes  of  our  own  little 
lives  ;  and  we  are  thus  naturally  determined 
to  seek  for  such  a  unity,  consistency,  and 
necessary  dependence,  in  all  the  operations  of  a 
world  which  exists  only,  as  has  been  well  said, 
"  in  reason,  by  reason,  and  for  reason."*  The 
quality  of  mind,  which  determines  a  man  to 
seek  out  this  unity  in  the  chain  of  things,  is 
what  phrenologists  call  causality  ;  for  the  cause 
of  a  thing,  as  popularly  understood,  is  merely 
that  point  in  the  necessary  succession  of 
divinely- originated  forces  which  immediately 
precedes  it.  There  are  few  human  beings  so 
contentedly  superficial  as  to  feed  habitually  on 
the  knowledge  of  mere  unexplained  facts  ;  on 
the  contrary,  as  we  find  every  day,  the  ready 
assumption  of  any  cause  for  a  fact,  rather 
than  remain  content  with  none,  affords  ample 
proof  that  the  search  for  causes  is  charac- 
teristic of  every  normal  human  intellect.  What 
young  men  have  chiefly  to  look  to  in  this 
matter  is  to  avoid  being  imposed  on  by  the 
easy  habit  of  taking  an  accidental  sequence 
or  circumstance  for  a  real  cause.  It  may  be 
easy  to  understand  that  the  abundant  rain  on 
the  west  coast  of  Britain  is  caused  by  the 
vicinity  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean ;  and  not  very 
difficult  to  comprehend  how  the  comparative 
mildness 'of  the  winter  season  at  Oban,  as  com- 
pared with  Edinburgh  or  Aberdeen,  is  caused 
by  the  impact  of  a  broad  current  of  warm 
*  Stirling  on  Protoplasm — a  masterly  tract. 


THE  INTELLECT.  7 

water  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  But  in  the 
region  of  morals  and  politics,  where  facts  are 
often  much  more  complex,  and  passions  are 
generally  strong,  we  constantly  find  examples 
of  a  species  of  reasoning  which  assumes  without 
proving  the  causal  dependency  of  the  facts  of 
which  it  is  based.  I  once  heard  a  political 
discourse  by  a  noted  demagogue,  which  con- 
sisted of  the  assertion,  in  various  forms  and 
with  various  illustrations,  of  the  proposition 
that  all  the  miseries  of  this  country  arise  from 
its  monarchico-aristocratic  government,  and 
that  they  could  all  be  cured,  as  by  the  stroke 
of  a  magician's  wand,  by  the  introduction  of  a 
perfectly  democratic  government — a  species  of 
argumentation  vitiated,  as  is  obvious  all  through, 
by  the  assumption  of  one  imaginary  cause  to 
all  social  evils,  and  an  equally  imaginary  cure. 
In  the  cultivation  of  habits  of  correct  reason- 
ing, I  would  certainly,  in  the  first  place,  ear- 
nestly advise  young  men  to  submit  themselves 
for  a  season,  after  the  old  Platonic  recipe,  to  a 
system  of  thorough  mathematical  training. 
This  will  strengthen  the  binding  power  of  the 
mind,  which  is  necessary  for  all  sorts  of  rea- 
soning, and  teach  the  inexperienced  really  to 
know  what  necessary  dependence,  unavoidable 
sequence,  or  pure  causality  means.  But  they 
must  not  stop  here ;  for  the  reasonings  of 
mathematics  being  founded  on  theoretical  as- 
sumptions and  conditions  which,  when  once 
given,  are  liable  to  no  variation  or  disturbance, 
can  never  be  an  adequate  discipline  for  the 
great  and  most  important  class  of  human  con- 


8  THE  CULTURE  OF 

elusions,  which  are  founded  on  a  complexity  of 
curiously  acting  and  reacting  facts  and  forces 
liable  to  various  disturbing  influences,  which 
even  the  wisest  sometimes  fail  to  calculate 
correctly.  On  political,  moral,  and  social  ques- 
tions, our  reasonings  are  not  less  certain  than 
in  mathematics;  they  are  only  more  difficult 
and  more  comprehensive  ;  and  the  great  dangers 
to  be  avoided  here  are  one-sided  observation, 
hasty  conclusions,  and  the  distortion  of  intel- 
lectual vision,  caused  by  personal  passions  and 
party  interests.  The  politician  who  fails  in 
solving  a  political  problem,  fails  not  from  the 
uncertainty  of  the  science,  but  either  from  an 
imperfect  knowledge  of  the  facts,  or  from  the 
action  of  passions  and  interests,  which  prevent 
him  from  making  a  just  appreciation  of  the 
facts. 

Y.  At  this  point  I  can  imagine  it  not  un- 
likely that  some  young  man  may  be  inclined  to 
ask  me  whether  I  should  advise  him,  with  the 
view  of  strengthening  his  reasoning  powers,  to 
enter  upon  a  formal  study  of  logic  and  meta- 
physics. To  this  I  answer,  By  all  means,  if  you 
have  first,  in  a  natural  way,  as  opposed  to  mere 
scholastic  discipline,  acquired  the  general  habit 
of  thinking  and  reasoning.  A  man  has  learned 
to  walk  first  by  having  legs,  and  then  by  using 
them.  After  that  he  may  go  to  a  drill-ser- 
geant and  learn  to  march,  and  to  perform  various 
tactical  evolutions,  which  no  experience  of  mere 
untrained  locomotion  can  produce.  So  exactly 
it  is  with  the  art  of  thinking.  Have  your 


THE  INTELLECT.  9 

thinking  first,  and  plenty  to  think  about,  and 
then  ask  the  logician  to  teach  you  to  scrutinise 
with  a  nice  eye  the  process  by  which  you  have 
arrived  at  your  conclusions.  In  such  fashion 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  study  of  logic  may 
be  highly  beneficial.  But  as  this  science,  like 
mathematics,  has  no  real  cpntents,  and  merely 
sets  forth  in  order  the  universal  forms  under 
which  all  thinking  is  exercised,  it  must  always 
be  a  very  barren  affair  to  attempt  obtaining 
from  pure  logic  any  rich  growth  of  thought  that 
will  bear  ripe  fruit  in  the  great  garden  of  life. 
One  may  as  well  expect  to  make  a  great  patriot 
— a  Bruce  or  a  Wallace — of  a  fencing  master, 
as  to  make  a  great  thinker  out  of  a  mere 
logician.  So  it  is  in  truth  with  all  formal 
studies.  Grammar  and  rhetoric  are  equally 
barren,  and  bear  fruit  only  when  dealing  with 
materials  given  by  life  and  experience.  A 
meagre  soul  can  never  be  made  fat,  nor  a  narrow 
soul  large,  by  studying  rules  of  thinking.  An 
intense  vitality,  a  wide  sympathy,  a  keen 
observation,  a  various  experience,  is  worth  all 
the  logic  of  the  schools ;  and  yet  the  logic  is 
not  useless ;  it  has  a  regulative,  not  a  creative 
virtue ;  it  is  useful  to  thinking  as  the  study  of 
anatomy  is  useful  to  painting ;  it  gives  you  a 
more  firm  hold  of  the  jointing  and  articulation 
of  your  framework ;  but  it  can  no  more  produce 
true  knowledge  than  anatomy  can  produce  beau- 
tiful painting.  It  performs  excellent  service  in 
the  exposure  of  error  and  the  unveiling  of 
sophistry ;  but  to  proceed  far  in  the  discovery 
of  important  truth,  it  must  borrow  its  moving 


10  THE  CULTURE  OF 

power  from  fountains  of  living  water,  which 
flow  not  in  the  schools,  and  its  materials  from 
the  facts  of  the  breathing  universe,  with  which 
no  museum  is  furnished.  So  it  is  likewise  with 
metaphysics.  This  science  is  useful  for  two 
ends,  first — to  acquaint  ourselves  with  the 
necessary  limits  of  the  human  faculties  ;  it  tends 
to  clip  the  wings  of  our  conceit,  and  to  make  us 
feel,  by  a  little  floundering  and  flouncing  in  deep 
bottomless  seas  of  speculation,  that  the.  world  is 
a  much  bigger  place  than  we  had  imagined,  and 
our  thoughts  about  it  of  much  less  significance. 
A  negative  result  this,  you  will  say,  but  not 
the  less  important  for  that ;  the  knowledge  of 
limits  is  the  first  postulate  of  wisdom,  and 
it  is  better  to  practise  walking  steadily  on 
the  solid  earth  to  which  we  belong,  than  to 
usurp  the  function  of  birds,  like  Icarus,  and 
achieve  a  sorry  immortality  by  baptizing  the 
deep  sea  with  our  name.  The  other  use  of 
metaphysics  is  positive  ;  it  teaches  us  to  be 
familiar  with  the  great  fundamental  truths  on 
which  the  fabric  of  all  the  sciences  rests.  Me- 
taphysics is  not,  like  logic,  a  purely  formal 
science ;  it  is,  on  the  contrary,  the  science  of 
fundamental  and  essential  reality,  of  that  which 
underlies  all  appearances,  as  the  soul  of  a  man 
underlies  his  features  and  his  fleshly  framework, 
and  survives  all  changes  as  their  permanent  type. 
It  is  that  which  we  come  to  when  we  get 
behind  the  special  phenomena  presented  by  in- 
dividual sciences ;  it  is  neither  botany,  nor 
physiology,  nor  geology,  nor  astronomy,  nor 
chemistry,  nor  anthropology,  but  those  general, 


THE  INTELLECT.  11 

all-pervading,  and  all-controlling  powers,  forces, 
and  essences,  of  which  each  special  branch  of 
knowledge  is  only  a  single  aspect  or  manifesta- 
tion; it  is  the  common  element  of  all  exist- 
ence ;  and  as  all  existence  is  merely  a  grand 
evolution  of  self-determining  reason  (for,  were 
it  not  for  the  indwelling  reason  the  world  would 
be  a  chaos  and  not  a  cosmos),  it  follows  that 
metaphysics  is  the  knowledge  of  the  absolute  or 
cosmic  reason  so  far  as  it  is  knowable  by  our 
limited  individualised  reason,  and  is  therefore, 
as  Aristotle  long  ago  remarked,  identical  with 
theology.*  Indeed,  the  idea  of  GOD  as  the 
absolute  self-existent,  self-energising,  self-deter- 
mining Reason,  is  the  only  idea  which  can  make 
the  world  intelligible,  and  has  justly  been  held 
fast  by  all  the  great  thinkers  of  the  world,  from 
Pythagoras  down  to  Hegel,  as  the  alone  keystone 
of  all  sane  thinking.  By  all  means,  therefore,  let 
metaphysics  be  studied,  especially  in  this  age 
and  place,  where  the  novelty  of  a  succession  of 
brilliant  discoveries  in  physical  science,  coupled 
with  a  one-sided  habit  of  mind,  swerving  with 
a  strong  bias  towards  what  is  outward  and 
material,  has  led  some  men  to  imagine  that  in 
mere  physics  is  wisdom  to  be  found,  and  that  the 
true  magician's  wand  for  striking  out  the  most 
important  results  is  induction.  This  is  the  very 
madness  of  externalism  ;  /or,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  fundamental  and  most  vital  truths  from 
which  the  possibility  of  all  science  hangs,  assert 


fj.a6T]nariK7]}  OeoKoyiK-f)*     JVTetapli.  x.  7. 


12  THE  CULTURE  OF 

themselves  before  all  induction  ;  and,  on  the 
other,  the  physical  sciences  merely  describe 
sequences,  which  the  superficial  may  mistake  for 
causes.  Their  so-called  laws  are  merely  methods 
of  operation ;  and  the  operator,  of  whom,  with- 
out transgressing  their  special  sphere,  they  can 
take  no  account,  is  always  and  everywhere  the 
absolute,  omnipresent,  all-plastic  REASON,  which 
we  call  GOD,  whose  offspring,  as  the  pious  old 
Greek  poet  sung,  we  all  are,  and  in  whom,  as 
the  great  apostle  preached,  we  live,  and  move, 
and  have  our  being.  An  essentially  reasonable 
theology,  and  an  essentially  reverent  specula- 
tion, are  the  metaphysics  which  a  young  man 
may  fitly  commence  to  seek  after  in  the  schools, 
but  which  he  can  find  only  by  the  experience  of 
a  truthful  and  a  manly  life ;  and  he  will  then 
know  that  he  has  found  it,  when,  like  King 
David  and  the  noble  army  of  Hebrew  psalmists, 
he  can  repose  upon  the  quiet  faith  of  it,  like  a 
child  upon  the  bosom  of  its  mother. 

VI.  The  next  function  of  the  mind  which 
requires  special  culture  is  the  IMAGINATION. 
I  much  fear  neither  teachers  nor  scholars  are 
sufficiently  impressed  with  the  importance  of  a 
proper  training  of  this  faculty.  Some  there 
may  be  who  despise  it  altogether,  as  having  to 
do  with  fiction  rather  than  with  fact,  and  of  no 
value  to  the  severe  student  who  wishes  to 
acquire  exact  knowledge.  But  this  is  not  the 
case.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the  highest 
class  of  scientific  men  have  been  led  to  their 
most  important  discoveries  by  the  quickening 


THE  INTELLECT.  13 

power  of  a  suggestive  imagination.  Of  this 
the  poet  Goethe's  original  observations  in 
botany  and  osteology  may  serve  as  an  apt 
witness.  Imagination,  therefore,  is  the  enemy 
of  science  only  when  it  acts  without  reason, 
that  is,  arbitrarily  and  whimsically  ;  with  rea- 
son, it  is  often  the  best  and  the  most  indis- 
pensable of  allies.  Besides,  in  history,  and  in 
the  whole  region  of  concrete  facts,  imagination 
is  as  necessary  as  in  poetry ;  the  historian,  in- 
deed, cannot  invent  his  facts,  but  he  must 
mould  them  and  dispose  them  with  a  graceful 
congruity ;  and  to  do  this  is  the  work  of  the 
imagination.  Fairy  tales  and  fictitious  narra- 
tives of  all  kinds,  of  course,  have  their  value, 
and  may  be  wisely  used  in  the  culture  of  the 
imagination.  But  by  far  the  most  useful  exer- 
cise of  this  faculty  is  when  it  buckles  itself  to 
realities ;  and  this  I  advise  the  student  chiefly 
to  cultivate.  There  is  no  need  of  going  to 
romances  for  pictures  of  human  character  and 
fortune  calculated  to  please  the  fancy  and  to 
elevate  the  imagination.  The  life  of  Alexander 
the  Great,  of  Martin  Luther,  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  or  any  of  those  notable  characters 
on  the  great  stage  of  the  world,  who  incarnate 
the  history  which  they  create,  is  for  this  pur- 
pose of  more  educational  value  than  the  best 
novel  that  ever  was  written,  or  even  the  best 
poetry.  Not  all  minds  delight  in  poetry  ;  but 
all  minds  are  impressed  and  elevated  by  an 
imposing  and  a  striking  fact.  To  exercise  the 
imagination  on  the  lives  of  great  and  good  men 
brings  with  it  a  double  gain ;  for  by  this 


14  THE  CULTURE  OF 

exercise  we  learn  at  a  single  stroke,  and  in  the 
most  effective  way,  both,  what  was  done  and 
what  ought  to  be  done.  But  to  train  the 
imagination  adequately,  it  is  not  enough  that 
elevating  pictures  be  made  to  float  pleasantly 
before  the  fancy;  from  such  mere  passiveness 
of  mental  attitude  no  strength  can  grow.  The 
student  should  formally  call  upon  his  imagina- 
tive faculty  to  take  a  firm  grasp  of  the  lovely 
shadows  as  they  pass,  and  not  be  content  till — 
closing  the  gray  record — he  can  make  the 
whole  storied  procession  pass  before  him  in 
due  order,  with  appropriate  badges,  attitude, 
and  expression.  As  there  are  persons  who 
seem  to  walk  through  life  with  their  eyes  open, 
seeing  nothing,  so  there  are  others  who  read 
through  books,  and  perhaps  even  cram  them- 
selves with  facts,  without  carrying  away  any 
living  pictures  of  significant  story  which  might 
arouse  the  fancy  in  an  hour  of  leisure,  or  gird 
them  with  endurance  in  a  moment  of  difficulty. 
Ask  yourself,  therefore,  always  when  you  have 
read  a  chapter  of  any  notable  book,  not  what 
you  saw  printed  on  a  gray  page,  but  what  you 
see  pictured  in  the  glowing  gallery  of  your 
imagination.  Have  your  fancy  always  vivid, 
and  full  of  body  and  colour.  Count  yourself 
not  to  know  a  fact  when  you  know  that  it 
took  place,  but  then  only  when  you  see  it  as 
it  did  take  place. 

VII.  The  word  imagination,  though  denoting 
a  faculty  which  in  some  degree  may  be  regarded 
as  belonging  to  every  human  being,  seems  more 


THE  INTELLECT.  15 

particularly  connected  with  that  class  of  intel- 
lectual perceptions  and  emotions  which,  for  want 
of  a  native  term,  we  are  accustomed  to  call 
sesthetical.  A  man  may  live,  and  live  bravely, 
without  much  imagination,  as  a  house  may  be 
well  compacted  to  keep  out  wind  and  rain,  and 
let  in  light,  and  yet  be  ugly.  But  no  one  would 
voluntarily  prefer  to  live  in  an  ugly  house  if  he 
could  get  a  beautiful  one.  So  beauty,  which  is 
the  natural  food  of  a  healthy  imagination,  should 
be  sought  after  by  every  one  who  wishes  to 
achieve  the  great  end  of  existence — that  is,  to 
make  the  most  of  himself.  If  it  is  true,  as  we 
have  just  remarked,  that  man  liveth  not  by 
books  alone,  it  is  equally  true  that  he  liveth  not 
by  knowledge  alone.  "  It  is  always  good  to 
know  something,"  was  the  wise  utterance  of  one 
of  the  wisest  men  of  modern  times  \  but  by  this 
utterance  he  did  not  mean  to  assert  that  mere 
indiscriminate  knowing  is  always  good ;  what  he 
meant  to  say  was  that  it  is  wise  for  a  man  to  pick 
up  carefully,  for  possible  uses,  whatever  may  fall 
under  his  eye,  even  though  it  should  not  be  the 
best.  The  best,  of  course,  is  not  always  at  com- 
mand ;  and  the  bad,  on  which  we  frequently 
stumble,  is  not  without  its  good  element,  which 
one  should  not  disdain  to  secure  in  passing ;  but 
what  the  young  man  ought  to  set  before  him, 
as  a  worthy  object  of  systematic  pursuit,  is  not 
knowledge  in  general,  or  of  anything  indiffer- 
ently, but  knowledge  of  what  is  great,  and 
beautiful,  and  good  ;  and  this,  so  far  as  the 
imagination  is  concerned,  can  be  attained  only 
by  some  special  attention  paid  to  the  sesthetical 


16  THE  CULTURE  OF 

culture  of  the  intellect.  In  other  words,  poetry, 
painting,  music,  and  the  fine  arts  generally, 
which  delight  to  manifest  the  sublime  and  the 
beautiful  in  every  various  aspect  and  attitude, 
fall  under  the  category,  not  of  an  accidental 
accomplishment,  but  of  an  essential  and  most 
noble  blossom  of  a  cultivated  soul.  A  man  who 
knows  merely  with  a  keen  glance,  and  acts  with 
a  firm  hand,  may  do  very  well  for  the  rough 
work  of  the  world,  but  he  may  be  a  very  un- 
gracious and  unlovely  creature  withal ;  angular, 
square,  dogmatical,  persistent,  pertinacious,  pug- 
nacious, blushless,  and  perhaps  bumptious.  To 
bevel  down  the  corners  of  a  character  so  con- 
stituted by  a  little  sesthetical  culture,  were  a 
work  of  no  small  benefit  to  society,  and  a  source 
of  considerable  comfort  to  the  creature  himself. 
Let  a  young  man,  therefore,  commence  with 
supplying  his  imaginative  faculty  with  its  na- 
tural food  in  the  shape  of  beautiful  objects  of 
every  kind.  If  there  is  a  fine  building  recently 
erected  in  the  town,  let  him  stand  and  look  at 
it ;  if  there  are  fine  pictures  exhibited,  let  him 
never  be  so  preoccupied  with  the  avocations  of 
his  own  special  business  that  he  cannot  afford 
even  a  passing  glance  to  steal  a  taste  of  their 
beauty ;  if  there  are  dexterous  riders  and  expert 
tumblers  in  the  circus,  let  him  not  imagine  that 
their  supple  somersets  are  mere  idle  tricks  to 
amuse  children  :  they  are  cunning  exhibitions  of 
the  wonderful  strength  and  litheness  of  the 
human  limbs,  which  every  wise  man  ought  to 
admire.  In  general,  let  the  young  man,  am- 
bitious of  intellectual  excellence,  cultivate  admi- 


THE  INTELLECT.  17 

ration;  it  is  by  admiration  only  of  what  is 
beautiful  and  sublime  that  we  can  mount  up  a 
few  steps  towards  the  likeness  of  what  we 
admire ;  and  he  who  wonders  not  largely  and 
habitually,  in  the  midst  of  this  magnificent  uni- 
verse, does  not  prove  that  the  world  has  nothing 
great  in  it  worthy  of  wonder,  but  only  that  his 
own  sympathies  are  narrow,  and  his  capacities 
small.  The  worst  thing  a  young  man  can  do, 
who  wishes  to  educate  himself  aesthetically,  ac- 
cording to  the  norm  of  nature,  is  to  begin 
criticising,  and  cultivating  the  barren  graces  of 
the  NIL  ADMIRARI.  This  maxim  may  be  ex- 
cusable in  a  worn-out  old  cynic,  but  is  intoler- 
able in  the  mouth  of  a  hopeful  young  man. 
There  is  no  good  to  be  looked  for  from  a  youth 
who,  having  done  no  substantial  work  of  his 
own,  sets  up  a  business  of  finding  faults  in 
other  people's  work,  and  calls  this  practice 
of  finding  fault  criticism.  The  first  lesson  that 
a  young  man  has  to  learn,  is  not  to  find  fault, 
but  to  perceive  beauties.  All  criticism  worthy 
of  the  name  is  the  ripe  fruit  of  combined  intel- 
lectual insight  and  long  experience.  Only  an 
old  soldier  can  tell  how  battles  ought  to  be 
fought.  Young  men  of  course  may  and  ought 
to  have  opinions  on  many  subjects,  but  there  is 
no  reason  why  they  should  print  them.  The 
published  opinions  of  persons  whose  judgment 
has  not  been  matured  by  experience  can  tend 
only  to  mislead  the  public,  and  to  debauch  the 
mind  of  the  writer. 

I  have  said  that  the  sublime  and  the  beautiful 
in  nature  and  art  are  the  natural  and  healthy 
C 


18  THE  CULTURE  OF 

food  of  the  sesthetical  faculties.  The  comical  and 
humorous  are  useful  only  in  a  subsidiary  way. 
It  is  a  great  loss  to  a  man  when  he  cannot 
laugh  ;  but  a  smile  is  useful  specially  in  enabling 
us  lightly  to  shake  off  the  incongruous,  not  in 
teaching  us  to  cherish  it.  Life  is  an  earnest 
business,  and  no  man  was  ever  made  great  or 
good  by  a  diet  of  broad  grins.  The  grandest 
humour,  such  as  that  of  Aristophanes,  is  valuable 
only  as  the  seasoning  of  the  pudding  or  the 
spice  of  the  pie.  No  one  feeds  on  mere  pepper 
or  vanilla.  Let  a  young  man  furnish  his  soul 
richly,  like  Thorwaldsen's  Museum  at  Copen- 
hagen, with  all  shapes  and  forms  of  excellence, 
from  the  mild  dignity  of  our  Lord  and  the 
Twelve  Apostles  to  the  playful  grace  of  Grecian 
Cupids  and  Hippocampes  ;  but  let  him  not  deal 
in  mere  laughter,  or  corrupt  his  mind's  eye  with 
the  habitual  contemplation  of  distortion  and 
caricature.  There  is  no  more  sure  sign  of  a 
shallow  mind  than  the  habit  of  seeing  always 
the  ludicrous  side  of  things ;  for  the  ludicrous, 
as  Aristotle  remarks,  is  always  on  the  surface. 
If  the  humorous  novels  and  sketches  of  character 
in  which  this  country  and  this  age  are  so  fruitful, 
are  taken  only  as  an  occasional  recreation,  like 
a  good  comedy,  they  are  to  be  commended ; 
but  the  practice  and  study  of  the  Fine  Arts  offer 
a  more  healthy  variety  to  severe  students  than 
the  converse  with  ridiculous  sketches  of  a  trifling 
or  contemptible  humanity ;  and  to  play  a  plea- 
sant tune  on  the  piano,  or  turn  a  wise  saying  of 
some  ancient  sage  into  the  terms  of  a  terse 
English  couplet,  will  always  be  a  more  profitable 


THE  INTELLECT.  19 

way  of  unbending  from  the  stern  work  of  pure 
science,  than  the  reading  of  what  are  called 
amusing  books  —  an  occupation  fitted  specially 
for  the  most  stagnant  moments  of  life,  and  the 
most  lazy-minded  of  the  living. 

VIII.  The  next  faculty  of  the  mind  that 
demands  special  culture  is  MEMORY.  It  is  of 
no  use  gathering  treasures  if  we  cannot  store 
them  ;  it  is  equally  useless  to  learn  what  we 
cannot  retain  in  the  memory.  Happily,  of  all 
mental  faculties  this  is  that  one  which  is  most 
certainly  improved  by  exercise;  besides  there 
are  helps  to  a  weak  memory  such  as  do  not 
exist  for  a  weak  imagination  or  a  weak  reason- 
ing power.  The  most  important  points  to  be 
attended  to  in  securing  the  retention  of  facts 
once  impressed  on  the  imagination,  are — (1)  The 
distinctness,  vividness,  and  intensity  of  the 
original  impression.  Let  no  man  hope  to 
remember  what  he  only  vaguely  and  indistinctly 
apprehends.  A  multitude  of  dim  and  weak  im- 
pressions, flowing  in  upon  the  mind  in  a  hurried 
way,  soon  vanish  in  a  haze,  which  veils  all 
things,  and  shows  nothing.  It  is  better  for  the 
memory  to  have  a  distinct  idea  of  one  fact  of  a 
great  subject,  than  to  have  confused  ideas  of 
the  whole.  (2)  Nothing  helps  the  memory  so 
much  as  order  and  classification.  Classes  are 
always  few,  individuals  many;  to  know  the 
class  well  is  to  know  what  is  most  essential  in 
the  character  of  the  individual,  and  what  least 
burdens  the  memory  to  retain.  (3)  The  next 
important  matter  is  repetition  :  if  the  nail  will 


liU  THE  CULTURE  OF 

not  go  in  at  one  stroke,  let  it  have  another  and 
another.  In  this  domain  nothing  is  denied  to 
a  dogged  pertinacity.  A  man  who  finds  it 
difficult  to  remember  that  DEVA  is  the  Sanscrit 
for  a  GOD,  has  only  to  repeat  it  seven  times  a 
day,  or  seven  times  a  week,  and  he  will  not 
forget  it.  The  less  tenacious  a  man's  memory 
naturally  is,  the  more  determined  ought  he  to 
be  to  complement  it  by  frequent  inculcation. 
Our  faculties,  like  a  slow  beast,  require  flogging 
occasionally,  or  they  make  no  way.  (4)  Again, 
if  memory  be  weak,  causality  is  perhaps  strong ; 
and  this  point  of  strength,  if  wisely  used,  may 
readily  be  made  to  turn  an  apparent  loss  into  a 
real  gain.  Persons  of  very  quick  memory  may 
be  apt  to  rest  content  with  the  faculty,  and 
exhibit  with  much  applause  the  dexterity  only 
of  an  intellectual  parrot  ;  but  the  man  who  is 
slow  to  remember  without  a  reason,  searches 
after  the  causal  connection  of  the  facts,  and, 
when  he  has  found  it,  binds  together  by  the  bond 
of  rational  sequences  what  the  constitution 
of  his  mind  disinclined  him  to  receive  as  an 
arbitrary  and  unexplained  succession.  (5) 
Artificial  bonds  of  association  may  also  some- 
times be  found  useful,  as  when  a  schoolboy 
remembers  that  Abydos  is  on  the  Asiatic  coast 
of  the  Hellespont,  because  both  Asia  and 
Abydos  commence  with  the  letter  A ;  but  such 
tricks  suit  rather  the  necessities  of  an  ill-trained 
governess  than  the  uses  of  a  manly  mind.  I 
have  no  faith  in  the  systematic  use  of  what  are 
called  artificial  mnemonic  systems ;  they  fill  the 
fancy  with  a  set  of  arbitrary  and  ridiculous 


THE  INTELLECT.  21 

symbols  which  interfere  with  the  natural  play 
of  the  faculties.  Dates  in  history,  to  which  this 
sort  of  machinery  has  been  generally  applied, 
are  better  recollected  by  the  causal  dependence, 
or  even  the  accidental  contiguity  of  great  names, 
as  when  I  recollect  that  Plato  was  twenty-nine 
years  old  when  Socrates  drank  the  hemlock; 
and  that  Aristotle,  the  pupil  of  this  Plato,  was 
himself  the  tutor  of  that  famous  son  of 
Philip  of  Macedon,  who  with  his  conquering 
hosts  caused  the  language  of  Socrates  and  Plato 
to  shake  hands  with  the  sacred  dialect  of  the 
Brahmanic  hymns  on  the  banks  of  the  Indus. 
(6)  Lastly,  whatever  facilities  of  memory  a  man 
may  possess,  let  him  not  despise  the  sure  aids 
so  amply  supplied  by  written  record.  To  speak 
from  a  paper  certainly  does  not  strengthen,  but 
has  rather  a  tendency  to  enfeeble  the  memory  ; 
but  to  retain  stores  of  readily  available  matter, 
in  the  shape  of  written  or  printed  record,  enables 
a  man  to  command  a  vast  amount  of  accumu- 
lated materials,  at  whatever  moment  he  may 
require  them.  In  this  view  the  young  student 
cannot  begin  too  early  the  practice  of  inter- 
leaving certain  books,  and  making  a  good 
index  to  others,  or  in  some  such  fashion  tabu- 
lating his  knowledge  for  apt  and  easy  reference. 
Our  preachers  would  certainly  much  increase 
the  value  of  their  weekly  discourses  if  they 
would  keep  interleaved  Bibles,  and  insert  at 
apposite  and  striking  texts  such  facts  in  life,  or 
anecdotes  from  books,  as  might  tend  to  their 
illustration.  They  miejht  thus,  even  with  a 
very  weak  natural  memory,  learn  to  bring  forth 


22  THE  CULTURE  OF 

from  their  treasury  things  new  and  old,  with  a 
wealth  of  practical  application  in  those  parts  of 
their  spiritual  addresses  which  are  at  present 
generally  the  most  meagre  and  the  most  vague. 
By  political  students  Aristotle's  Politics  might  be 
beneficially  interleaved  in  the  same  way,  and 
the  mind  thus  preserved  from  that  rigidity  and 
one-sidedness  which  a  familiarity  with  only  the 
most  modern  and  recent  experience  of  public 
life  is  so  apt  to  engender. 

IX.  A  most  important  matter,  not  seldom 
neglected  in  the  scholastic  and  academical 
training  of  young  men,  is  the  art  of  polished, 
pleasant,  and  effective  expression.  I  shall 
therefore  offer  a  few  remarks  here  on  the  for- 
mation of  STYLE,  and  on  PUBLIC  SPEAKING. 
Man  is  naturally  a  speaking  animal ;  and  a 
good  style  is  merely  that  accomplishment  in 
the  art  of  verbal  expression  which  arises  from 
the  improvement  of  the  natural  faculty  by  good 
training.  The  best  training  for  the  formation 
of  style  is  of  course  familiar  intercourse  with 
good  speakers  and  writers.  A  man's  vocabu- 
lary depends  very  much  always,  and  in  the 
first  stages  perhaps  altogether,  on  the  company 
he  keeps.  Read,  therefore,  the  best  composi- 
tions of  the  most  lofty-minded  and  eloquent 
men,  and  you  will  not  fail  to  catch  something 
of  their  nobility,  only  let  there  be  no  slavish 
imitation  of  any  man's  manner  of  expression. 
There  is  a  certain  individuality  about  every 
man's  style,  as  about  his  features,  which  must 
be  preserved.  Also,  be  not  over  anxious  about 


THE  INTELLECT.  23 

mere  style,  as  if  it  were  a  thing  that  could  be 
cultivated  independently  of  ideas.  Be  more 
careful  that  you  should  have  something  weighty 
and  pertinent  to  say,  than  that  you  should  say 
things  in  the  most  polished  and  skilful  way. 
There  is  good  sense  in  what  Socrates  said  to  the 
clever  young  Greeks  in  this  regard,  that  if  they 
had  something  to  say  they  would  know  how  to 
say  it ;  and  to  the  same  effect  spoke  St.  Paul 
to  the  early  Corinthian  Christians,  and  in  these 
last  times  the  wise  Goethe  to  the  German 
students — 

"  Be  thine  to  seek  the  honest  gain, 

No  shallow-sounding  fool ; 

Sound  sense  finds  utterance  for  itself, 

"Without  the  critic's  rule  ; 

If  to  your  heart  your  tongue  be  true, 

Why  hunt  for  words  with  much  ado  ?  " 

But  with  this  reservation  you  cannot  be  too 
diligent  in  acquiring  the  habit  of  expressing 
your  thoughts  on  paper  with  that  combination 
of  lucid  order,  graceful  ease,  pregnant  signifi- 
cance, and  rich  variety,  which  marks  a  good  style. 
But  for  well-educated  men,  in  this  country  at 
least,  and  for  normally-constituted  men  in  all 
countries  I  should  say,  writing  is  only  a  step  to 
speaking.  Not  only  professional  men,  such  as 
preachers,  advocates,  and  politicians,  but  almost 
every  man  in  a  free  country,  may  be  called  upon 
occasionally  to  express  his  sentiments  in  public ; 
and  unless  the  habit  be  acquired  early,  in  later 
years  there  is  apt  to  be  felt  a  certain  awkward- 
ness and  difficulty  in  the  public  utterance  of 
thought,  which  is  not  the  less  real  because  it  is 


24  THE  CULTURE  OF 

in  most  cases  artificial.  The  great  thing  here 
is  to  begin  early,  and  to  avoid  that  slavery  of 
the  paper,  which,  as  Plato  foresaw,*  makes  so 
many  cultivated  men  in  these  days  less  natural 
in  their  speech,  and  less  eloquent,  than  the  most 
untutored  savages.  Young  men  should  train 
themselves  to  marshal  their  ideas  in  good  order, 
and  keep  a  firm  grip  of  them  without  the  help 
of  paper.  A  card,  with  a  few  leading  words  to 
catch  the  eye,  may  help  the  memory  in  the  first 
place ;  but  it  is  better,  as  often  as  possible,  to 
dispense  with  even  this  assistance.  A  speaker 
should  always  look  his  audience  directly  in  the 
face,  which  he  cannot  do  when  he  is  obliged  to 
cast  a  side  glance  into  a  paper.  In  order  to 
acquire  early  this  useful  habit,  I  need  scarcely 
say  that  there  is  no  better  training  school  than 
the  debating  societies  which  have  long  been  a 
strong  point  of  the  Scottish  universities.  Prac- 
tice will  produce  dexterity ;  dexterity  will  work 
confidence  ;  and  the  bashfulness  and  timidity 
so  natural  to  a  young  man  when  first  called 
upon  to  address  a  public  meeting,  so  far  as  it 
lames  and  palsies  his  utterance,  will  disappear ; 
that  it  should  disappear  altogether  is  far  from 
necessary.  Forwardness  and  pertness  are  a  much 
more  serious  fault  in  a  young  speaker  than  a 
little  nervous  bashfulness.  A  public  speaker 
should  never  wish  to  shake  himself  free  from 
that  feeling  of  responsibility  which  belongs  to 
his  position  as  one  whose  words  are  meant  to 
influence,  and  ought  to  influence,  the  sentiments 
of  all  ranks  of  his  fellow  beings  ;  but  that  this 
*  See  the  Phsedrus. 


THE  INTELLECT.  25 

feeling  of  reverential  respect  for  the  virtue  of 
the  spoken  word  may  not  degenerate  into  a 
morbid  anxiety,  and  a  pale  concern  for  tame 
propriety,  I  would  advise  him  not  to  think 
of  himself  at  all,  but  to  go  to  the  pulpit  or 
platform  with  a  thorough  command  of  his 
subject,  with  an  earnest  desire  to  do  some  good 
by  his  talk,  and  to  trust  to  God  for  the  utterance. 
Of  course  this  does  not  imply  that  in  respect 
of  distinct  and  effective  utterance  a  man  has 
nothing  to  learn  from  a  professed  master  of 
elocution ;  it  is  only  meant  that  mere  intelli- 
gible speaking  is  a  natural  thing,  about  which  no 
special  anxiety  is  to  be  felt.  Accomplished 
speaking,  like  marching  or  dancing,  is  an  art, 
for  the  exercise  of  which,  in  many  cases,  a 
special  training  is  necessary. 

X.  I  said  under  the  first  head  that  the 
fountains  of  true  wisdom  are  not  books ;  never- 
theless, in  the  present  stage  of  society,  books 
play,  and  must  continue  to  play,  a  great  part  in 
the  training  of  young  minds ;  and  therefore  I 
shall  here  set  down  some  points  in  detail  with 
regard  to  the  choice  and  the  use  of  BOOKS. 
Keep  in  mind,  in  the  first  place,  that  though  the 
library-shelves  groan  with  books,  whose  name  is 
legion,  there  are  in  each  department  only  a  few 
great  books,  in  relation  to  which  others  are  but 
auxiliary,  or  it  may  be  sometimes  parasitical, 
and,  like  the  ivy,  doing  harm  rather  than 
good  to  the  bole  round  which  they  cling.  How 
many  thousands,  for  instance,  and  tens  of 
thousands,  of  books  on  Christian  theology  have 


26  THE  CULTURE  OF 

been  written  and  published  in  the  world  since 
the  first  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  which,  of 
course  contain  nothing  more  and  nothing  better 
than  the  Gospel  itself,  and  which,  if  they  were 
all  burnt  to-morrow,  would  leave  Christianity 
in  the  main,  nothing  the  worse,  and  in  some 
points  essentially  the  better.  There  is  fully  as 
much  nonsense  as  sense  in  many  learned  books 
that  have  made  a  noise  in  their  day  ;  and  in 
most  books  there  is  a  great  deal  of  superfluous 
and  useless  talk.  Stick  therefore  to  the  great 
books,  the  original  books,  the  fountain-heads  of 
great  ideas  and  noble  passions,  and  you  will 
learn  joyfully  to  dispense  with  the  volumes  of 
accessory  talk  by  which  their  virtue  has  been 
as  frequently  obscured  as  illuminated.  For  a 
young  theologian  it  is  of  far  greater  importance 
that  he  should  have  the  Greek  New  Testament 
by  heart  than  that  he  should  be  able  to  talk 
glibly  about  the  last  volume  of  sermons  by  Dr. 
Kerr  or  Stopford  Brooke.  All  these  are  very 
well,  but  they  are  not  the  one  thing  needful ; 
for  the  highest  Christian  culture  they  may 
lightly  be  dispensed  with.  Not  so  the  Bible. 
Fix  therefore  in  your  eye  the  great  books  on 
which  the  history  of  human  thought  and  the 
changes  of  human  fortunes  have  turned.  In 
politics  look  to  Aristotle ;  in  mathematics  to 
Newton ;  in  philosophy  to  Leibnitz  ;  in  theology 
to  Cudworth ;  in  poetry  to  Shakspeare ;  in 
science  to  Faraday.  Cast  a  firm  glance  also  on 
those  notable  men,  who,  though  not  achieving 
any  valuable  positive  results  of  speculation,  were 
useful  in  their  day,  as  protesting  against  wide- 


THE  INTELLECT.  27 

spread  popular  error,  and  rousing  people  into 
trains  of  more  consistent  thinking  and  acting. 
To  this  class  of  men  belonged  Voltaire  amongst 
the  French,  and  David  Hume  in  our  country. 
But,  of  course,  while  you  covet  earnestly  a 
familiar  acquaintance  with  all  such  original 
thinkers  and  discoverers  in  the  world  of  thought 
and  action,  you  will  feel  only  too  painfully  that 
you  cannot  always  lay  hold  of  them  in  the  first 
stage  of  your  studies  ;  you  will  require  steps  to 
mount  up  to  shake  hands  with  these  Celestials  j 
and  these  steps  are  little  books.  Do  not  there- 
fore despise  little  books ;  they  are  for  you  the 
necessary  lines  of  approach  to  the  great  fortress 
of  knowledge,  and  cannot  safely  be  overleapt. 
On  the  contrary,  take  a  little  grammar,  for 
instance,  when  learning  a  language,  rather  than 
a  big  one  ;  and  learn  the  fundamental  things, 
the  anatomy,  the  bones  and  solid  framework, 
with  strict  accuracy,  before  plunging  into  the 
complex  tissue  of  the  living  physiology.  This 
may  appear  harsh  at  first,  but  will  save  you 
trouble  afterwards.  But,  while  you  learn  your 
little  book  thoroughly,  you  must  beware  of 
reading  it  by  the  method  of  mere  CRAM.  Some 
things,  no  doubt,  there  are  that  must  be  appro- 
priated by  the  process  of  cram ;  but  these  are 
not  the  best  things,  and  they  contain  no  culture. 
Cram  is  a  mere  mechanical  operation,  of  which 
a  reasoning  animal  should  be  ashamed.  But 
cramming,  however  often  practised,  is  seldom 
necessary  ;  it  is  resorted  to  by  those  specially 
who  cannot,  or  who  will  not,  learn  to  think.  I 
advise  you,  on  the  contrary,  whenever  possible; 


28  THE  CULTURE  OF 

to  think  before  you  read,  or  at  least  while  you 
are  reading.  If  you  can  find  out  for  yourself 
by  a  little  puzzling  why  the  three  angles  of  a 
triangle  not  only  are,  but,  in  the  very  nature  of 
the  thing  must  be,  equal  to  two  right  angles, 
you  will  have  done  more  good  to  your  reason- 
ing powers  than  if  you  had  got  the  demonstra- 
tions of  the  whole  twelve  books  of  Euclid  by 
heart  according  to  the  method  of  cram.  The 
next  advice  I  give  you  with  regard  to  books  is 
that  you  should  read  as  much  as  possible  sys- 
tematically and  chronologically.  Without  order 
things  will  not  hang  together  in  the  mind,  and 
the  most  natural  and  instructive  order  is  the 
order  of  genesis  and  growth.  Read  Plutarch's 
great  Lives,  for  instance,  from  Theseus  down  to 
Cleomenes  and  Aratus,in  chronological  sequence, 
and  you  will  have  a  much  more  vital  sort  of 
Greek  history  in  your  memory  than  either  Thirl  - 
wall  or  Grote  can  supply.  But  of  course  neither 
this  nor  any  other  rule  can  be  applied  in  all 
cases  without  exception.  The  exception  to 
systematic  reading  is  made  by  predilection.  If 
you  feel  a  strong  natural  tendency  towards  ac- 
quainting yourself  with  any  particular  period  of 
history,  by  all  means  make  that  acquaintance  ; 
only  do  it  accurately  and  thoroughly.  One  link 
in  the  chain  firmly  laid  hold  of,  will  by  and  by 
through  natural  connection  lead  to  others.  As 
you  advance  from  favourite  point  to  point,  you 
will  find  the  necessity  of  binding  them  together 
by  some  strict  chronological  sequence.  For 
general  information  a  sort  of  random  reading 
may  be  allowed  occasionally ;  but  this  sort  of 


THE  INTELLECT.  29 

thing  has  to  do  only  with  the  necessary  recrea- 
tion or  the  useful  furnishing  of  the  mind,  and 
is  utterly  destitute  of  training  virtue  ;  and  such 
reading,  to  which  there  is  great  temptation  in 
these  times,  is  rather  prejudicial  than  advan- 
tageous to  the  mind.  The  great  scholars  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  had  not  so 
many  books  as  we  have,  but  what  they  had 
they  made  a  grand  use  of.  Reading,  in  the 
case  of  mere  miscellaneous  readers,  is  like  the 
racing  of  some  little  dog  about  the  moor,  snuff- 
ing everything  and  catching  nothing;  but  a 
reader  of  the  right  sort  finds  his  prototype  in 
Jacob,  who  wrestled  with  an  angel  all  night, 
and  counted  himself  the  better  for  the  bout, 
though  the  sinew  of  his  thigh  shrank  in  conse- 
quence. 

XI.  A  few  remarks  may  be  useful  on  strictly 
PROFESSIONAL  READING,  as  opposed  to  reading 
with  the  view  of  general  culture.  There  is  a 
natural  eagerness  among  young  men  to  com- 
mence without  delay  their  special  professional 
work — what  the  Germans  very  significantly  call 
Brodstudien ;  but  there  cannot  be  a  doubt  that 
in  the  unqualified  way  that  young  men  take 
up  this  notion,  it  is  a  great  mistake,  as  the  expe- 
rience of  professional  men  and  the  history  of 
professional  eminence  has  largely  proved.  For, 
in  the  first  place,  a  little  reflection  will  teach  a 
thoughtful  youth,  that  what  in  his  present  stage 
he  may  be  disposed  to  regard  as  useless  orna- 
ments, or  even  incumbrances,  are  often  the  most 
valuable  aids  and  the  most  serviceable  tools  to 


30  THE  CULTURE  OF 

his  future  professional  activity.  This  is  pecu- 
liarly the  case  with  languages,  which  seem  in 
the  first  place  to  stand  in  the  way  of  a  firm 
grasp  of  things,  but  which  become  more  neces- 
sary to  a  man  the  more  he  extends  the  range  and 
fastens  the  roots  of  his  professional  knowledge. 
If  languages  have  been  often  overvalued,  it  is 
only  when  they  have  been  looked  on  as  an  end  in 
themselves.  Their  value  as  tools,  in  the  hands 
of  an  intelligent  thinker,  can  scarcely  be  over- 
rated. Again,  the  merely  professional  man  is 
always  a  narrow  man  ;  worse  than  that,  he  is  in  a 
sense  an  artificial  man,  a  creature  of  technicalities 
and  specialties,  removed  equally  from  the  broad 
truth  of  nature  and  from  the  healthy  influence 
of  human  converse.  In  society  the  most  accom- 
plished man  of  mere  professional  skill  is  often 
a  nullity ;  he  has  sunk  his  humanity  in  his  dex- 
terity ;  he  is  a  leather-dealer,  and  can  talk  only 
about  leather ;  a  student,  and  smells  fustily  of 
books,  as  an  inveterate  smoker  does  of  tobacco. 
So  far  from  rushing  hastily  into  merely  profes- 
sional studies,  a  young  man  should  rather  be 
anxious  to  avoid  the  engrossing  influence  of 
what  is  popularly  called  SHOP.  He  will  soon 
enough  learn  to  know  the  cramping  influence  of 
purely  professional  occupation.  Let  him  flap  his 
wings  lustily  in  an  ampler  region  while  he  may  ; 

' '  Der  Jiingling  soil  die  Fliigel  regen 
In  Lieb  und  Hass  gewaltig  sicli  bewegen. " 

But  if  a  man  will  fix  his  mind  on  merely  profes- 
sional study,  and  can  find  no  room  for  general 
culture  in  his  soul,  let  him  be  told,  that  no  pro- 


THE  INTELLECT.  31 

fessional  studies,  however  complete,  can  teach  a 
man  the  whole  of  his  profession,  that  the  most 
exact  professional  drill  will  omit  to  teach  him 
the  most  interesting  and  the  most  important 
part  of  his  own  business — that  part,  namely, 
where  the  specialty  of  the  profession  comes 
directly  into  contact  with  the  generality  of 
human  notions  and  human  sympathies.  Of  this 
the  profession  of  the  law  furnishes  an  excellent 
example ;  for,  while  there  is  no  art  more  tech- 
nical, more  artificial,  and  more  removed  from  a 
fellow-feeling  of  humanity,  than  law  in  many 
of  its  branches,  in  others  it  marches  out  into  the 
grand  arena  of  human  rights  and  liberties,  and 
deals  with  large  questions,  in  the  handling  of 
which  it  is  often  of  more  consequence  that  a 
pleader  should  be  a  complete  man  than  that  he 
should  be  an  expert  lawyer.  In  the  same  way, 
medicine  has  as  much  to  do  with  a  knowledge 
of  human  nature  and  of  the  human  soul  as  with 
the  virtues  of  cunningly  mingled  drugs,  and  the 
revelations  of  a  technical  diagnosis ;  and  theo- 
logy is  generally  then  least  human  and  least 
evangelical  when  it  is  most  stiffly  orthodox  and 
most  nicely  professional.  Universal  experience, 
accordingly,  has  proved  that  the  general  scholar, 
however  apparently  inferior  at  the  first  start, 
will,  in  the  long  run,  beat  the  special  man  on 
his  own  favourite  ground ;  for  the  special  man, 
from  the  small  field  of  his  habitual  survey,  can 
neither  know  the  principles  on  which  his  prac- 
tice rests,"  nor  the  relation  of  his  own  particu- 
lar art  to  general  human  interests  and  general 
human  intelligence.  The  best  preservatives 


32  THE  CULTURE  OF 

against  the  cramping  force  of  merely  profes- 
sional study  are  to  be  found  in  the  healthy  in- 
fluences of  society,  in  travel,  and  in  cultivating  a 
familiarity  with  the  great  writers — specially  poets 
and  historians — whose  purely  human  thoughts 
"  make  rich  the  blood  of  the  world,"  and  enlarge 
the  platform  of  sympathetic  intelligence. 

XII.  I  will  conclude  this  chapter  of  intellec- 
tual culture  with  some  remarks  on  a  subject 
with  regard  to  which,  considering  my  profes- 
sional position,  people  will  naturally  be  inclined 
to  expect,  and  willing  to  receive  advice  from  me 
—I  mean  the  study  of  LANGUAGES.  The  short 
rules  which  I  will  set  down  in  what  appears  to 
me  their  order  of  natural  succession,  are  the 
result  of  many  years'  experience,  and  may  be 
relied  on  as  being  of  a  strictly  practical  cha- 
racter. 

(1.)  If  possible  always  start  with  a  good 
teacher.  He  will  save  you  much  time  by  clear- 
ing away  difficulties  that  might  otherwise  dis- 
courage you,  and  preventing  the  formation  of 
bad  habits  of  enunciation,  which  must  afterwards 
be  unlearned. 

(2.)  The  next  step  is  to  name  aloud,  in  the 
language  to  be  learned,  every  object  which  meets 
your  eye,  carefully  excluding  the  intervention 
of  the  English  :  in  other  words,  think  and  speak 
of  the  objects  about  you  in  the  language  you  are 
learning  from  the  very  first  hour  of  your  teach- 
ing ;  and  remember  that  the  language  belongs 
to  the  first  place  to  your  ear  and  to  your  tongue, 
not  in  your  book  merely  and  to  your  brain. 


THE  INTELLECT.  33 

(3.)  Commit  to  memory  the  simplest  and 
most  normal  forms  of  the  declension  of  nouns, 
such  as  the  us  and  a  declension  in  Latin,  and 
the  A  declension  in  Sanscrit. 

(4.)  The  moment  you  have  learned  the  nomi- 
native and  accusative  cases  of  these  nouns  take 
the  first  person  of  the  present  indicative  of  any 
common  verb,  and  pronounce  aloud  some  short 
sentence  according  to  the  rules  of  syntax  be- 
longing to  active  verbs,  as — 6gw  ro/'H^/oi',  I  see 
the  sun. 

(5.)  Enlarge  this  practice  by  adding  some 
epithet  to  the  substantive,  declined  according  to 
the  same  noun,  as — o^w  rbv  Xauvgbv  "HX/ov,  /  see 
the  bright  sun. 

(6.)  Go  on  in  this  manner  progressively, 
committing  to  memory  the  whole  present  in- 
dicative, past  and  future  indicative,  of  simple 
verbs,  always  making  short  sentences  with  them, 
and  some  appropriate  nouns,  and  always  think- 
ing directly  in  the  foreign  language,  excluding 
the  intrusion  of  the  English.  In  this  essential 
element  of  every  rational  system  of  linguistic 
training  there  is  no  real,  but  only  an  imaginary 
difficulty  to  contend  with,  and,  in  too  many 
cases,  the  pertinacity  of  a  perverse  practice. 

(7.)  When  the  ear  and  tongue  have  acquired 
a  fluent  mastery  of  the  simpler  forms  of  nouns, 
verbs,  and  sentences,  then,  but  not  till  then, 
should  the  scholar  be  led,  by  a  graduated  process, 
to  the  more  difficult  and  complex  forms. 

(8.)  Let  nothing  be  learned  from  rules  that 
is  not  immediately  illustrated  by  practice ;  or 
rather,  let  the  rules  be  educed  from  the  practice 


34  THE  CULTURE  OF 

-of  ear  and  tongue,  and  let  them  be  as  few  and 
as  comprehensive  as  possible. 

(9.)  Irregularities  of  various  kinds  are  best 
learned  by  practice  as  they  occur;  but  some 
anomalies,  as  in  the  conjugation  of  a  few  irregu- 
lar verbs,  are  of  such  frequent  occurrence,  and 
are  so  necessary  for  progress,  that  they  had 
better  be  learned  specially  by  heart  as  soon  as 
possible.  Of  this  the  verb  to  be,  in  almost  all 
languages,  is  a  familiar  example. 

(10.)  Let  some  easy  narrative  be  read,  in  the 
first  place,  or  better,  some  familiar  dialogue,  as, 
in  Greek,  Xenophon's  Anabasis  and  Memora- 
bilia, Cebetis  Tabula,  and  Lucian's  Dialogues  ; 
but  reading  must  never  be  allowed,  as  is  so 
generally  the  case,  to  be  practised  as  a  substi- 
tute for  thinking  and  speaking.  To  counteract 
this  tendency,  the  best  way  is  to  take  objects  of 
natural  history,  or  representations  of  interest- 
ing objects,  and  describe  their  parts  aloud  in 
simple  sentences,  without  the  intervention  of  the 
mother  tongue. 

(11.)  Let  all  exercises  of  reading  and  de- 
scribing be  repeated  again,  and  again,  and  again. 
N"o  book  fit  to  be  read  in  the  early  stages  of 
language-learning  should  be  read  only  once. 

(12.)  Let  your  reading,  if  possible,  be  always 
in  sympathy  with  your  intellectual  appetite. 
Let  the  matter  of  the  work  be  interesting,  and 
you  will  make  double  progress.  To  know  some 
thing  of  the  subject  beforehand  will  be  an  im- 
mense help.  For  this  reason,  with  Christians 
who  know  the  Scriptures,  as  we  do  in  Scotland, 
a  translation  of  the  Bible  is  always  one  of  the 


THE  INTELLECT.  35 

best  books  to  use  in  the  acquisition  of  a  foreign 
tongue. 

( 1 3.)  As  you  read,  note  carefully  the  differ- 
ence between  the  idioms  of  the  strange  lan- 
guage and  those  of  the  mother  tongue  •  under- 
score these  distinctly  with  pen  or  pencil,  in  some 
thoroughly  idiomatic  translation,  and  after  a 
few  days  translate  back  into  the  original  tongue 
what  you  have  before  you  in  the  English  form. 

(14.)  To  methodise,  and,  if  necessary,  cor- 
rect your  observations,  consult  some  systematic 
grammar  so  long  as  you  may  find  it  profitable. 
But  the  grammar  should,  as  much  as  possible, 
follow  the  practice,  not  precede  it. 

(15.)  Be  not  content  with  that  mere  method- 
ical generalisation  of  the  practice  which  you 
find  in  many  grammars,  but  endeavour  always 
to  find  the  principle  of  the  rule,  whether  belong- 
ing to  universal  or  special  grammar. 

(16.)  Study  the  theory  of  language,  the 
organism  of  speech,  and  what  is  called  com- 
parative philology  or  Glossology.  The  principles 
there  revealed  will  enable  you  to  prosecute  with 
a  reasoning  intelligence  a  study  which  would 
otherwise  be  in  a  great  measure  a  laborious 
exercise  of  arbitrary  memory. 

(17.)  Still,  practice  is  the  main  thing; 
language  must,  in  the  first  place,  be  familiar ; 
and  this  familiarity  can  be  attained  only  by 
constant  reading  and  constant  conversation. 
Where  a  man  has  no  person  to  speak  to  he  may 
declaim  to  himself ;  but  the  ear  and  the  tongue 
must  be  trained,  not  the  eye  merely  and  the 
understanding.  In  reading,  a  man  must  not 


36        CULTURE  OF  THE  INTELLECT. 

confine  himself  to  standard  works.  He  must 
devour  everything  greedily  that  he  can  lay 
his  hands  on.  He  must  not  merely  get  up  a 
book  with  accurate  precision ;  that  is  all  very 
well  as  a  special  task  ;  but  he  must  learn  to 
live  largely  in  the  general  element  of  the 
language ;  and  minute  accuracy  in  details  is  not 
to  be  sought  before  a  fluent  practical  command 
of  the  general  currency  of  the  language  has 
been  attained.  Shakspeare,  for  instance,  ought 
to  be  read  twenty  times  before  a  man  begins  to 
occupy  himself  with  the  various  readings  of  the 
Shaksperian  text,  or  the  ingenious  conjectures 
of  his  critics. 

(18.)  Composition,  properly  so  called,  is  the 
culmination  of  the  exercises  of  speaking  and 
reading,  translation  and  re-translation,  which  we 
have  sketched.  In  this  exercise  the  essential 
thing  is  to  write  from  a  model,  not  from  diction- 
aries or  phrase-books.  Choose  an  author  who 
is  a  pattern  of  a  particular  style — say  Plato  in 
philosophical  dialogue,  or  Lucian  in  playful 
colloquy — steal  his  phrases,  and  do  something  of 
the  same  kind  yourself,  directly,  without  the 
intervention  of  the  English.  After  you  have 
acquired  fluency  in  this  way  you  may  venture 
to  put  more  of  yourself  into  the  style,  and  learn 
to  write  the  foreign  tongue  as  gracefully  as 
Latin  was  written  by  Erasmus,  Wyttenbach,  or 
Ruhnken.  Translation  from  English  classics 
may  also  be  practised,  but  not  in  the  first  place ; 
the  ear  must  be  tuned  by  direct  imitation  of  the 
foreign  tongue,  before  the  more  difficult  art  of 
transference  from  the  mother  tongue  can  be 
attempted  with  success. 


ON   PHYSICAL    CULTUKE. 


M  The  glory  of  a  young  man  is  his  strength." 

SOLOMON. 


GIST  PHYSICAL  CULTURE. 


I.  It  is  a  patent  fact,  as  certain  as  anything 
in  mathematics,  that  whatever  exists  must 
have  a  basis  on  which  to  stand,  a  root  from 
which  to  grow,  a  hinge  on  which,  to  turn,  a 
something  which,  however  subordinate  in  itself 
with  reference  to  the  complete  whole,  is  the 
indispensable  point  of  attachment  from  which 
the  existence  of  the  whole  depends.  No  house 
can  be  raised  except  on  a  foundation,  a  sub- 
structure which  has  no  independent  virtue,  and 
which,  when  it  exists  in  the  greatest  perfection, 
is  generally  not  visible,  but  rather  loves  to  hide 
itself  in  darkness.  Now  this  is  exactly  the 
sort  of  relation  which  subsists  between  a  man's 
thinking  faculty  and  his  body,  between  his 
mental  activity  and  his  bodily  health  ;  and  it  is 
obvious  that,  if  this  analogy  be  true,  there  is 
nothing  that  a  student  ought  to  be  more  careful 
about  than  the  sound  condition  of  his  flesh  and 
blood.  It  is,  however,  a  well-known  fact  that 
the  care  of  their  health,  or,  what  is  the  same 
thing,  the  rational  treatment  of  their  own  flesh 
and  blood,  is  the  very  last  thing  that  students 


40  ON  PHYSICAL  CULTURE. 

seriously  think  of;  and  the  more  eager  the  stu- 
dent, the  more  apt  is  he  to  sin  in  this  respect, 
and  to  drive  himself,  like  an  unsignalled  railway 
train,  to  the  very  brink  of  a  fatal  precipice,  before 
he  knows  where  he  stands.  It  is  wise,  therefore, 
to  start  in  a  studious  life  with  the  assured  con- 
viction which  all  experience  warrants,  that  seden- 
tary occupations  generally,  and  specially  seden- 
tary habits  combined  with  severe  and  persistent 
brain  exercise,  are  more  or  less  unhealthy,  and, 
in  the  case  of  naturally  frail  constitutions,  such 
as  have  frequently  a  tendency  to  fling  them- 
selves into  books,  tend  directly  to  the  enfeebling, 
of  the  faculties  and  the  undermining  of  the 
frame.  After  this  warning  from  an  old  student, 
let  every  man  consider  that  his  blood  shall  be 
on  his  own  head  if  he  neglect  to  use,  with  a 
firm  purpose,  as  much  care  in  the  preservation 
of  his  health  as  any  good  workman  would  do 
in  keeping  his  tools  sharp,  or  any  good  soldier 
in  having  his  powder  dry.  Meanwhile  I  will 
jot  down,  under  a  few  heads,  some  of  the  most 
important  practical  suggestions  with  which  ex- 
perience has  furnished  me  in  this  matter. 

II.  The  growth  and  vigorous  condition  of 
every  member  of  the  body,  as,  in  fact,  of  every 
function  of  existence  in  the  universe,  depends  on 
EXERCISE.  All  life  is  an  energising  or  a  work- 
ing ;  absolute  rest  is  found  only  in  the  grave ; 
and  the  measure  of  a  man's  vitality  is  the  mea- 
sure of  his  working  power.  To  possess  every 
faculty  and  function  of  the  body  in  harmonious 
working  order  is  to  be  healthy ;  to  be  healthy. 


ON  PHYSICAL  CULTURE.  41 

with  a  high  degree  of  vital  force,  is  to  be  strong. 
A  man  may  be  healthy  without  being  strong ; 
but  all  health  tends,  more  or  less,  towards 
strength,  and  all  disease  is  weakness.  Now, 
any  one  may  see  in  nature,  that  things  grow  big 
simply  by  growing ;  this  growth  is  a  constant 
and  habitual  exercise  of  vital  or  vegetative  force, 
and  whatever  checks  or  diminishes  the  action  of 
this  force — say,  harsh  winds  or  frost — will  stop 
the  growth  and  stunt  the  production.  Let  the 
student  therefore  bear  in  mind,  that  sitting  on 
a  chair,  leaning  over  a  desk,  poring  over  a  book, 
cannot  possibly  be  the  way  to  make  his  body 
grow.  The  blood  can  be  made  to  flow,  and  the 
muscles  to  play  freely,  only  by  exercise  ;  and,  if 
that  exercise  is  not  taken,  Nature  will  not  be 
mocked.  Every  young  student  ought  to  make 
a  sacred  resolution  to  move  about  in  the  open 
air  at  least  two  hours  every  day.  If  he  does 
not  do  this,  cold  feet,  the  clogging  of  the  wheels 
of  the  internal  parts  of  the  fleshly  frame,  and 
various  shades  of  stomachic  and  cerebral  discom- 
fort, will  not  fail  in  due  season  to  inform  him 
that  he  has  been  sinning  against  Nature,  and,  if 
he  does  not  amend  his  courses,  as  a  bad  boy  he 
will  certainly  be  flogged ;  for  Nature  is  never, 
like  some  soft-hearted  human  masters,  over- 
merciful  in  her  treatment.  But  why  should  a 
student  indulge  so  much  in  the  lazy  and  un- 
healthy habit  of  sitting  1  A  man  may  think  as 
well  standing  as  sitting,  often  not  a  little  better ; 
and  as  for  reading  in  these  days,  when  the  most 
weighty  books  may  be  had  cheaply,  in  the 
lightest  form,  there  is  no  necessity  why  a  person 


42  OAT  PHYSICAL  CULTURE. 

should  he  bending  his  back,  and  doubling  his 
chest,  merely  because  he  happens  to  have  a  book 
in  his  hand.  A  man  will  read  a  play  or  a  poem 
far  more  naturally  and  effectively  while  walking 
up  and  down  the  room,  than  when  sitting  sleepily 
in  a  chair.  Sitting,  in  fact,  is  a  slovenly  habit, 
and  ought  not  to  be  indulged.  But  when  a  man 
does  sit,  or  must  sit,  let  him  at  all  events  sit 
erect,  with  his  back  to  the  light,  and  a  full  free 
projection  of  the  breast.  Also,  when  studying 
languages,  or  reading  fine  passages  of  poetry,  let 
him  read  as  much  as  possible  aloud  ;  a  practice 
recommended  by  Clemens  of  Alexandria,*  and 
which  will  have  the  double  good  effect  of 
strengthening  that  most  important  vital  element 
the  lungs,  and  training  the  ear  to  the  perception 
of  vocal  distinctions,  so  stupidly  neglected  in 
many  of  our  public  schools.  There  is,  in  fact, 
no  necessary  connection,  in  most  cases,  between 
the  knowledge  which  a  student  is  anxious  to 
acquire,  and  the  sedentary  habits  which  students 
are  so  apt  to  cultivate.  A  certain  part  of  his 
work,  no  doubt,  must  be  done  amid  books; 
but  if  I  wish  to  know  Homer,  for  instance, 
thoroughly,  after  the  first  grammatical  and 
lexicographical  drudgery  is  over,  I  can  read  him 
as  well  on  the  top  of  Ben  Cruachan,  or,  if  the 
day  be  blasty,  amid  the  grand  silver  pines  at 
Inverawe,  as  in  a  fusty  study.  A  man's  enjoy- 
ment of  an  ^Eschylean  drama  or  a  Platonic 
dialogue  will  not  be  diminished,  but  sensibly  in- 
creased, by  the  fragrant  breath  of  birches  blow- 

*  TroXXots  5£  ted*  &re  /cat  rb  yeyuvbv 
rijs  &vayvd<reus  yvfj,t>d<ri6j>  tcmv. — Psedagog.  in.  30 


ON  PHYSICAL  CULTURE.  43 

ing  around  him,  or  the  sound  of  mighty  waters 
rushing  near.  As  for  a  lexicon,  if  you  make 
yourself  at  the  first  reading  a  short  index  of  the 
more  difficult  words,  you  can  manage  the  second 
reading  more  comfortably  without  it  What  a 
student  should  specially  see  to,  both  in  respect 
of  health  and  of  good  taste,  is  not  to  carry  the 
breath  of  books  with  him  wherever  he  goes,  as 
some  people  carry  the  odour  of  tobacco.  To 
prevent  this  contagion  of  bookishness,  the  best 
thing  a  young  man  can  do  is  to  join  a  volunteer 
corps,  the  drill  connected  with  which  will  serve 
the  double  purpose  of  brushing  off  all  taint  of 
pedantry,  and  girding  the  loins  stoutly  for  all 
the  duties  that  belong  to  citizenship  and  active 
manhood.  The  modern  Prussians,  like  the 
ancient  Greeks,  understand  the  value  of  military 
drill,  and  make  every  man  serve  his  time  in  the 
army ;  but  we  rush  prematurely  into  the  shop, 
and  our  citizenship  and  our  manhood  suffer 
accordingly.  The  cheapness  of  railway  and 
steamboat  travelling,  also,  in  the  present  day, 
renders  inexcusable  the  conduct  of  the  studious 
youth  who  will  sit,  week  after  week,  and  month 
after  month,  chained  to  a  dull  gray  book,  when 
he  might  inhale  much  more  healthy  imaginings 
from  the  vivid  face  of  nature  in  some  green  glen 
or  remote  wave-plashed  isle.  A  book,  of  course, 
may  always  be  in  his  pocket,  if  a  book  be  neces- 
sary ;  but  it  is  better  to  cultivate  independence 
of  these  paper  helps,  as  often  as  may  be,  to 
learn  directly  from  observation  of  nature,  and  to 
sit  in  a  frame  of  "  wise  passiveness,"  growing  in- 
sensibly in  strong  thought  and  feeling,  by  the 


44  ON  PHYSICAL  CULTURE. 

breezy  influences  of  Nature  playing  about  us. 
But  it  is  not  necessary  that  a  man  should  be  given 
to  indulge  in  Wordsworthian  musings,  before 
the  modern  habits  of  travelling  and  touring 
can  be  made  to  subserve  the  double  end  of 
health  and  culture.  Geology,  Botany,  Zoology, 
and  all  branches  of  Natural  History,  are  best 
studied  in  the  open  air;  and  their  successful 
cultivation  necessarily  implies  the  practice  of 
those  habits  of  active  and  enterprising  pedestrian- 
ism,  which  are  such  a  fine  school  of  independent 
manhood.  History  also  and  archaeology  are 
most  aptly  studied  in  the  storied  glen,  the 
ruined  abbey,  or  the  stout  old  border  tower ; 
and  in  fact,  in  an  age  when  the  whole  world  is 
more  or  less  locomotive,  the  student  who  stays 
at  home,  and  learns  in  a  gray  way  only  fiom 
books,  in  addition  to  the  prospect  of  dragging 
through  life  with  enfeebled  health,  and  dropping 
into  a  premature  grave,  must  make  up  his  mind 
to  be  looked  on  by  all  well-conditioned  persons 
as  a  weakling  and  an  oddity. 

For  keeping  the  machine  of  the  body  in  a 
fine  poise  of  flexibility  and  firmness,  nothing 
deserves  a  higher  place  than  GAMES  and  GYM- 
NASTICS. A  regular  constitutional  walk,  as  it 
is  called,  before  dinner,  as  practised  by  many 
persons,  has  no  doubt  something  formal  about 
it,  which  not  everybody  knows  to  season  with 
pleasantness :  to  those  who  feel  the  pressure  of 
such  formality,  athletic  games  supply  the  neces- 
sary exercise  along  with  a  healthy  social 
stimulus.  For  boys  and  young  men,  cricket ; 
for  persons  of  a  quiet  temperament,  and  staid 


ON  PHYSICAL  CULTURE.  45 

old  bachelors,  bowls  ;  for  all  persons  and  all 
ages,  the  breezy  Scottish  game  of  golf  is  to  be 
commended.  Boating  of  course,  when  not  over- 
done, as  it  sometimes  is  in  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge, is  a  manly  and  characteristically  British 
exercise  •  and  the  delicate  management  of  sail 
and  rudder  as  practised  in  the  Shetland  and 
Hebridean  seas,  is  an  art  which  calls  into  play 
all  the  powers  that  belong  to  a  prompt  and 
vigorous  manhood.  Angling,  again,  is  favour- 
able to  musing  and  poetic  imaginings,  as  the 
examples  of  Walton  and  Stoddart,  and  glorious 
John  Wilson,  largely  show;  in  rainy  weather 
billiards  is  out  of  sight  the  best  game ;  in  it 
there  is  developed  a  quickness  of  eye,  an  ex- 
pertness  of  touch,  and  a  subtlety  of  calculation, 
truly  admirable.  In  comparison  with  this  cards 
are  stupid,  which,  at  best,  in  whist,  only  exer- 
cise the  memory,  while  chess  can  scarcely  be 
called  an  amusement ;  it  is  a  study,  and  a 
severe  brain  exercise,  which  for  a  man  of  de- 
sultory mental  activity  may  have  a  bracing 
virtue,  but  to  a  systematic  thinker  can  scarcely 
act  as  a  relief. 

III.  Let  me  now  make  a  few  remarks  on  the 
very  vulgar,  but  by  no  means  always  wisely 
managed  process  of  EATING  and  DRINKING. 
Abernethy  was  wont  to  say  that  the  two  great 
killing  powers  in  the  world  are  STUFF  and 
FRET.  Of  these  the  former  certainly  has  no- 
thing to  do  with  the  premature  decay  of  Scot- 
tish students ;  they  die  rather  of  eating  too 
little  than  of  eating  too  much.  Of  course  it  is 


46  ON  PHYSICAL  CULTURE. 

necessary,  in  the  first  place,  that  you  should 
have  something  to  eat,  and,  in  the  second  place, 
that  what  you  eat  should  be  substantial  and 
nourishing.  With  regard  to  the  details  of  this 
matter  you  must  consult  the  doctor  -,  but  I 
believe  it  is  universally  agreed  that  the  plainest 
food  is  often  the  best ;  and  for  the  highest 
cerebral  and  sanguineous  purposes,  long  ex- 
perience has  proved  that  there  is  nothing  better 
than  oatmeal  and  good  pottage.  For  as  the 
poet  says — 

' '  Buirdly  chiels  and  clever  hizzies 
Are  bred  in  sic  a  way  as  this  is." 

Supposing,  however,  that  the  supply  of  good 
nourishment  is  adequate,  people  are  apt  to  err 
in  various  ways  when  they  come  to  use  it. 
There  is  a  class  of  people  who  do  not  walk 
through  life,  but  race ;  they  do  not  know  what 
it  is  to  sit  down  to  anything  with  a  quiet  pur- 
pose, and  so  they  bolt  their  dinner  with  a 
galloping  purpose  to  be  done  with  it  as  soon  as 
possible.  This  is  bad  policy  and  bad  philosophy. 
The  man  who  eats  in  a  hurry  loses  both  the 
pleasure  of  eating  and  the  profit  of  digestion. 
If  men  of  business  in  bustling  cities,  and 
Americans  who  live  in  a  constant  fever  of  demo- 
cratic excitement,  are  apt  to  indulge  in  this  un- 
healthy habit,  students  and  bookish  men  are  not 
free  from  the  same  temptation.  Eager  readers 
will  not  only  bolt  their  dinner  that  they  may 
get  to  their  books,  but  they  will  read  some- 
times even  while  they  are  eating ;  thus  forcing 
nature  to  act  from  two  distinct  vital  centres  at 


ON  PHYSICAL  CULTURE.  47 

the  same  time — the  brain  and  the  stomach — of 
which  the  necessary  result  is  to  enfeeble  both. 
To  sip  a  cup  of  tea  with  Lucian  or  Aristophanes 
in  one  hand  may  be  both  pleasant  and  profit- 
able j  but  dinner  is  a  more  serious  affair,  and 
must  be  gone  about  with  a  devotion  of  the 
whole  man — totus  in  illis,  "  a  whole  man  to  one 
thing  at  one  time,"  as  Chancellor  Thurlow  said, 
— seasoned  very  properly,  with  agreeable  con- 
versation or  a  little  cheerful  music,  where 
you  can  have  it,  but  never  mingled  with  severe 
cogitations  or  perplexing  problems.  In  this 
view  the  custom  of  the  English  and  German 
students  of  dining  with  one  another,  is  much 
to  be  commended  before  the  solitary  feeding 
too  often  practised  by  poor  Scottish  students  in 
lonely  lodging  houses.  In  this  matter  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland,  among  its  other  notable 
achievements,  has  recently  shown  us  an  example 
well  worthy  of  imitation.  They  have  instituted 
a  dining  hall  for  their  theological  students,  dis 
tinguished  by  salubrity,  cheapness,  and  sociality. 
Next  to  quality,  a  certain  variety  of  food  is  by 
all  means  to  be  sought  after.  The  stimulus  of 
novelty  that  goes  along  with  variety,  sharpens 
appetite ;  besides  that  Nature,  in  all  her  rich 
and  beautiful  ways,  emphatically  protests  against 
monotony.  It  is,  moreover,  a  point  of  practical 
wisdom  to  prevent  the  stomach  from  becoming 
the  habituated  slave  of  any  kind  of  food.  In 
change  of  circumstances  the  favourite  diet  can- 
not always  be  had  ;  and  so,  to  keep  himself  in 
a  state  of  alimentary  comfort,  your  methodical 
eater  must  restrict  his  habits  of  locomotion,  and 


48  ON  PHYSICAL  CULTURE. 

narrow  the  range  of  his  existence  to  a  fixed 
sphere  where  he  can  be  fed  regularly  with  his 
meted  portion.  As  for  drink,  I  need  not  say 
that  a  glass  of  good  beer  or  wine  is  always 
pleasant,  and  in  certain  cases  may  even  be 
necessary  to  stimulate  digestion  ;  but  healthy 
young  men  can  never  require  such  stimulus ; 
and  the  more  money  that  a  poor  Scotch 
student  can  spare  from  unnecessary  and  slippery 
luxuries,  such  as  drink  and  tobacco,  so  much 
the  better.  "  Honest  water  "  certainly  has  this 
merit,  that  it  "  never  made  any  man  a  sinner ; " 
and  of  whisky  it  may  be  said  that,  however 
beneficial  it  may  be  on  a  wet  moor  or  on  the 
top  of  a  frosty  Ben  in  the  Highlands,  when 
indulged  in  habitually  it  never  made  any  man 
either  fair  or  fat.  He  who  abstains  from  it 
altogether  will  never  die  in  a  ditch,  and  will 
always  find  a  penny  in  his  pocket  to  help  him- 
self and  his  friend  in  an  emergency. 

IY.  I  believe  there  are  few  things  more 
necessary  than  to  warn  students  against  the 
evil  effects  of  close  rooms  and  bad  ventilation. 
Impure  air  can  never  make  pure  blood ;  and 
impure  blood  corrupts  the  whole  system.  But 
the  evil  is,  that,  no  immediate  sensible  effects 
being  produced  from  a  considerable  amount 
of  impurity  in  the  air,  thoughtless  and  careless 
persons — that  is,  I  am  afraid,  the  great  majority 
of  persons — go  on  inhaling  it  without  receiving 
any  hint  that  they  are  imbibing  poison.  But 
those  evils  are  always  the-  most  dangerous  of 
which  the  approaches  are  the  most  insidious. 


ON  PHYSICAL  CULTURE.  49 

Let  students,  therefore,  who  are  often  confined 
in  small  rooms,  be  careful  to  throw  open  their 
windows  whenever  they  go  out ;  and,  if  the 
windows  of  their  sleeping-room  are  so  situated 
that  they  can  be  kept  open  without  sending  a 
draught  of  air  directly  across  the  sleeper,  let 
them  by  all  means  be  left  open  night  and  day, 
both  summer  and  winter.  In  breezy  Scotland, 
at  least,  this  practice,  except  in  the  case  of  very 
sensitive  subjects,  can  only  be  beneficial.  In  hot 
countries,  where  .insalubrious  vapours  in  some 
places  infest  the  night,  it  may  be  otherwise. 

Y.  Should  it  be  necessary  to  say  a  word 
about  SLEEP  1  One  would  think  not.  Nature, 
we  may  imagine,  is  sufficient  for  herself  in  this 
matter.  Let  a  man  sleep  when  he  is  sleepy,  and 
rise  when  the  crow  of  the  cock,  or  the  glare  of 
the  sun,  rouses  him  from  his  torpor.  Exactly 
so,  if  Nature  always  got  fair  play ;  but  she  is 
swindled  and  flouted  in  so  many  ways  by  human 
beings,  that  a  general  reference  to  her  often 
becomes  a  useless  generality.  In  the  matter  of 
sleep  specially  students  are  great  sinners  ;  nay, 
their  very  profession  is  a  sin  against  repose ; 
and  the  strictest  prophylactic  measures  are  neces- 
sary to  prevent  certain  poaching  practices  of 
thinking  men  into  the  sacred  domain  of  sleep. 
Cerebral  excitement,  like  strong  coffee,  is  the 
direct  antagonist  of  sleep  ;  therefore  the  student 
should  so  apportion  his  hours  of  intellectual 
task-work,  that  the  more  exciting  and  stimulat- 
ing brain  exercise  should  never  be  continued  direct 
into  the  hour  for  repose  ;  but  let  the  last  work 

E 


50  ON  PHYSICAL  CULTURE. 

of  the  day  be  always  something  comparatively 
light  and  easy,  or  dull  and  soporific ;  or  better 
still,  let  a  man  walk  for  an  hour  before  bed,  or 
have  a  pleasant  chat  with  a  chum,  and  then  there 
can  be  no  fear  but  that  nature,  left  to  herself, 
will  find,  without  artifice,  the  measure  of  rest 
which  she  requires.  As  to  the  exact  amount  of 
that  measure,  no  rule  can  be  laid  down ;  less 
than  six,  or  more  than  eight  hours'  sleep,  ac- 
cording to  general  experience,  must  always  be 
exceptional.  The  student  who  walks  at  least 
two  hours  every  day,  and  works  hard  with  his 
brain  eight  or  nine  hours  besides,  will  soon 
find  out  what  is  the  natural  measure  of  sleep 
that  he  requires,  to  keep  free  from  the  feverish- 
ness  and  the  languor  that  are  the  necessary 
consequences  of  prolonged  artificial  wakefulness. 
As  to  early  rising,  which  makes  such  a  famous 
figure  in  some  notable  biographies,  I  can  say 
little  about  it,  as  it  is  a  virtue  which  I  was 
never  able  to  practise.  There  can  be  no  doubt, 
however,  that,  wherever  it  can  be  practised  in  a 
natural  and  easy  way,  it  is  a  very  healthful  prac- 
tice ;  and  in  certain  circumstances,  such  as  those 
in  which  the  late  distinguished  Baron  Bunsen 
was  placed,  full  of  various  business  and  dis- 
traction, the  morning  hours  seem  clearly  to  be 
pointed  out  as  the  only  ones  available  for  the 
purposes  of  learned  research  and  devout  medita- 
tion. 

VI.  On  the  use  of  BATHS  and  WATER  as  a 
hygienic  instrument  I  can  speak  with  confi- 
dence, as  I  have  frequented  various  celebrated 


ON  PHYSICAL  CULTURE.  51 

hydropathic  institutions,  and  have  carefully 
pondered  both  the  principles  and  the  practice 
of  that  therapeutic  discipline.  Hydropathy  is 
a  name  that  very  inadequately  expresses  the 
virtue  of  the  treatment  to  which  it  subjects  the 
patient.  It  is  a  well-calculated  combination  of 
exercise,  leisure,  diet,  amusement,  society,  and 
water,  applied  in  various  ways  to  stimulate  the 
natural  perspiratory  action  of  the  skin.  Any 
one  may  see  that  the  influences  brought  to  bear 
on  the  bodily  system  by  such  a  combination 
are  in  the  highest  degree  sanitary.  The  im- 
portant point  for  students  is  to  be  informed 
that  parts  of  this  discipline  somewhat  ex- 
pensively pursued  in  hydropathic  institutions 
under  the  superintendence  of  experienced  physi- 
cians, can  be  transferred  safely,  and  at  no  ex- 
pense, to  the  routine  of  their  daily  life.  A 
regular  bath  in  the  morning,  where  water  can 
be  had,  unless  with  very  feeble  and  delicate 
subjects,  has  always  an  invigorating  effect ;  but, 
where  water  is  scarce,  a  wet  sheet,  dipped  in 
water,  and  well  wrung,  will  serve  the  purpose 
equally  well.  The  body  must  be  altogether 
enveloped,  and  well  rubbed  with  this  ;  and  then 
a  dry  sheet  used  in  the  same  way  will  cause  a 
glow  to  come  out  in  the  skin,  which  is  the  best 
preventive  against  those  disturbances  of  cuti- 
cular  action  which  the  instability  of  our 
northern  climate  renders  so  common  and  so 
annoying.  The  wet  sheet  packing,  one  of  the 
most  bruited  of  the  hydropathic-  appliances,  and 
which  in  fact  acts  as  a  mild  tepid  blister  swath- 
ing the  whole  body,  may  be  practised  for  special 


52  ON  PHYSICAL  CULTURE. 

purposes,  under  the  direction  of  a  person  expert 
in  those  matters  ;  but  the  virtue  of  this,  as  of 
all  water  applications,  depends  on  the  power  of 
reaction  which  the  physical  system  possesses 
This  reaction  young  men  of  good  constitutions, 
trained  by  healthy  exercise  and  exposure,  will 
always  possess  ;  but  persons  of  a  dull  and  slow 
temperament  should  beware  of  making  sudden 
experiments  with  cold  water  without  certain 
precautions  and  directions  from  those  who  are 
more  experienced  than  themselves. 

VII.  What  I  have  further  to  say  about  health 
belongs  to  an  altogether  different  chapter.  A 
man  cannot  be  kept  healthy  merely  by  attending 
to  his  stomach.  If  the  body,  which  is  the  sup- 
port of  the  curiously  complex  fabric,  acts  with 
a  sustaining  influence  on  the  mind,  the  mind, 
which  is  the  impelling  force  of  the  machine, 
may,  like  steam  in  a  steam-engine,  for  want  of 
a  controlling  and  regulative  force,  in  a  single 
fit  of  untempered  expansion,  blow  all  the  wheels 
and  pegs,  and  close  compacted  plates  of  the 
machine,  into  chaos.  No  function  of  the  body 
can  be  safely  performed  for  a  continuance  with- 
out the  habitual  strong  control _  of  a  well-disci- 
plined will.  All  merely  physical  energies  in 
man  have  a  strong  tendency  to  run  riot  into 
fever  and  dissolution  when  divorced  from  the 
superintendence  of  what  Plato  called  Imperial 
mind  (/3cw/Xixte  vov$).  The  music  of  well-regu- 
lated emotions  imparts  its  harmony  to  the 
strings  of  the  physical  machine ;  and  freedom 
from  the  blind  plunges  of  wilfulness  keeps  the 


ON  PHYSICAL  CULTURE.  53 

heart  free  from  those  fierce  and  irregular  beat- 
ings which  wear  out  its  vitality  prematurely, 
Therefore,  if  you  would  be  healthy,  be  good  ]  and 
if  you  would  be  good,  be  wise  ;  and  if  you 
would  be  wise,  be  devout  and  reverent,  for  the 
fear  of  God  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom.  What 
this  means  it  will  be  the  business  of  the  follow- 
ing chapter  to  set  forth. 


ON  MOKAL   CULTURE. 

Meyas  yap  6  dya>j>,  /^eyas,  ou^  ocrog  So/cet, 
KOLKOV 


TO 


Pl.ATO. 


ON    MORAL    CULTURE. 


I.  We  are  now  come  to  the  most  important  of 
the  three  great  chapters  of  self-culture.  The 
moral  nature  of  man  supplies  him  both  with  the 
motive  and  the  regulative  power,  being  in  fact 
the  governor,  and  lord,  and  legitimate  master  of 
the  whole  machine.  Moral  excellence  is  therefore 
justly  felt  to  be  an  indispensable  element  in  all 
forms  of  human  greatness.  A  man  may  be  as 
brilliant,  as  clever,  as  strong,  and  as  broad  as 
you  please  :  and  with  all  this,  if  he  is  not  good, 
he  may  be  a  paltry  fellow ;  and  even  the  sublime 
which  he  seems  to  reach,  in  his  most  splendid 
achievements,  is  only  a  brilliant  sort  of  badness. 
The  first  Napoleon,  in  his  thunderous  career  over 
our  western  world,  was  a  notable  example  of 
superhuman  force  in  a  human  shape,  without 
any  real  human  greatness.  It  does  not  appear 
that  he  was  naturally  what  we  should  call  a  bad 
man ;  but,  devoting  himself  altogether  to  mili- 
tary conquest  and  political  ascendency,  he  had 
no  occasion  to  exercise  any  degree  of  that  highest 
excellence  which  grows  out  of  unselfishness,  and 
so,  as  a  moral  man,  he  lived  and  died  very  poor 


58  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

and  very  small.  But  it  is  not  only  conquerors 
and  politicians  that,  from  a  defect  of  the  moral 
element,  fail  to  achieve  real  greatness.  "Nothing," 
says  Hartley,  "  can  easily  exceed  the  vain-glory, 
self-conceit,  arrogance,  emulation,  and  envy,  that 
are  to  be  found  in  the  eminent  professors  of  the 
sciences,  mathematics,  natural  philosophy,  and 
even  divinity  itself."*  '  Nor  is  there  any  reason 
to  be  astonished  at  this.  The  moral  nature,  like 
everything  else,  if  it  is  to  grow  into  any  sort  of 
excellence,  demands  a  special  culture;  and,  as  our 
passions,  by  their  very  nature,  like  the  winds, 
are  not  easy  of  control,  and  our  actions  are  the 
outcome  of  our  passions,  it  follows  that  moral 
excellence  will  in  no  case  be  an  easy  affair,  and 
in  its  highest  grades  will  be  the  most  arduous, 
and,  as  such,  the  most  noble  achievement  of  a 
thoroughly  accomplished  humanity.  It  was  an 
easy  thing  for  Lord  Byron  to  be  a  great  poet ;  it 
was  merely  indulging  his  nature;  he  was  an 
eagle,  and  must  fly;  but  to  have  curbed  his 
wilful  humour,  soothed  his  fretful  discontent, 
and  learned  to  behave  like  a  reasonable  being 
and  a  gentleman,  that  was  a  difficult  matter, 
which  he  does  not  seem  ever  seriously  to  have 
attempted.  His  life,  therefore,  with  all  his  genius, 
and  fits  of  occasional  sublimity,  was,  on  the 
whole,  a  terrible  failure,  and  a  great  warning  to 
all  who  are  willing  to  take  a  lesson.  Another 
flaring  beacon  of  the  rock,  on  which  great  wits 
are  often  wrecked  for  want  of  a  little  kindly  cul- 

*  "Observations  on  Man."    London,  1749.    VoL  ii. 
p.  255. 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  59 

ture  of  unselfishness,  is  Walter  Savage  Landor, 
the  most  finished  master  of  style,  perhaps,  that 
ever  used  the  English  tongue ;  but  a  person  at 
the  same  time  so  imperiously  wilful,  and  so  ma- 
jestically cross-grained,  that,  with  all  his  polished 
style  and  pointed  thought,  he  was  constantly 
living  on  the  verge  of  insanity.  Let  every  one, 
therefore,  who  would  not  suffer  shipwreck  on 
the  great  voyage  of  life,  stamp  seriously  into 
his  soul,  before  all  things,  the  great  truth  of  the 
Scripture  text, — "  ONE  THING  is  NEEDFUL." 
Money  is  not  needful ;  power  is  not  needful ; 
cleverness  is  not  needful ;  fame  is  not  needful ; 
liberty  is  not  needful ;  even  health  is  not  the 
one  thing  needful:  but  character  alone  —  a 
thoroughly  cultivated  will  —  is  that  which  can 
truly  save  us ;  and,  if  we  are  not  saved  in  this 
sense,  we  must  certainly  be  damned.  There  is 
no  point  of  indifference  in  this  matter,  where  a 
man  can  safely  rest,  saying  to  himself,  If  I  don't 
get  better,  I  shall  certainly  not  get  worse.  He 
will  unquestionably  get  worse.  The  unselfish 
part  of  his  nature,  if  left  uncultivated,  will,  like 
every  other  neglected  function,  tend  to  shrink 
into  a  more  meagre  vitality  and  more  stunted 
proportions.  Let  us  gird  up  our  loins,  therefore, 
and  quit  us  like  men  ;  and,  having  by  the  golden 
gift  of  God  the  glorious  lot  of  living  once  for 
all,  let  us  endeavour  to  live  nobly. 

II.  It  may  be  well,  before  entering  into  any 
detail,  to  indicate,  in  a  single  word,  the  connec- 
tion between  morality  and  piety,  which  is  not 
always  correctly  understood.  A  certain  school  of 


60  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

British  moralists,  from  Jeremy  Bentham  down- 
wards, have  set  themselves  to  tabulate  a  scheme 
of  morals  without  any  reference  to  religion,  which, 
to  say  the  least  of  it,  is  a  very  unnatural  sort  of 
divorce,  and  a  plain  sign  of  a  certain  narrowness 
and  incompleteness  in  the  mental  constitution  of 
those  who  advocate  such  views.  No  doubt  a 
professor  of  wisdom,  like  old  Epicurus,  may  be 
a  very  good  man,  as  the  world  goes,  and  lead  a 
very  clean  life,  believing  that  all  the  grand  ma- 
thematical structure  of  this  magnificent  universe 
is  the  product  of  a  mere  fortuitous  concourse  of 
blind  atoms  ;  as,  in  these  days,  I  presume,  there 
are  few  more  virtuous  men  than  some  who  talk 
of  laws  of  Nature,  invariable  sequence,  natural 
selection,  favourable  conditions,  happy  combina- 
tion of  external  circumstances,  and  other  such 
reasonless  phrases  as  may  seem  to  explain  the 
frame  of  the  universe  apart  from  mind.  But  to 
a  healthy  human  feeling  there  must  always 
be  something  very  inadequate,  say  rather  some- 
thing abnormal  and  monstrous,  in  this  phasis  of 
morality.  It  is  as  if  a  good  citizen  in  a 
monarchy  were  to  pay  all  the  taxes  conscien- 
tiously, serve  his  time  in  the  army,  and  fight 
the  battles  of  his  country  bravely,  but  refuse  to 
take  off  his  hat  to  the  Queen  when  she  passed. 
If  we  did  not  note  such  a  fellow  altogether  with  a 
black  mark,  as  a  disloyal  and  disaffected  sub- 
ject, we  should  feel  a  good-natured  contempt  for 
him,  as  a  crotchety  person  and  unmannerly.  So 
it  is  exactly  with  atheists,  whether  speculative 
or  practical ;  they  are  mostly  crotchet-mongers 
and  puzzle-brains ;  fellows  who  spin  silken  ropes 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  61 

in  which  to  strangle  themselves ;  at  most,  mere 
reasoning  machines,  utterly  devoid  of  every  noble 
inspiration,  whose  leaden  intellectual  firma- 
ment has  no  heat  and  no  colour,  whose  whole 
nature  is  exhausted  in  fostering  a  prim  self-con- 
tained conceit  about  their  petty  knowledges,  and 
who  can,  in  fact,  fasten  their  coarse  feelers  upon 
nothing  but  what  they  can  finger,  and  classify, 
and  tabulate,  and  dissect.  But  there  is  some- 
thing that  stands  above  all  fingering,  all  micro- 
scopes, and  all  curious  diagnosis,  and  that  is, 
simply,  LIFE  ;  and  life  is  simply  energising 
Reason,  and  energising  Reason  is  only  another 
name  for  GOD.  To  ignore  this  supreme  fact  is 
to  attempt  to  conceive  the  steam-engine  without 
the  intellect  of  James  Watt ;  it  is  to  make  a 
map  of  the  aqueducts  that  supply  a  great  city 
with  water,  without  indicating  the  fountain- 
head  from  which  they  are  supplied ;  it  is  to 
stop  short  of  the  one  fact  which  renders  all  the 
other  facts  possible  ;  it  is  to  leave  the  body 
without  the  head.  By  no  means,  therefore,  let 
a  young  man  satisfy  himself  with  any  of  those 
cold  moral  schemes  of  the  present  age  of  reac- 
tion, which  piece  together  a  beggarly  account  of 
duties  from  external  induction.  The  fountain 
of  all  the  nobler  morality  is  moral  inspiration 
from  within  ;  and  the  feeder  of  this  fountain  is 
GOD. 

III.  I  will  now  specialise  a  few  of  those 
virtues  the  attainment  of  which  should  be  an 
object  of  lofty  ambition  to  young  men  desirous 
of  making  the  most  of  the  divine  gift  of  life. 


62  /  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

Every  season  and  every  occasion  makes  its  own 
imperious  demand,  and  presents  its  peculiar 
opportunity  of  glorious  victory  or  ignoble  de- 
feat in  the  great  battle  of  existence.  Prim- 
roses grow  only  in  the  spring ;  and  certain  vir- 
tues, if  they  do  not  put  forth  vigorous  shoots  in 
youth,  are  not  likely  to  show  any  luxuriant 
leafage  in  after  age. 

IV.  First,  there  is  OBEDIENCE.  There  is  a 
great  talk  in  these  days  about  liberty  ;  and  no 
doubt  liberty  is  a  very  good  thing,  and  highly 
estimated  by  all  healthy  creatures  ;  but  it  is 
necessary  that  we  should  understand  exactly 
what  this  thing  means.  It  means  only  that  in 
the  exercise  of  all  natural  energies,  each  creature 
shall  be  free  from  every  sort  of  conventional, 
artificial,  and  painful  restriction.  Such  liberty 
is  unquestionably  an  unqualified  good,  but  it 
does  not  bring  a  man  very  far.  It  fixes  only 
the  starting-point  in  the  race  of  life.  It  gives  a 
man  a  stage  to  play  on,  but  it  says  nothing  of 
the  part  he  has  to  play,  or  of  the  style  in  which 
he  must  play  it.  Beyond  this  necessary  starting- 
point,  all  further  action  in  life,  so  far  from  being 
liberty,  is  only  a  series  of  limitations.  All  regu- 
lation is  limitation ;  and  regulation  is  only 
another  name  for  reasoned  existence.  And,  as 
the  regulations  to  which  men  must  submit  are 
not  always  or  generally  those  which  they  have 
willingly  laid  down  for  themselves,  but  rather 
for  the  most  part  those  which  have  been  laid 
down  by  others  for  the  general  good  of  society, 
it  follows,  that  whosoever  will  be  a  good  member 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  63 

of  any  social  system  must  learn,  in  the  first  place, 
to  OBEY.  The  law,  the  army,  the  church,  the 
state  service,  every  field  of  life  and  every  sphere 
of  action,  are  only  the  embodied  illustrations  of 
this  principle.  Freedom,  of  course,  is  left  to  the 
individual  in  his  own  individual  sphere.  To 
leave  him  no  freedom  were  to  make  him  a  mere 
machine,  and  to  annihilate  his  humanity ;  but, 
so  far  as  he  acts  in  a  social  capacity,  he  cannot 
be  free  from  the  limitations  that  bind  the  whole 
into  a  definite  and  consistent  unity.  He  may 
be  at  the  very  top  of  the  social  ladder,  but, 
like  the  Pope — SERVUS  SERVORUM — only  the 
more  a  slave  for  that.  The  brain  can  no  more 
disown  the  general  laws  of  the  organism  than 
the  foot  can.  The  loyal  obedience  of  each  mem- 
ber is  at  once  its  duty  and  its  safety.  St. 
Paul,  with  his  usual  force,  fervour,  and  sagacity, 
has  grandly  illustrated  this  text ;  and  if  you 
ever  feel  inclined  fretfully  to  kick  against  your 
special  function  in  the  great  social  organism,  I 
advise  you  to  make  a  serious  reading  of  1  Cor. 
xii.  14-31.  Every  random  or  wilful  move  is  a 
chink  opened  in  the  door,  which,  if  it  be  taught 
to  gape  wider,  will  in  due  season  let  in  chaos. 
The  Roman  historian  records  it  as  a  notable 
trait  in  the  great  Punic  captain's  character,  that 
he  knew  equally  well  to  obey  and  to  command, 
— "  Nunquam  ingenium  idem  ad  res  diversissimas, 
parendum  atque  imperandum  habilius fuit."  Oppo- 
site things,  no  doubt,  obedience  and  command 
are  ;  but  the  one,  nevertheless,  is  the  best  train- 
ing-school for  the  other ;  for  he  who  has  been 
accustomed  only  to  command  will  not  know  the 


64  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

limitations  by  which,  for  its  own  beneficial  exer- 
cise, all  authority  is  bound.  Let  the  old  Roman 
submission  to  authority  be  cultivated  by  all 
young  men  as  a  virtue  at  once  most  character- 
istically social,  and  most  becoming  in  unripe 
years.  Let  the  thing  commanded  by  a  superior 
authority  be  done  simply  because  it  is  com- 
manded, and  let  it  be  done  with  punctuality. 
Nothing  commends  a  young  man  so  much  to  his 
employers  as  accuracy  and  punctuality  in  the 
conduct  of  business.  And  no  wonder.  On  each 
man's  exactitude  in  doing  his  special  best  de- 
pends the  comfortable  and  easy  going  of  the 
whole  machine.  In  the  complicated  tasks  of 
social  life  no  genius  and  no  talent  can  compen- 
sate for  the  lack  of  obedience.  If  the  clock  goes 
fitfully,  nobody  knows  the  time  of  day  •  and,  if 
your  allotted  task  is  a  necessary  link  in  the  chain 
of  another  man's  work,  you  are  his  clock,  and  he 
ought  to  be  able  to  rely  on  you.  The  greatest 
praise  that  can  be  given  to  the  member  of  any 
association  is  in  these  terms : — This  is  a  man 
who  always  does  what  is  required  of  him,  and  who 
always  appears  at  the  hour  when  he  is  expected  to 
appear. 

V.  The  next  grand  virtue  which  a  young 
man  should  specially  cultivate  is  TRUTHFULNESS. 
I  believe,  with  Plato,  that  a  lie  is  a  thing  natu- 
rally hateful  both  to  gods  and  men  ;  and 
young  persons  specially  are  naturally  truthful  • 
but  fear  and  vanity,  and  various  influences, 
and  interests  affecting  self,  may  check  and  over- 
grow this  instinct,  so  as  to  produce  a  very 


UN  MORAL  CULTURE.  65 

hollow  and  worthless  manhood.  John  Stuart 
Mill,  in  one  of  his  political  pamphlets,  told  the 
working  classes  of  England  that  they  were 
mostly  liars ;  and  yet  he  paid  them  the  compli- 
ment of  saying  that  they  were  the  only  working 
class  in  Europe  who  were  inwardly  ashamed  of 
the  baseness  which  they  practised.  A  young 
man  in  his  first  start  of  life  should  impress  on 
his  mind  strongly  that  he  lives  in  a  world  of 
stern  realities,  where  no  mere  show  can  per- 
manently assert  itself  as  substance.  In  his 
presentment  as  a  member  of  society  he  should 
take  a  sacred  care  to  be  more  than  he  seems, 
not  to  seem  more  than  he  is.  Oi»  yag  doxt/v 
agutrog  «XV  iJvai  6s\si.  Whoever  in  any  special 
act  is  studious  to  make  an  outward  show,  to 
which  no  inward  substance  corresponds,  is 
acting  a  lie,  which  may  help  him  out  of  a  diffi- 
culty perhaps  for  the  occasion,  but,  like  silvered 
copper,  will  be  found  out  in  due  season.  Plated 
work  will  never  stand  the  tear  and  wear  of 
life  like  the  genuine  metal ;  believe  this.  What 
principally  induces  men  to  act  this  sort  of 
social  lie  is,  with  persons  in  trade,  love  of  gain ; 
but  with  young  men,  to  who^n  I  now  speak, 
either  laziness,  vanity,  or  cowardice  ;  and 
against  these  three  besetting  sins,  therefore,  a 
young  man  should  set  a  special  guard.  Lazy 
people  are  never  ready  with  the  right  article 
when  it  is  wanted,  and  accordingly  they  present 
a  false  one,  as  when  a  schoolboy,  when  called 
upon  to  translate  a  passage  from  a  Greek  or 
Latin  author,  reads  from  a  translation  on  the 
opposite  page.  What  is  this  but  a  lie  1  The 
F 


66  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

teacher  wishes  to  know  what  you  have  in 
your  brain,  and  you  give  him  what  you  take 
from  a  piece  of  paper,  not  the  produce  of  your 
brain  at  all.  All  flimsy,  shallow,  and  super- 
ficial work,  in  fact,  is  a  LIE,  of  which  a  man 
ought  to  be  ashamed.  Vanity  is  another  provo- 
cative of  lies.  From  a  desire  to  appear  well 
before  others,  young  men,  who  are  naturally 
ignorant  and  inexperienced,  will  sometimes  be 
tempted  to  pretend  that  they  know  more  than 
they  actually  do  know,  and  may  thus  get  into 
a  habit  of  dressing  up  their  little  with  the  air 
and  attitude  of  much,  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
convey  a  false  impression  of  their  own  import- 
ance. Let  a  man  learn  as  early  as  possible 
honestly  to  confess  his  ignorance,  and  he  will 
be  a  gainer  by  it  in  the  long  run  ;  otherwise  the 
trick  by  which  he  veils  his  ignorance  from  others 
may  become  a  habit  by  which  he  conceals  it 
from  himself,  and  learns  to  spend  his  whole  life 
in  an  element  of  delusive  show,  to  which  no 
reality  corresponds.  But  it  is  from  deficiency 
of  courage  rather  than  from  the  presence  of 
vanity  that  a  young  man  may  expect  to  be 
most  sorely  tried.  Conceit,  which  is  natural 
to  youth,  is  sure  to  be  pruned  down ;  the  whole 
of  society  is  in  a  state  of  habitual  conspiracy  to 
lop  the  overweening  self-estimate  of  any  of  its 
members  ;  but  a  little  decent  cowardice  is 
always  safe ;  and  those  who  begin  life  by  being 
afraid  to  speak  what  they  think,  are  likely  to 
end  it  by  being  afraid  to  think  what  they  wish. 
Moral  courage  is  unquestionably,  if  the  most 
manly,  certainly  the  rarest  of  the  social  virtues. 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  67 

The  most  venerated  traditions  and  institutions 
of  society,  and  even  some  of  the  kindliest  and 
most  finely-fibred  affections,  are  in  not  a  few 
cases  arrayed  against  its  exercise ;  and  in  such 
cases  to  speak  the  truth  boldly  requires  a  com- 
bination of  determination  and  of  tact,  of  which 
not  every  man  is  capable.  Neither,  indeed, 
is  it  desirable  always  to  speak  all  the  truth  that 
a  man  may  happen  to  know  ;  there  is  no  more 
offensive  thing  than  truth,  when  it  runs  counter 
to  certain  great  social  interests,  associations, 
and  passions  ;  and  offence,  though  it  must 
sometimes  be  given,  ought  never  to  be  courted. 
To  these  matters  the  text  applies,  "Be  ye  wise 
as  serpents  and  harmless  as  doves."  Never- 
theless there  are  occasions  when  a  man  must 
speak  boldly  out,  even  at  the  risk  of  plucking 
the  beard  of  fair  authority  somewhat  rudely. 
If  he  does  not  do  so  he  is  a  coward  and  a 
poltroon,  and  not  the  less  so  because  he  has  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  lily-livered  followers 
at  his  back. 

VI.  I  don't  know  a  better  advice  to  a  young 
man  than  NEVER  TO  BE  IDLE.  It  is  one  of  those 
negative  sort  of  precepts  that  impart  no  motive 
force  to  the  will  j  but  though  negations  seem 
barren  to  keep  out  the  devil  by  a  strong  bolt, 
they  may  prove  in  the  end  not  the  worst  receipt 
for  admitting  the  good  spirit  into  confidence. 
A  man  certainly  should  not  circumscribe  his 
activity  by  any  inflexible  fence  of  rigid  rules  ; 
such  a  formal  methodism  of  conduct  springs 
from  narrowness,  and  can  only  end  in  more 


68-  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

narrowness ;  but  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
to  commence  early  with  an  oeconomical  use  of 
time,  and  this  is  only  possible  by  means  of 
order  and  system.  No  young  person  can  go 
far  wrong  who  devotes  a  certain  amount  of 
time  regularly  to  a  definite  course  of  work : 
how  much  that  portion  of  time  should  be,  of 
course  depends  on  circumstances;  but  let  it, 
at  all  events,  be  filled  up  with  a  prescribed 
continuity  of  something ;  one  hour  a  day  per- 
sistently devoted  to  one  thing,  like  a  small 
seed,  will  yield  a  large  increase  at  the  year's  end. 
Eandom  activity,  jumping  from  one  thing  to 
another  without  a  plan,  is  little  better,  in  respect 
of  any  valuable  intellectual  result,  than  absolute 
idleness.  An  idle  man  is  like  a  housekeeper 
who  keeps  the  doors  open  for  any  burglar.  It 
is  a  grand  safeguard  when  a  man  can  say,  I 
have  no  time  for  nonsense ;  no  call  for  unreason- 
able dissipation;  no  need  for  that  sort  of 
stimulus  which  wastes  itself  in  mere  titillation  ; 
variety  of  occupation  is  my  greatest  pleasure, 
and  when  my  task  is  finished  I  know  how  to 
lie  fallow,  and  with  soothing  rest  prepare  myself 
for  another  bout  of  action.  The  best  preventive 
against  idleness  is  to  start  with  the  deep-seated 
conviction  of  the  earnestness  of  life.  Whatever 
men  say  of  the  world,  it  is  certainly  no  stage 
for  trifling ;  in  a  scene  where  all  are  at  work 
idleness  can  lead  only  to  wreck  and  ruin.  "  LIFE 

IS  SHORT,  ART  LONG,  OPPORTUNITY  FLEETING,  EX- 
PERIMENT SLIPPERY,  JUDGMENT  DIFFICULT."  These 

are  the  first  words  of  the  medical  aphorisms  of 
the  wise  Hippocrates ;  they  were  set  down  as 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  69 

a  significant  sign  at  the  porch  of  the  benevolent 
science  of  healing  more  than  500  years  before 
the  Christian  era ;  and  they  remain  still,  the 
wisest  text  which  a  man  can  take  with  him  as 
a  directory  into  any  sphere  of  effective  social 
activity. 

VII.  If  we  look  around  us  in  the  world  with 
a  view  to  discover  what  is  the  cause  of  the 
sad  deficiency  of  energy  often  put  forth  in 
the  best  of  causes,  we  shall  find  that  it  arises 
generally  from  some  sort  of  NARROWNESS.  A 
man  will  not  help  you  in  this  or  that  noble 
undertaking  simply  because  he  has  no  sympathy 
with  it.  Not  a  few  persons  are  a  sort  of  human 
lobsters ;  they  live  in  a  hard  shell  formed  out 
of  some  professional,  ecclesiastical,  political,  or 
classical  crust,  and  cautiously  creep  their  way 
within  certain  beaten  bounds,  beyond  which 
they  have  no  desires.  The  meagre  and  un- 
expansive  life  of  such  persons  teaches  us  what 
we  want  in  order  to  attain  to  a  wider  and  a  richer 
range  of  social  vitality.  The  octogenarian  poet- 
philosopher  Goethe,  when  sinking  into  the 
darkness  of  death,  called  out  with  his  last  breath, 
MORE  LIGHT  !  What  every  young  man  should 
call  out  daily,  if  he  wishes  to  save  himself  from 
the  narrowing  crust  of  professional  and  other 
limitations,  is,  MORE  LOVE  !  Men  are  often 
clever  enough,  but  they  don't  know  what  to  do 
with  their  cleverness;  they  are  good  swords- 
men, but  they  have  no  cause  to  fight  for,  or 
prefer  fighting  in  a  bad  cause.  What  these 
men  want  is  Love.  The  precept  of  the  great 


70  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

apostle,  "  Weep  with  those  who  weep,  and  rejoice 
with  those  who  rejoice,"  if  it  were  grandly  carried 
out  would  make  every  man's  life  as  rich  in  uni- 
versal sympathy  as  Shakspeare's  imagination 
was  in  universal  imagery.  Every  man  cannot 
be  a  poet ;  but  every  man  may  give  himself 
some  trouble  to  cultivate  that  kindly  and  genial 
sensibility  on  which  the  writing  and  the  ap- 
preciation of  poetry  depends.  To  live  poetry, 
indeed,  is  always  better  than  to  write  it ;  better 
for  the  individual,  and  better  for  society.  Now 
a  poetical  life  is  just  a  life  opposed  to  all  same- 
ness and  all  selfishness  ;  eagerly  seizing  upon 
the  good  and  beautiful  from  all  quarters,  as  on 
its  proper  aliment.  Let  a  young  man,  therefore, 
above  all  things,  beware  of  shutting  himself  up 
within  a  certain  narrow  pale  of  sympathy,  and 
fostering  unreasonable  hatreds  and  prejudices 
against  others.  An  honest  hater  is  often  a 
better  fellow  than  a  cool  friend  ;  but  it  is 
better  not  to  hate  at  all.  A  good  man  will  as 
much  as  possible  strive  to  be  shaken  out  of 
himself,  and  learn  to  study  the  excellences  of 
persons  and  parties  to  whom  he  is  naturally 
opposed.  It  was  an  admirable  trait  in  the 
character  of  the  late  distinguished  head  of  the 
utilitarian  school  of  ethics,  who  was  brought  up 
according  to  the  strictest  sect  of  a  narrow  and 
unsympathetic  school,  that  he  could  apply  himself 
in  the  spirit  of  kindly  recognition  to  compre- 
hend two  such  antipodal  characters  as  Coleridge 
and  Thomas  Carlyle.  Never  allow  yourself  to 
indulge  in  sneering  condemnations  of  large 
classes  and  sections  of  your  fellow  beings ;  that 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  71 

sort  of  talk  sounds  big,  but  is  in  fact  puerile. 
Never  refuse  to  entertain  a  man  in  your  heart 
because  all  the  world  is  talking  against  him,  or 
because  he  belongs  to  some  sect  or  party  that 
everybody  despises  ;  if  he  is  universally  talked 
against,  as  has  happened  to  many  of  the  best 
men  in  certain  circumstances,  there  is  only  so 
much  the  more  need  that  he  should  receive  a 
friendly  judgment  from  you.  "  Honour  all 
men  "  is  one  of  the  many  texts  of  combined 
sanctity  and  sapience  with  which  the  New 
Testament  abounds ;  but  this  you  cannot  do 
unless  you  try  to  know  all  men ;  and  you  know 
no  man  till  you  have  looked  with  the  eye  of 
a  brother  into  the  best  that  is  in  him.  To  do 
this  is  the  true  moral  philosophy,  the  best 
human  riches  ;  a  wealth  which,  when  you  have 
quarried,  you  can  proceed,  as  a  good  social 
architect,  to  build  up  the  truth  in  love,  with 
regard  to  all  men,  and  make  your  deeds  in 
every  point  as  genuine  as  your  words. 

VIII.  There  is  a  class  of  young  men  in  the 
present  age  on  whose  face  one  imagines  that  he 
sees  written  NIL  ADMIRARI.  This  is  not  at  all 
a  loveable  class  of  "  the  youth-head"  of  our 
land;  and,  unless  the  tone  of  not  wondering 
which  characterises  their  manner  be  a  sort  of 
juvenile  affectation  destined  soon  to  pass  away, 
rather  a  hopeless  class.  Wonder,  as  Plato  has 
it,  is  a  truly  philosophic  passion ;  the  more  we 
have  of  it,  accompanying  the  reverent  heart, 
of  course  with  a  clear  open  eye,  so  much  the 
better.  That  it  should  be  specially  abundant 


72  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

in  the  opening  scenes  of  life  is  in  the  healthy 
course  of  nature ;  and  to  be  deficient  in  it  argues 
either  insensibility,  or  that  in  difference,  selfish- 
ness, and  conceit,  which  are  sometimes  found 
combined  with  a  shallow  sort  of  cleverness  that, 
with  superficial  observers  readily  passes  for 
true  talent.  In  opposition  to  this  most  un- 
natural, ungenial  habitude  of  mind,  we  say  to 
every  young  man,  cultivate  REVERENCE.  You 
will  not  see  much  of  this  virtue,  perhaps,  in  the 
democratic  exhibitions  in  which  the  present  age 
delights  j  but  it  is  the  true  salt  of  the  soul  for  all 
that. 

""We  live  by  admiration,  hope,  and  love." 

We  are  small  creatures,  the  biggest  of  us,  and 
our  only  chance  of  becoming  great  in  a  sort  is  by 
participation  in  the  greatness  of  the  universe.  St. 
John,  in  a  beautiful  passage  of  his  First  Epistle, 
has  finely  indicated  the  philosophy  of  this  matter. 
"  Beloved,  now  are  we  the  sons  of  God ;  and  it 
doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be ;  but  we 
know  that  when  he  shall  appear,  we  shall  be  like 
him;  for  we  shall  see  him  as  he  is  ;" — that  is  to 
say,  to  look  with  admiring  rapture  on  a  type  of 
perfect  excellence  is  the  way  to  become  assimi- 
lated to  that  excellence ;  what  the  uncorrupted 
man  sees  in  such  cases  he  admires ;  and  what 
he  admires  he  imitates.  The  chief  end  of  man, 
according  to  the  Stoics,  was, — "  SPECTARE  ET 
IMITARI  MUNDUM!" — a  fine  thought,  and  finely 
expressed.  But  how  shall  a  man  see  when  he 
has  no  admiring  faculty  which  shall  lead  him  to 
see,  and  how  shall  he  imitate  what  he  does  not 
know  1  All  true  appreciation  is  the  result  of 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  73 

keen  insight  and  noble  passion ;  but  the  habit 
of  despising  things  and  persons,  and  holding 
them  cheap,  blinds  the  one  factor  which  belongs 
to  the  complete  result,  and  strangles  the  other. 

IX.  In  morals  there  are  principles  of  inspi- 
ration and  principles  of  regulation :  love  and 
reverence,  of  which  we  have  been  speaking,  be- 
long to  the  former ;  MODERATION,  of  which  we 
are  now  to  speak,  belongs  to  the  latter.  It  is 
a  virtue  of  which  young  men  generally  have  no 
conception,  and  for  deficiency  in  which  they  are 
lightly  pardoned ;  but  it  is  a  virtue  not  the  less 
necessary  for  that,  and  if  they  will  not  learn  it 
in  what  medical  men  call  the  prophylactic  way, 
— that  is,  timeously,  before  the  touch  of  danger, 
— they  will  have  to  learn  it  at  no  very  long  date 
from  perilous  experience.  To  hot  young  blood 
it  is  an  admonition  which  sounds  as  cheap  as  it 
is  distasteful,  to  beware  of  excess ;  but  hot  young 
blood,  which  knows  well  enough  how  to  dash 
full  gallop  into  a  forest  of  bristling  spears,  is  no 
judge  of  that  caution  which  is  not  less  necessary 
than  courage  to  the  issue  of  a  successful  cam- 
paign. The  coolest  and  most  practical  thinker  of 
all  antiquity,  and  at  the  same  time  the  man  of 
the  widest  range  of  accurate  knowledge,  Aris- 
totle, whose  name  is  almost  a  guarantee  for  right 
opinion  in  all  things,  laid  it  down  as  the  most 
useful  rule  to  guide  men  in  the  difficult  art  of 
living,  that  virtue  or  wise  action  lies  in  the 
mean  between  the  two  extremes  of  too  little  and 
too  much.  Those  who  are  just  starting  in  the 
career  of  life,  however  fond  they  may  be  of 
strong  phrases,  strong  passions,  unbridled  ener- 


74  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

gies,  and  exuberant  demonstrations  of  all  kinds, 
may  rely  on  it,  that  as  they  grow  in  true  man- 
hood they  will  grow  in  all  sorts  of  moderation, 
and  learn  to  recognise  the  great  truth  that 
those  are  the  strongest  men,  not  who  the  most 
wantonly  indulge,  but  who  the  most  carefully 
curb  their  activities.  What  is  called  "  seediness," 
after  a  debauch,  is  a  plain  proof  that  nature  has 
been  outraged,  and  will  have  her  penalty.  All 
debauch  is  incipient  suicide ;  it  is  the  unseen 
current  beneath  the  house  which  sooner  or  later 
washes  away  the  foundations.  So  it  is  with 
study.  Long-continued  intense  mental  exercise, 
especially  in  that  ungrateful  and  ungenial  form 
of  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  called  CRAM, 
weakens  the  brain,  disorders  the  stomach,  and 
makes  the  general  action  of  the  whole  organism 
languid  and  unemphatic.  Be  warned,  therefore, 
in  time  ;  violent  methods  will  certainly  produce 
violent  results ;  and  a  vessel  that  once  gets  a 
crack,  though  it  may  be  cunningly  mended,  will 
never  stand  such  rough  usage  as  a  whole  one. 
Wisdom  is  a  good  thing ;  but  it  is  not  good 
even  to  be  wise  always.  "  Be  not  wise  overmuch : 
Why  shouldst  thou  die  before  thy  time  1 "  Re- 
member who  said  that. 

X.  If  Great  Britain  be  unquestionably  the 
richest  country  in  the  world, — so  much  so  in- 
deed that  Sydney  Smith,  always  witty  and 
always  wise,  felt  himself  justified  in  saying,  that 
it  is  "  the  only  country  in  which  poverty  is  a 
crime,"  then  certainly  it  is  of  paramount  import- 
ance that  every  young  man,  when  starting  in 
the  race  of  life  in  this  country,  should  stamp 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  75 

into  his  soul  the  fundamental  principle  of  all 
moral  philosophy,  that  the  real  dignity  of  a  man 
lies  not  in  what  he  has,  but  in  what  he  is.  "  The 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  you," — not  without. 
Beware,  therefore,  of  being  infected  by  the 
moral  contagion  which  more  or  less  taints  the 
atmosphere  of  every  rich  trading  and  manu- 
facturing community,  —  the  contagion  which 
breeds  a  habit  of  estimating  the  value  of  men 
by  the  external  apparatus  of  life  rather  than  by 
its  internal  nobility.  A  dwarf,  perched  upon  a 
lofty  platform,  looks  over  the  heads  of  the  mul- 
titude, and  has  no  doubt  this  advantage  from 
his  position.  So  it  is  with  the  rich  man  who  is 
merely  rich ;  he  acquires  a  certain  social  posi- 
tion, and  from  this,  perhaps,  gets  M.P.  tagged 
to  his  name ;  but,  take  the  creature  down  from 
his  artificial  elevation,  and  look  him  fairly  in 
the  face,  and  you  will  find  that  he  is  a  figure 
too  insignificant  to  measure  swords  with.  Fix 
this,  therefore,  in  your  minds,  before  all  things, 
that  there  are  few  things  in  social  life  more 
contemptible  than  a  rich  man  who  stands  upon 
his  riches.  By  the  very  act  of  placing  so  high 
a  value  on  the  external,  he  has  lapsed  from  the 
true  character  of  his  kind,  and  inverted  the 
poles  of  human  value.  Have  money, — by  all 
means, — as  much  as  to  enable  you  to  pay  your 
tailor's  bill,  and,  if  possible,  have  a  comfortable 
glass  of  claret  or  port  to  help  you  to  digest  your 
dinner ;  but  never  set  your  heart  on  what  they 
call  making  a  fortune.  Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle, 
and  St.  Paul  (1  Tim.  vi.  9),  all  agree  in  stating;, 
with  serious  emphasis,  that  money-making  is 


76  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

not  an  ennobling  occupation,  and  that  he  who 
values  money  most  values  himself  least.  Stand 
strictly  on  your  moral  and  intellectual  excel- 
lence, and  you  will  find  in  the  long  run,  when 
the  true  value  of  things  comes  out,  that  there  is 
not  a  Duke  or  a  millionaire  in  the  land  who  can 
boast  himself  your  superior. 

XI.  I  have  no  intention  of  running  through 
the  catalogue  of  the  virtues, — you  must  go  to 
Aristotle  for  that ;  but  one  grace  of  character, 
which  is  an  essential  element  of  moral  greatness, 
and  a  sure  pledge  of  all  kinds  of  success,  I  can- 
not omit,  and  that  is  PERSEVERANCE.  I  never 
knew  a  man  good  for  anything  in  the  world, 
who,  when  he  got  a  piece  of  work  'to  do,  did 
not  know  how  to  stick  to  it.  The  poet  Words- 
worth, in  his  "  Excursion,"  when  the  sky  began 
to  look  cloudy,  gives,  as  a  reason  for  going  on 
with  his  mountain  perambulation,  that  though 
a  little  rain  might  be  disagreeable  to  the  skin, 
the  act  of  giving  up  a  fixed  purpose,  in  view  of 
a  slight  possible  inconvenience,  is  dangerous 
to  the  character.  There  is  much  wisdom  here. 
We  do  not  live  in  a  world  in  which  a  man  can 
afford  to  be  discouraged  by  trifles.  There  are  real 
difficulties  enough,  with  which  to  fight  is  to 
live,  and  which  to  conquer  is  to  live  nobly.  A 
friend  of  mine,  making  the  ascent  of  Ben 
Cruachan,  when  he  had  reached  what  he  ima- 
gined to  be  the  top,  found  that  the  real  peak 
was  two  miles  farther  on  to  the  west,  and  that 
the  road  to  it  lay  along  a  rough  stony  ridge  not 
easy  for  weary  feet  to  tread  on.  But  this  was 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  77 

a  small  matter.  The  peak  was  being  enveloped 
in  mist,  and  it  was  only  an  hour  from  sunset. 
He  wisely  determined  to  take  the  nearest  way 
down;  but  what  did  he  do  next  day?  He 
ascended  the  Ben  again,  and  took  his  dinner 
triumphantly  on  the  topmost  top,  in  order,  as 
he  said,  that  the  name  of  this  most  beautiful  of 
Highland  Bens  might  not  for  ever  be  associated 
in  his  mind  with  bafflement  and  defeat.  This 
sort  of  a  man,  depend  upon  it,  will  succeed  in 
everything  he  undertakes.  Never  boggle  at  a 
difficulty,  especially  at  the  commencement  of  a 
new  work.  Aller  Anfang  ist  schwer, —  all  be- 
ginnings are  difficult,  as  the  German  proverb 
says ;  and  the  more  excellent  the  task  the 
greater  the  difficulty.  XaXs-rd  ra  xaXd.  Diffi- 
cult things,  in  fact,  are  the  only  things  worth 
doing,  and  they  are  done  by  a  determined  will 
and  a  strong  hand.  In  the  world  of  action  will 
is  power;  persistent  will,  with  circumstances 
not  altogether  unfavourable,  is  victory ;  nay,  in 
the  face  of  circumstances  altogether  unfavour- 
able, persistency  will  carve  out  a  way  to  unex- 
pected success.  Read  the  life  of  Frederick  the 
Great  of  Prussia,  and  you  will  understand  what 
this  means.  Fortune  never  will  favour  the  man 
who  flings  away  the  dice-box  because  the  first 
throw  brings  a  low  number. 

I  will  now  conclude  with  a  few  remarks  on 
some  of  the  best  methods  of  acquiring  moral 
excellence. 

XII.  The  first  thing  to  be  attended  to  here 


78  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

is  to  have  it  distinctly  and  explicitly  graved  into 
the  soul,  that  there  is  only  one  thing  that  can 
give  significance  and  dignity  to  human  life — 
viz.  VIRTUOUS  ENERGY  ;  and  that  this  energy 
is  attainable  only  by  energising.  If  you  imagine 
you  are  to  be  much  helped  by  books,  and 
reasons,  and  speculations,  and  learned  disputa- 
tions, in  this  matter,  you  are  altogether  mis- 
taken. Books  and  discourses  may  indeed 
awaken  and  arouse  you,  and  perhaps  hold  up  the 
sign  of  a  wise  finger-post  to  prevent  you  from 
going  astray  at  the  first  start,  but  they  cannot 
move  you  a  single  step  on  the  road ;  it  is  your 
own  legs  only  that  can  perform  the  journey  ;  it 
is  altogether  a  matter  of  doing.  Finger-posts 
are  very  well  where  you  find  them;  but  the 
sooner  you  can  learn  to  do  without  them  the 
better ;  for  you  will  not  travel  long,  depend 
upon  it,  before  you  come  into  regions  of  moor, 
and  mist,  and  bog,  and  far  waste  solitudes  ;  and 
woe  be  to  the  wayfarer,  in  such  case,  who  has 
taught  himself  to  travel  only  by  finger-posts  and 
mile-stones !  You  must  have  a  compass  of  sure 
direction  in  your  own  soul,  or  you  may  be  forced 
to  depend  for  your  salvation  on  some  random 
saviour,  who  is  only  a  little  less  bewildered  than 
yourself.  Gird  up  your  loins,  therefore,  and 
prove  the  all-important  truth,  that  as  you  learn 
to  walk  only  by  walking,  to  leap  by  leaping, 
and  to  fence  by  fencing,  so  you  can  learn  to  live 
nobly  only  by  acting  nobly  on  every  occasion 
that  presents  itself.  If  you  shirk  the  first  trial 
of  your  manhood,  you  will  come  so  much  the 
weaker  to  the  second  ;  and  if  the  next  occasion, 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  79 

and  the  next  again,  finds  you  unprepared,  you 
will  infallibly  sink  into  baseness.  A  swimmer 
becomes  strong  to  stem  the  tide  only  by  fre- 
quently breasting  the  big  waves.  If  you  prac- 
tise always  in  shallow  waters,  your  heart  will 
assuredly  fail  you  in  the  hour  of  high  flood. 
General  notions  about  sin  and  salvation  can  do 
you  no  good  in  the  way  of  the  blessed  life.  As 
in  a  journey,  you  must  see  milestone  after  mile- 
stone fall  into  your  rear,  otherwise  you  remain 
stationary ;  so,  in  the  grand  march  of  a  noble 
life,  one  paltriness  after  another  must  disappear, 
or  you  have  lost  your  chance. 

XIII.  Richter  gives  it  as  one  excellent  anti- 
dote against  moral  depression,  to  call  up  in  our 
darkest  moments  the  memory  of  our  brightest ; 
so,  in  the  dusty  struggle  and  often  tainted 
atmosphere  of  daily  business,  it  is  well  to  carry 
about  with  us  the  purifying  influence  of  a  high 
ideal  of  human  conduct,  fervidly  and  powerfully 
expressed.  Superstitious  persons  carry  amulets  ex- 
ternally on  their  breasts  :  carry  you  a  select  store 
of  holy  texts  within,  and  you  will  be  much  more 
effectively  armed  against  the  powers  of  evil  than 
any  most  absolute  monarch  behind  a 'bristling 
body-guard.  Such  texts  you  may  find  occur- 
ring in  many  places,  from  the  Kalidasas  and 
Sakyamunis  of  the  East,  to  Pythagoras,  Plato, 
Aristotle,  and  Epictetus,  in  the  West;  but  if 
you  are  wise,  and  above  the  seduction  of  showy 
and  pretentious  novelties,  you  will  store  your 
memory  early  in  youth  with  the  golden  texts  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments ;  and,  as  the  Bible 


80  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

is  a  big  book — not  so  much  a  book,  indeed,  as 
a  great  literature  in  small  bulk,  —  perhaps  I 
could  not  do  better  in  this  place  than  indicate 
for  you  a  few  books  or  chapters  which  you 
will  find  it  of  inestimable  value  to  graft  into 
your  soul  deeply  before  you  come  much  into 
contact  with  those  persons  of  coarse  moral  fibre, 
low  aspirations,  and  lukewarm  temperament, 
commonly  called  men  of  the  world.  First,  of 
course,  there  is  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  then 
the  13th  chapter  of  the  1st  Epistle  to  the  Corin- 
thians; then  the  Gospel  of  John;  then  the 
General  Epistle  of  James  ;  the  two  Epistles  to 
Timothy  ;  the  8th  chapter  of  the  Eomans ;  the 
5th  and  6th  chapters  of  the  Ephesians  ;  and  the 
same  chapters  of  the  Galatians.  In  the  Old 
Testament  every  day's  experience  will  reveal  to 
you  more  clearly  the  profound  wisdom  of  the 
Book  of  Proverbs.  As  a  guide  through  life  it 
is  not  possible  to  find  a  better  directory  than 
this  book ;  and  I  remember  the  late  Principal 
Lee,  who  knew  Scotland  well,  saying  with  em- 
phasis, that  our  country  owed  no  small  part  of 
the  practical  sagacity  for  which  it  is  so  famed, 
to  an  early  familiarity  with  this  body  of  prac- 
tical wisdom,  which,  in  old  times,  used  to  be 
printed  separately,  and  found  in  every  man's 
pocket.  For  seasons  of  devout  meditation,  of 
course,  the  Psalms  of  the  great  minstrel  monarch 
are  more  to  be  commended ;  and  among  them  I 
should  recommend  specially,  as  'calculated  to 
infuse  a  spirit  of  deep  and  catholic  piety  into 
the  souls  of  the  young, — Psalms  i.  viii.  xix. 
xxiv.  xxxii.  xxxvii.  xlix.  li.  liii.  Ixxiii.  xc.  ciii 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE:  81 

civ.  cvii.  cxxi.  cxxxi.  cxxxiii.  And  these  Psalms 
ought  not  only  to  be  frequently  read,  till  they 
make  rich  the  blood  of  the  soul  with  a  genial 
and  generous  piety,  but  they  ought  to  be  sung 
to  their  proper  music  till  they  create  round  us 
a  habitual  atmosphere  of  pure  and  elevated 
sentiment,  which  we  breathe  as  the  breath  of 
our  higher  life.  This  is  the  sort  of  emotional 
drill  which  that  grand  old  heathen  Plato  enjoins 
with  such  eloquence  in  some  of  the  wisest 
chapters  of  his  lofty-minded  polity,  but  a  drill 
which  we  British  Christians,  with  all  our  pre- 
tensions, in  these  latter  times  seem  somewhat 
backward  to  understand. 

XIV.  Perhaps  even  more  important  towards 
the  achievement  of  a  noble  life  than  a  memory 
well  stored  with  sacred  texts,  is  an  imagination 
well  decorated  with  heroic  pictures  ;  in  other 
words,  there  is  no  surer  method  of  becoming 
good,  and  it  may  be  great  also,  than  an  early 
familiarity  with  the  lives  of  great  and  good 
men.  So  far  as  my  experience  goes,  there  is  no 
kind  of  sermon  so  effective  as  the  example  of  a 
great  man.  Here  we  see  the  thing  done  before 
us, — actually  done, — a  thing  of  which  we  were 
not  even  dreaming  ;  and  the  voice  speaks  forth 
to  us  with  a  potency  like  the  voice  of  many 
waters,  "  Go  tlwu  and  do  likewise"  Why  not ! 
No  doubt,  not  every  man  is  a  hero  ;  and  heroic 
opportunities  are  not  given  every  day  ;  but  if 
you  cannot  do  the  same  thing,  you  may  do 
something  like  it ;  if  you  are  not  planted  on  as; 
high  or  as  large  a  stage,  you  can  show  as  much 

Cr 


82  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

manhood,  and  manifest  as  much  virtuous  per- 
sistency, on  a  small  scale.  Every  man  may 
profit  by  the  example  of  truly  great  men,  if  he 
is  bent  on  making  the  most  of  himself  and  his 
circumstances.  It  is  altogether  a  delusion  to 
measure  the  greatness  of  men  by  the  greatness 
of  the  stage  on  which  they  act,  or  the  volume 
of  the  sound  with  which  the  world  loves  to  re- 
verberate their  achievements.  A  Molcke  in 
council,  on  the  eve  of  a  great  battle  which  is  to 
shift  the  centre  of  gravity  of  our  western 
political  system,  is  only  acting  on  a  maxim  of 
practical  wisdom  that  requires  to  be  applied 
with  as  much  discrimination,  tact,  and  delicacy, 
by  the  provost  of  a  provincial  town  planning  a 
water-bill  or  a  tax  for  the  improvement  of  the 
city.  Nay,  that  moral  heroism  is  often  greatest 
of  which  the  world  says  least,  and  which  is 
exercised  in  the  humblest  spheres,  and  in  circles 
the  most  unnoticed.  Let  us  therefore  turn  our 
youthful  imaginations  into  great  picture-galleries 
and  Walhallas  of  the  heroic  souls  of  all  times 
and  all  places ;  and  we  shall  be  incited  to 
follow  after  good,  and  be  ashamed  to  commit 
any  sort  of  baseness  in  the  direct  view  of  such 
"  a  cloud  of  witnesses."  Would  you  know  what 
faith  means,  leave  Calvinists  and  Arminians  to 
split  straws  about  points  of  doctrine  ;  but  do  you 
read  and  digest  that  splendid  eleventh  chapter 
of  the  Hebrews,  and  you  will  escape  for  ever 
from  the  netted  snares  of  theological  logomachy. 
In  this  sublime  chapter  the  great  Apostle  is 
merely  giving  a  succinct  summation  of  the 
method  of  teaching  by  concrete  examples,  with 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  83 

which  the  Scriptures  are  so  richly  studded, 
and  of  which  our  modern  sermons  are  mostly  so 
destitute.  When  I  see  our  young  men  lolling 
on  sofas,  and  grinning  over  those  sorry  carica- 
tures of  humanity  with  which  the  pages  of 
Thackeray  and  other  popular  novelists  are 
filled,  I  often  wonder  what  sort  of  a  human  life 
can  be  expected  to  grow  up  from  that  early 
habit  of  learning  to  sneer,  or  at  best,  to  be 
amused,  at  an  age  when  seriousness  and  devout 
admiration  are  the  only  seeds  out  of  which  any 
future  nobleness  can  be  expected  to  grow.  For 
myself,  I  honestly  confess  that  I  never  could 
learn  anything  from  Thackeray;  there  is  a 
certain  feeble  amiability  even  about  his  best 
characters,  which,  if  it  is  free  from  the  depress- 
ing influence  of  his  bad  ones,  is  certainly  any- 
thing but  bracing.  One  of  the  best  of  Greek 
books,  once  in  everybody's  hands,  now,  I  fear, 
fallen  considerably  into  the  shade,  is  Plutarch.* 
Here  you  have,  whether  for  youth  or  manhood, 
in  the  shape  of  living  examples  of  the  most 
rich  and  various  type,  the  very  stuff  from 
which  human  efficiency  must  ever  be  made. 
Our  accurate  critical  historians  have  a  small 
educational  value  when  set  against  that  fine 
instinct  for  all  true  human  greatness,  and  that 
genial  sympathy  with  all  human  weakness, 
which  shine  out  so  conspicuously  in  the  classical 
picture-gallery  of  that  rare  old  Boeotian.  Let 
therefore  our  young  men  study  to  make  them- 
selves familiar,  not  with  the  fribbles,  oddities, 

*  "  I  read  with  great  delight  Langhorne's  translation 
of  Plutarch." — J.  S.  Mill,  Autobiography. 


84  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

and  monstrosities  of  humanity,  set  forth  in 
fictitious  narratives,  but  with  the  real  blood  and 
bone  of  human  heroism  which  the  select  pages 
of  biography  present.  An  Athenian  Pericles, 
with  noble  magnanimity,  telling  his  servant  to 
take  a  lamp  and  show  a  scurrilous  reviler 
politely  the  way  home  ;  a  German  Luther, 
having  his  feet  shod  with  the  gospel  of  peace, 
and  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  in  his  hands,  march- 
ing with  cheerful  confidence  against  an  em- 
battled array  of  kaisers  and  cardinals  ;  a  Pastor 
Oberlin  in  a  remote  mountain  parish  of  Alsace, 
flinging  behind  him  the  bland  allurements  of 
metropolitan  preferment,  and  turning  his  little 
rocky  diocese  into  a  moral  and  physical  para- 
dise,— these  are  great  stereotyped  FACTS,  which 
should  drive  themselves  like  goads  into  the 
hearts  of  the  young.  No  man  can  contradict  a 
fact ;  but  the  best  fictions,  without  a  deep  moral 
significance  beneath,  are  only  iridescent  froth, 
beautiful  now,  but  which  a  single  puff  of  air 
blows  into  nothingness. 

XY.  Better,  much  better,  than  even  the 
mirror  of  greatness  in  the  biographies  of  truly 
great  men,  is  the  living  influence  of  such  men 
when  you  have  the  happiness  of  coming  in  con- 
tact with  them.  The  best  books  are  only  a 
clever  machinery  for  stirring  the  nobler  nature, 
but  they  act  indirectly  and  feebly  \  they  may 
be  remote  also,  dry  and  dusty  upon  the  library 
shelves,  not  even  on  your  table,  and  very  far 
from  your  heart.  But  a  living  great  man, 
coming  across  your  path,  carries  with  him  an 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  85 

electric  influence  which  you  cannot  escape — 
that  is,  of  course  if  you  are  capable  of  being 
affected  in  a  noble  way,  for  the  blind  do  not 
see,  and  the  dead  do  not  feel ;  and  there  is  a 
class  of  people — very  reputable  people  perhaps 
in  their  way — in  whose  breasts  the  epiphany 
of  a  Christ  will  only  excite  the  remark,  "He 
hath  a  devil/'1  Supposing,  however,  that 
you  are  not  one  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees, 
but  a  young  man  starting  on  the  journey  of 
life  with  a  reverential  receptiveness  and  a 
delicate  sensibility,  such  as  belong  to  well- 
conditioned  youth,  in  this  case  the  greatest 
blessing  that  can  happen  to  you  is  to  come 
directly  into  contact  with  some  truly  great  man, 
and  the  closer  the  better  ;  for  it  is  only  the 
morally  noble,  and  not  the  intellectually  clever, 
in  whom  greater  intimacy  always  reveals  greater 
excellences.  To  have  felt  the  thrill  of  a  fervid 
humanity  shoot  through  your  veins  at  the  touch 
of  a  Chalmers,  a  Macleod,  or  a  Bunsen,  is  to  a 
young  man  of  a  fine  susceptibility  worth  more 
than  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Greeks,  all  the 
learning  of  the  Germans,  and  all  the  sagacity  of 
the  Scotch.  After  such  a  vivific  influence,  the 
light  witlings  may  sneer  as  they  please,  and 
the  grave  Gamaliels  may  frown ;  but  you  know 
in  whom  you  have  believed,  and  you  believe 
because  you  have  seen,  and  you  grow  with  a 
happy  growth,  and  your  veins  are  full  of  sap, 
because  you  have  been  engrafted  into  the  stem 
of  a  true  vine.  And  if  it  be  not  your  good 
fortune  to  come  under  the  direct  genial  expan- 
sive virtue  of  some  great  moral  sun,  you  are  not 


86  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

altogether  left  to  chance  in  the  moral  influences 
with  which  you  are  surrounded.  If  you  cannot 
always  avoid  the  contagion  of  low  company, 
you  may  at  all  events  ban  yourself  from  volun- 
tarily marching  into  it.  There  are  few  situa- 
tions in  life  where  you  may  not  have  some 
power  of  choosing  your  companions ;  and  remem- 
ber that  moral  contagion,  like  the  infectious 
power  of  physical  diseases,  borrows  half  its 
strength  from  the  weakness  of  the  subject  with 
which  it  comes  in  contact.  If  you  were  only 
half  as  pure  as  Christ,  you  might  go  about  with 
harlots  and  be  nothing  the  worse  for  it.  As  it 
is,  however,  and  considering  the  weakness  of 
the  flesh,  and  the  peculiar  temptations  of 
puberty,  the  best  thing  you  can  do  is  to  make 
a  sacred  vow,  on  no  occasion  and  on  no  account 
to  keep  company  with  persons  who  will  lead 
you  into  haunts  of  dissipation  and  debauchery. 
No  amount  of  hilarious  excitement  or  moment- 
ary sensuous  lustihood  can  compensate  for  the 
degradation  which  your  moral  nature  must 
suffer  by  associating,  on  familiar  and  tolerant 
terms  with  the  most  degraded  and  abandoned 
of  the  human  species.  There  can  be  no  tolera- 
tion for  vice.  We  may,  yea  and  we  ought,  to 
weep  for  the  sinner,  but  we  must  not  sport  with 
the  sin.  Remember  in  this  regard  what  hap- 
pened to  Robert  Burns.  He  knew  very  well 
how  to  preach,  but  his  practice  was  a  most 
miserable  performance,  reminding  us  at  every 
step  of  the  terrible  sarcastic  sentence  of  Pliny, 
"  There  is  nothing  more  proud  or  more  paltry  than 
MAN."  Have  you  care  that  you  do  not  follow 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  87 

the  example  of  that  mischanceful  bard,  without 
having  his  hot  blood  and  high-pressure  vitality 
to  excuse  or  to  palliate  your  follies.  Let  your 
company  be  always,  where  possible,  better  than 
yourself;  and  when  you  have  the  misfortune 
to  move  amongst  your  inferiors,  bear  in  mind 
this  seriously,  that  if  you  do  not  seize  the  apt 
occasion  to  draw  them  up  to  your  level — which 
requires  wisdom  as  well  as  love — they  will 
certainly  not  be  slow  to  drag  you  down  to  theirs. 

XVI.  "  Men  may  try  many  things,"  said  the 
wise  old  bard  of  Weimar  ;  "  only  not  live  at 
random ;  "  and  if  you  would  not  live  at  random, 
it  will  be  necessary  for  you  to  fix  set  times  for 
calling  yourself  to  account.  In  commercial 
transactions  it  is  found  a  great  safeguard  against 
debt,  to  pay  for  everything,  as  much  as  possible, 
in  cash,  and,  where  that  is  not  possible,  not  to 
run  long  accounts,  but  to  strike  clear  balances 
at  certain  set  seasons.  Exactly  so  in  our  ac- 
counts with  God  and  with  our  souls.  The  best 
charts  and  the  most  accurate  compasses  will  bring 
no  profit  to  the  man  who  does  not  get  into  the 
habit  of  regularly  using  them.  In  this  view 
the  illustrious  practice  of  the  old  Pythagoreans 
(who  were  a  church  as  much  as  a  school)  pre- 
sents a  good  model  for  us. 

"  Let  not  soft  sleep  usurp  oblivious  sway 
Till  thrice  you've  told  the  deeds  that  mark'd  the  day  : 
'Whither  thy  steps  ?  what  thing  for  thee  most  fitted 
"Was  aptly  done  ?  and  what  good  deed  omitted  ? 
And  when  you've  summed  the  tale,  wipe  out  the  had 
With  gracious  grief,  and  in  the  good  be  glad  !  " 


88  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

No  man,  in  my  opinion,  will  ever  attain  to  high 
excellence  in  what  an  excellent  old  divine  calls 
"  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man,"  without 
cultivating  stated  periods  of  solitude,  and  using 
that  solitude  for  the  important  purpose  of  self- 
knowledge  and  self-amelioration.  "  Commune 
with  your  own  heart  on  your  bed,  and  be  still," 
said  the  Psalmist. 

"  "Who  never  ate  Avith  tears  his  bread, 

And  through  the  long-drawn  midnight  hours 
Sat  weeping  on  his  lonely  bed, 

He  knows  you  not,  ye  heavenly  Powers  !" 

are  the  well-known  words  of  a  poet  who  cer- 
tainly cannot  be  accused  of  being  either  Metho- 
distical  in  his  habits  or  mawkish  in  his  tone. 
"  Let  not  the  sun  go  down  upon  your  wrath," 
said  St.  Paul; — all  which  utterances  plainly 
imply  the  utility  of  such  stated  seasons  of  moral 
review  as  the  Pythagorean  verses  prescribe,  and 
as  we  see  now  in  most  European  countries  in  the 
institution  of  the  Christian  Sabbath  waiting 
to  be  utilised.  No  doubt  the  Jewish  Sabbath 
was  originally  instituted  simply  for  the  rest  of 
the  body  ;  and  it  was  most  wise  and  politic  that 
this  Christian's  "  Lord's-day,"  set  apart  for  a 
purely  religious  purpose,  should  have  adopted 
this  hygienic  element  also  into  its  composition ; 
but  with  such  a  fair  arena  of  enlargement 
opened  periodically,  bringing  perfect  freedom 
from  the  trammels  of  engrossing  professions,  he 
is  not  a  wise  man  who  does  not  devote  at  least 
one  part  of  the  Christian  Sabbath  to  the  serious 
work  of  moral  self-review.  Not  a  few  severe 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  89 

criticisms  have  been  made  by  foreigners  on 
what  has  been  called  the  "  bitter  observance  "  of 
the  Sunday  by  the  Scotch;  but  these  hasty 
critics  ought  to  have  reflected  how  much  of  the 
solidity,  sobriety,  and  general  reliability  of  the 
Scottish  character  is  owing  to  their  serious  and 
thoughtful  observance  of  these  recurrent  periods 
of  sacred  rest.  The  eternal  whirl  and  fiddle  of 
life,  so  characteristic  of  our  gay  Celtic  neigh- 
bours across  the  Channel,  is  apt  to  beget  an 
excitability  and  a  frivolity  in  the  conduct  of 
even  the  most  serious  affairs,  which  is  incom- 
patible with  true  moral  greatness.  If  we  Scotch 
impart  somewhat  of  an  awful  character  to  our 
piety  by  not  singing  on  Sunday,  the  French 
certainly  would  march  much  more  steadily,  and 
more  creditably,  on  the  second  day  of  the  week, 
if  they  cultivated  a  more  sober  tone  on  the 
first. 

XVII.  In  connection  with  the  delicate  func- 
tion of  moral  self-review,  it  occurs  naturally  to 
mention  PRAYER.  In  this  scientific  age,  when 
everything  is  analysed,  and  anatomised,  and 
tabulated,  there  is  a  tendency  to  talk  of  know- 
ledge as  a  power  to  which  all  things  are  subject. 
But  the  maxim  that  knowledge  is  power  is  true 
only  where  knowledge  is  the  main  thing  wanted. 
There  are  higher  things  than  knowledge  in  the 
world ;  there  are  living  energies ;  and  in  the 
moral  world,  certainly,  it  is  not  knowledge  but 
aspiration  that  is  the  moving  power,  and  the 
wing  of  aspiration  is  prayer.  Where  aspiration 
is  wanting,  the  soul  creeps ;  it  cannot  fly ;  it 

H 


90  ON  MORAL  CULTURE. 

is  at  best  a  caged  bird,  curiously  busy  in  count- 
ing and  classifying  the  bars  of  its  own  confine- 
ment. Of  course,  we  do  not  mean  that  any  per- 
son should  be  so  full  of  his  own  little  self,  and  so 
ignorant  of  the  grandeur  of  the  universe,  as  to 
besiege  the  ear  of  Heaven  with  petitions  that 
the  laws  of  the  universe  shall  be  changed  any 
moment  that  may  suit  his  convenience.  We  do 
not  pray  that  we  may  alter  the  Divine  decrees, 
but  that  our  human  will  may  learn  to  move  in 
harmony  with  the  Divine  will.  How  far  with 
regard  to  any  special  matter,  not  irrevocably  fixed 
in  the  Divine  concatenation  of  possibilities,  our 
petition  may  prevail,  we  never  can  tell ;  but  this 
we  do  know,  that  the  most  natural  and  the  most 
effectual  means  of  keeping  our  own  noblest  nature 
in  harmony  with  the  source  of  all  vital  noble- 
ness, is  to  hold  high  emotional  communion  with 
that  source,  and  to  plant  ourselves  humbly  in 
that  attitude  of  devout  receptiveness  which  is 
the  one  becoming  attitude  in  the  created  towards 
the  Creator.  Practically,  there  is  no  surer  test 
of  a  man's  moral  diathesis  than  the  capacity  of 
prayer.  He,  at  least  in  a  Christian  country, 
must  be  an  extremely  ignorant  man,  who  could 
invoke  the  Divine  blessing  day  after  day  on  acts 
of  manifest  turpitude,  falsehood,  or  folly.  In 
the  old  heathen  times,  a  man  in  certain  circum- 
stances might  perhaps,  with  a  clear  conscience, 
have  prayed  to  a  Dionysus  or  an  Aphrodite  to 
consecrate  his  acts  of  drunkenness  or  de- 
bauchery ;  but,  thanks  to  the  preaching  of  the 
Galilean  fishermen,  we  have  got  beyond  that 
now ;  and  universal  experience  declares  the  fact 


ON  MORAL  CULTURE.  91 

that  genuine  private  prayer  (for  I  do  not  speak 
of  course  of  repeating  routine  formularies),  which 
is  the  vital  element  of  a  noble  moral  nature,  is  to 
the  coarse,  sensual,  and  selfish  man,  an  atmo- 
sphere which  he  cannot  breathe.  Take,  there- 
fore, young  man,  the  apostolic  maxim  with  you 
— PRAY  WITHOUT  CEASING.  Keep  yourself 
always  in  an  attitude  of  reverential  dependence 
on  the  Supreme  Source  of  all  good.  It  is  the 
most  natural  and  speediest  and  surest  antidote 
against  that  spirit  of  shallow  self-confidence  and 
brisk  impertinence  so  apt  to  spring  up  with  the 
knowledge  without  charity  which  pufFeth  up 
and  edifieth  not.  What  a  pious  tradition  has 
taught  us  to  do  daily  before  our  principal  meal, 
as  a  comely  ceremony,  let  us  learn  to  do  before 
every  serious  act  of  our  life,  not  as  a  cold  form, 
but  as  a  fervid  reality.  Go  forth  to  battle,  brave 
young  man,  like  David,  with  your  stone  ready, 
and  your  sling  well  poised ;  but  be  sure  that 
you  are  fighting  the  battle  of  the  God  of  Israel, 
not  of  the  devil.  Whether  you  have  a  sword 
or  a  pen  in  your  hand,  wield  neither  the  one 
nor  the  other  in  a  spirit  of  insolent  self-reliance 
or  of  vain  self-exhibition ;  and,  not  less  in  the 
hour  of  exuberant  enjoyment  than  in  the  day  of 
dark  despondency  and  despair,  be  always  ready 
to  say,  — "  BLESS  ME,  EVEN  ME  ALSO,  0  MY 
FATHER ! " 


THE    END. 


PEINCES  STREET, 

Edinburgh,  January  1875. 


EDMONSTON    &    DOUGLAS' 

LIST    OF    WORKS. 


The  Culture  and  Discipline  of  the  Mind,  and  other  Essays. 

By  JOHN  ABERCROMBIE,  M.D.    New  Edition.     Fcap.  Svo,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 

Wanderings  of  a  Naturalist  in  India, 

The  Western  Himalayas,  and  Cashmere.  By  DR.  A.  L.  ADAMS  of  the  22d  Regi- 
ment. Svo,  with  Illustrations,  price  10s.  6d, 

"  The  author  need  be  under  no  apprehension  of  wearying  his  readers.  .  . 
He  prominently  combines  the  sportsman  with  the  naturalist.  "—Sporting  Review. 

Wotes  of  a  Naturalist  in  the  Wile  Valley  and  Malta. 

By  ANDREW  LEITH  ADAMS.  Author  of  c  Wanderings  of  a  Naturalist  in  India.' 
Crown  Svo,  with  Illustrations,  price  15s. 

"  Most  attractively  instructive  to  the  general  reader." — Bell's  Messenger. 

The  Orkneyinga  Saga. 

Edited,  with  Notes  and  Introduction,  by  JOSEPH  ANDERSON,  Keeper  of  the 
National  Museum  of  the  Antiquaries  of  Scotland.  1  vol.  demy  Svo.  Price  10s.  6d. 

"Will  supply  a  desideratum  in  our  early  historical  literature  that  has  long 
been  felt." 

"  No  labour  seems  to  have  been  spared  that  was  required  to  make  the  Saga 
interesting  and  intelligible  to  the  ordinary  student  of  history. " — Scotsman. 

Alexandra  Feodorowna,  late  Empress  of  Russia. 

By  A.  TH.  VON  GRIMM,  translated  by  LADY  WALLACE.  2  vols.  Svo,  with 
Portraits,  price  21s. 

"  Contains  an  amount  of  information  concerning  Russian  affairs  and  Russian 
society." — Morning  Post. 

Always  in  the  Way. 

By  the  author  of  '  The  Tommiebeg  Shootings.'    12mo,  price  Is.  6d. 

The  Malformations,  Diseases,  and  Injuries  of  the  Fingers 

and  Toes,  and  their  Surgical  Treatment.  By  THOMAS  ANNANDALE,  F.R.C.S. 
Svo,  with  Illustrations,  price  10s.  6d. ; 

The  Patronage  Act  of  1874  all  that  was  asked  in  1843. 

Being  a  Reply  to  Mr.  TAYLOR   INNES.     By  the  DUKE  OF  ARGYLL.      Third 

Edition,  Svo.  sewed,  price  Is. 


EDMONSTON  AND   DOUGLAS, 


Odal  Rights  and  Feudal  Wrongs. 

A  Memorial  for  Orkney.     By  DAVID  BALFOUR  of  Balfour  and  Trenaby.     8vo, 
price  6s. 

Sermons  by  the  late  James  Bannerman,  D.D.,  Professor  of 

Apologetics  and  Pastoral  Theology,  New  College,  Edinburgh.      In  1  vol.,  extra 
fcap.  8vo,  price  5s. 

The    Life,    Character,    and    "Writings    of    Benjamin    Bell, 

F.R.C.S.E.,  F.R.S.E.,  author  of  a  'System  of  Surgery,'  and  other  Works.  By 
his  Grandson,  BENJAMIN  BELL,  F.R.C.S.E.  Fcap.  8vo,  price  3s.  6d. 

On  the  Action  of  Mercury. 

By  Professor  J.  H.  BENNETT.    Second  Edition.    Svo,  cloth,  price  4s. 

The  Holy  Grail.  An  Inquiry  into  the  Origin  and  Signifi- 
cation of  the  Romances  of  the  San  Greal.  By  Dr.  F.  G.  BERGMANN.  Fcap. 
Svo,  price  Is.  6d. 

"  Contains,  in  a  short  space,  a  carefully-expressed  account  of  the  romances  of 
chivalry,  which  compose  what  has  been  called  the  Epic  cycle  of  the  San  Greal." — 
Athenceum. 

Homer  and  the  Iliad. 

In  Three  Parts.  By  JOHN  STUART  BLACKIE,  Professor  of  Greek  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Edinburgh.  4  vols.  demy  Svo,  price  42s. 

By  the  same  Author. 

On  Self-Culture:  Intellectual,  Physical,  and  Moral. 

A  Vade-Mecum  for  Young  Men  and  Students.  Sixth  edition.  Fcap.  Svo,  price 
2s.  6d. 

"  Every  parent  should  put  it  into  the  hands  of  his  son." — Scotsman. 

"  Students  in  all  countries  would  do  well  to  take  as  their  vade-mecum  a  little 
book  on  self-culture  by  the  eminent  Professor  of  Greek  in  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh."— Medical  Press  and  Circular. 

"  An  invaluable  manual  to  be  put  into  the  hands  of  students  and  young  men." 
—Era. 

"  Written  in  that  lucid  and  nervous  prose  of  which  he  is  a  master. — Spectator. 

Four   Phases  of  Morals :    Socrates,  Aristotle,  Christianity, 

and  Utilitarianism.  Lectures  delivered  before  the  Royal  Institution,  London. 
Fcap.  Svo,  second  edition,  price  5s. 

Musa  Burschicosa. 

A  Book  of  Songs  for  Students  and  University  Men.     Fcap.  Svo,  price  2s.  6d. 

War  Songs  of  the  Germans. 

Fcap.  Svo,  price  2s.  6d.  cloth ;  2s.  paper. 

Political  Tracts. 

No.  1.  GOVERNMENT.    No.  2.  EDUCATION.    Price  Is.  each. 

On  Greek  Pronunciation. 

Demy  Svo,  3s.  6d. 


88  PRINCES   STREET,  EDINBURGH. 


On  Beauty.  Lyrical  Poems. 

Crown  Svo,  cloth,  8s.  6d.  Crown  8vo,  cloth,  7s.  6d. 


The  New  Picture  Book.         Recreative  Instruction. 

Pictorial  Lessons  on  Form,  Comparison,  and  Number,  for  Children  under  Seven 
Tears  of  Age.  With  Explanations  by  NICHOLAS  BOHNY.  Fifth  Edition. 
36  oblong  folio  coloured  Illustrations.  Price  7s.  6d. 

Daily  Meditations  by  Rev.  G.  Bowen  of  Bombay. 

With  introductory  notice  by  Kev.  W.  HANNA,  D.D.,  author  of  'The  Last  Day  of 
our  Lord's  Passion.'  Second  Edition,  small  4to,  cloth,  price  5s.  ;  or  French 
morocco,  red  edges,  price  7s.  6d. 

"Among  such  books  we  shall  scarcely  find  another  which  exhibits  the  same 
freshness  and  vividness  of  idea,  the  same  fervour  of  faith,  the  same  intensity  of 
devotion.  ...  I  count  it  a  privilege  to  introduce  in  this  country  a  book  so 
fitted  to  attract  and  to  benefit. " — Extract  from  Preface. 

"  These  meditations  are  the  production  of  a  missionary  whose  mental  history 
is  very  remarkable.  .  .  .  His  conversion  to  a  religious  life  is  undoubtedly  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  on  record.  They  are  all  distinguished  by  a  tone  of  true 
piety,  and  are  wholly  free  from  a  sectarian  or  controversial  bias." — Morning  Post. 

The  Home  Life  of  Sir  David  Brewster. 

By  his  daughter,  Mrs.  GORDON.    2d  Edition.     Crown  Svo,  price  6s. 

"With  his  own  countrymen  it  is  sure  of  a  welcome,  and  to  the  savants  of 
Europe,  and  of  the  New  World,  it  will  have  a  real  and  special  interest  of  its  own." 
— Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

France  under  Richelieu  and  Colbert. 

By  J.  H.  BRIDGES,  M.B.     Small  Svo,  price  Ss.  6d. 

Works  by  John  Brown,  M.D.,  F.R.S.E. 

JOHN  LEECH,  and  other  papers.     Crown  Svo.    In  the  press. 

LOCKE  AND  SYDENHAM.     Extra  fcap.  Svo,  price  7s.  6d. 

HOR.E  SUBSECIV^E.     Eighth  Edition.     Extra  fcap.  Svo,  price  7s.  6d. 

LETTER  TO  THE  REV.  JOHN  CAIRNS,  D.D.     Second  Edition,  crown  Svo,  sewed,  2s. 

ARTHUR  H.  HALLAM  ;  Extracted  from  '  Horae  Subsecivse.'  Fcap.  sewed,  2s.  ;  cloth, 
2s.  6d. 

RAB  AND  HIS  FRIENDS;  Extracted  from  'Hone  Subsecivse.'  Forty-ninth  thou- 
sand. Fcap.  sewed,  6d. 

RAB  AND  HIS  FRIENDS.  Cheap  Illustrated  Edition.  Square  ISmo  ;  ornamental 
wrapper,  Is. 

RAB  AND  HIS  FRIENDS.  With  Illustrations  by  Sir  George  Harvey,  R.  S.  A. ,  Sir  J. 
Noel  Paton,  R.S.A.,  and  J.  B.  New  Edition,  demy  quarto,  cloth,  price  6s. 

MARJORIE  FLEMING  :  A  Sketch.     Fifteenth  thousand.     Fcap.  sewed,  6d. 

OUR  DOGS;  Extracted  from  'Horse  Subsecivse.'  Nineteenth  thousand.  Fcap. 
sewed,  6d. 

"  WITH  BRAINS,  SIR  ;"  Extracted  from  'Horse  Subsecivse.'    Fcap.  sewed,  6d. 

MINCHMOOR.    Fcap.  sewed,  6d. 

JEEMS  THE  DOORKEEPER  :  A  Lay  Sermon.     Price  fid. 

THE  ENTERKIN.     Price  6d. 

Memoirs  of  John  Brown,  D.D. 

By  the  REV.  J.  CAIRNS,  D.D.,  Berwick,  with  Supplementary  Chapter  by  his  Son, 
JOHN  BROWN,  M.D.  Fcap.  Svo,  cloth,  9s.  6d. 


EDMONSTON  AND   DOUGLAS, 


Select  Hymns  for  Church  and  Home. 

By  R.  BROWN-BORTHWICK.     ISino,  price  2s.  6d. 

The  Life  of  Gideon. 

By  REV.  JOHN  BRUCE,  D.D.,  Free  St.  Andrew's  Church,  Edinburgh.  1  vol.  fcap. 
Svo,  price  5s. 

"  We  commend  this  able  and  admirable  volume  to  the  cordial  acceptance  of  our 
readers." — Daily  Review. 

Business. 

By  a  Merchant.     1  vol.  fcap.  Svo,  price  7s.  6d. 

"  A  masterpiece  of  gorgeous  writing,  and  altogether  he  deserves  the  name  of  the 
'  Poet-Laureate  of  Trade.' " — Dundee  Advertiser. 

"  This  little  book,  if  it  is  not  unfair  to  suggest  such  a  comparison,  belongs  to 
the  same  class  as  'Burton's  Anatomy  of  Melancholy.'" — Saturday  Review. 

On  Teaching,  its  Ends  and  Means. 

By  HENRY    CALDERWOOD,   LL.D.,   Professor   of   Moral    Philosophy  in  the 
University  of  Edinburgh.     Second  Edition,  fcap.  Svo,  price  2s.  6d. 

"  A  reliable  guide  for  teachers." — Courant. 

"Eminently  sensible  and  suggestive." — Scotsman. 

By  the  Loch  and  River  Side. 

Forty  Graphic  Illustrations  by  a  New  Hand.     Oblong  folio,  handsomely  bound,  21s. 

The  De  Oratore  of  Cicero. 

Translated  by  F.  B.  CALVERT,  M.A.     Crown  Svo,  price  7s.  6d. 

My  Indian  Journal, 

Containing  descriptions  of  the  principal  Field  Sports  of  India,  with  Notes  on  the 
Natural  History  and  Habits  of  the  Wild  Animals  of  the  Country.  By  COLONEL 
WALTER  CAMPBELL,  author  of  'The  Old  Forest  Ranger.'  Svo,  with  Illustra- 
tions, price  16s. 

Popular  Tales  of  the  West  Highlands, 

Orally  Collected,  with  a  translation  by  J.  F.  CAMPBELL.  4  vols.  extra  fcap. 
cloth,  32s. 

Inaugural  Address  at  Edinburgh, 

April  2,  1S66,  by  THOMAS  CARLYLE,  on  being  Installed  as  Rector  of  the 
University  there.  Price  Is. 

Carswell's  Gaelic  Prayer  Book. 

The  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  commonly  called  John  Knox's  Liturgy.  Translated 
into  Gaelic,  A.B.  1567,  by  Mr.  JOHN  CARSWELL,  Bishop  of  the  Isles.  Edited, 
with  an  English  Translation,  by  THOMAS  M'LAUCHLAN,  LL.D.,  Translator  of 
the  Book  of  the  Dean  of  Lismore.  4to,  half  Roxburghe.  Price  30s. 

On  the  Constitution  of  Papal  Conclaves. 

By  W.  C.  CARTWRIGHT,  M.P.     Fcap.  Svo,  price  6s.  6d. 

"  A  book  which  will,  we  believe,  charm  careful  students  of  history,  while  it 
will  dissipate  much  of  the  ignorance  which  in  this  country  surrounds  the  subject." 
— Spectator. 

Gustave  Bergenroth.    A  Memorial  Sketch. 

By  W.  C.  CARTWRIGHT,  M.P.  Author  of  '  The  Constitution  of  Papal  Con- 
claves.' Crown  Svo,  price  7s.  6d. 

"  To  those  who  knew  this  accomplished  student,  Mr.  Cartwright's  enthusiastic- 
memoir  will  be  very  welcome." — Standard. 


88  PRINCES   STREET,  EDINBURGH. 


Life  and  "Works  of  Rev.  Thomas  Chalmers,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

MEMOIRS  OF  THE  REV.  THOMAS  CHALMERS.     By  REV.  W.  HANNA,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
Cheap  Edition,  2  vols.,  crown  Svo,  cloth,  12s. 

Daily  Scripture  Readings.     Cheap  Edition,  2  vols.,  crown  Svo,  10s. 
ASTRONOMICAL  DISCOURSES,  Is.     COMMERCIAL  DISCOURSES,  Is. 
SELECT  WORKS,  in  12  vols.,  crown  Svo,  cloth,  per  vol.,  6s. 

Lectures  on  the  Romans,  2  vols.  Sermons,  2  vols.  Natural  Theology,  Lectures 
on  Butler's  Analogy,  etc. ,  1  vol.  Christian  Evidences,  Lectures  on  Paley's 
Evidences,  etc.,  1  vol.  Institutes  of  Theology,  2  vols.  Political  Economy ; 
with  Cognate  Essays,  1  vol.  Polity  of  a  Nation,  1  vol.  Church  and  College 
Establishments,  1  voL  Moral  Philosophy,  Introductory  Essays,  Index,  etc., 
1  vol. 

Characteristics  of  Old  Church  Architecture,  etc., 

In  the  Mainland  and  Western  Islands  of  Scotland.   4to,  with  Illustrations,  price  25s. 

Dainty  Dishes. 

Receipts  collected  by  LADY  HARRIETT  ST.  CLAIR.     New  Edition,  with  many 
new  Receipts.     Crown  Svo.     Price  5s. 

"  Well  worth  buying,  especially  by  that  class  of  persons  who,  though  their 
incomes  are  small,  enjoy  out-of-the-way  and  recherche  delicacies. "—Times. 

Journal  of  Henry  Cockburn,  being  a  Continuation  of  the 

"Memorials  of  his  Time,"   1831-1854,    By  HENRY  COCKBURN,   one  of   the 
Judges  of  the  Court  of  Session  in  Scotland.     2  vols.  Svo,  price  21s. 

"  It  would  be  impossible  to  get  too  much  of  Henry  Cockburn.  .  .  .  It  is  to  be 
dreaded  we  have  now  got  all  that  he  has  left  us.  .  .  .  The  result  is  a  work  which, 
if  specially  delightful  and  valuable  as  a  contribution  to  Scotch  history,  is  also  an 
important,  though  in  some  respects  special  or  detached,  addition  to  English  litera- 
ture. " — Scotsman. 

Archibald   Constable  and  his  Literary  Correspondents:   a 

Memorial.    By  his  Son,  THOMAS  CONSTABLE.    3  vols.  Svo,  price  36s.,  with 
Portrait. 

CONTENTS— 

Vol.  I.  The  Projectors  of  the  Edinburgh  Review — Forfarshire  Lairds — Thomas 
Campbell — John  Leyden — Alexander  Murray,  Orientalist—  John  Murray,  Albemarle 
Street — George  Chalmers— Ritson — Pinkerton,  &c. 

Vol.  II.  The  Encydopcedia  Britannica—  Anna  Seward  and  Lydia  White  -  Dugald 
Stewart  —  Godwin  —  Niebuhr  —  Lords  Jeffrey,  Brougham,  and  Murray  —  Francis 
Homer— The  Ettrick  Shepherd— Maria  Edgeworth,  &c. 

Vol.  III.  Sir  Walter  Scott. 

"The  cream  of  a  generation  of  interesting  men  and  women  now  gone  from 
among  us — these  are  the  subjects  of  this  important  memoir. "-Saturday  Review. 

"These  three  volumes  are  decidedly  additions  to  our  knowledge  of  that  great 
and  brilliant  epoch  in  the  history  of  letters  to  which  they  refer."— Standard, 

"He  (Mr.  Constable)  was  a  genius  in  the  publishing  world The  creator 

of  the  Scottish  publishing  trade." — Times. 

"  These  three  volumes  are  of  a  singular  and  lasting  interest." — Nonconformist. 

"  The  third  volume  (Sir  Walter  Scott)  of  this  elaborate  and  interesting  history 
is  almost  an  independent  work." — Athencer.m. 

"  We  heartily  commend  this  book  to  the  notice  of  all  readers." — Guardian. 


EDMONSTON   AND   DOUGLAS, 


Wild   Men   and  Wild   Beasts  -  Adventures   in   Camp    and 

Jungle.  By  LIETTT. -COLONEL  GORDON  GUMMING.  With  Illustrations  by  Lieut- 
Col.  BAIGBIE  and  others.  Second  edition.  Demy  4to,  price  24s. 

Also,  a  Cheaper  Edition,  with  Lithographic  Illustrations.     8vo,  price  12s. 

The  Church  of  Scotland :  her  Position  and  Prospects. 

By  REV.  J.  E.  GUMMING,  D.D.     Crown  Svo,  price  3s. 

Notes   on  the  Natural  History  of  the   Strait   of  Magellan 

and  West  Coast  of  Patagonia,  made  during  the  voyage  of  H.M.S.  '  Nassau'  in  the 
years  186(5,  1867,  1S68,  and  1869.  By  ROBERT  O.  CUNNINGHAM,  M.D.,  F.R.S., 
Naturalist  to  the  Expedition.  With  Maps  and  numerous  Illustrations.  Svo,  price  15s. 
"  There  is  a  good  deal  of  interesting  and  novel  information  in  the  present 
volume,  and  we  can  recommend  it  especially  to  those  whose  tastes  lie  in  that 
direction.  "—Standard. 

The  Annals  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 

By  ANDREW  DALZEL,  formerly  Professor  of  Greek  in  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh ;  with  a  Memoir  of  the  Compiler,  and  Portrait  after  Raeburn.  2  vols.  demy 
Svo,  price  21s. 

Gisli  the  Outlaw. 

From  the  Icelandic.  By  G.  W.  DASENT,  D.C.L.  Small  4to,  with  Illustrations, 
price  7s.  6d. 

The  Story  of  Burnt  ETjal ; 

Or,  Life  in  Iceland  at  the  end  of  the  Tenth  Century.  From  the  Icelandic  of  the 
Njals  Saga.  By  GEORGE  WEBBE  DASENT,  D.C.L.  2  vols.  Svo,  with  Map  and 
Plans,  price  2Ss. 

Plates  and  Notes  relating  to  some  Special  Features  in  Struc- 
tures called  Pyramids.  By  ST.  JOHN  VINCENT  DAY,  C.E.,  F.R.SS.A.  Royal 
folio,  price  2Ss. 

By  the  same  Author. 

Papers  on  the  Great  Pyramid.    Svo,  price  4s. 

Some  Evidence  as  to  the  very  early  Use  of  Iron.    Svo,  sewed, 

price  2s.  6d. 

On  a  Remarkable  Stone  in  the  Great  Pyramid.    Price  3s. 
The    Law   of   Railways    applicable    to    Scotland,   with   an 

Appendix  of  Statutes  and  Forms.  By  FRANCIS  DEAS,  M.A.,  LL.B.,  Advocate. 
1  A'ol.  Royal  Svo,  price  3Ss. 

"  Probably  the  best  book  on  Railway  Law  to  be  found  at  this  moment  within 
the  three  kingdoms. " — Courant. 

"  Indeed,  for  fulness,  clearness,  and  explicitness  of  information,  we  could  not 
name  a  better  ;  and  for  accuracy  of  thinking,  for  exhaustive  treatment,  and  articu- 
late arrangement  of  all  materials  appropriate  to  its  subject,  and  for  precision,  ele- 
gance, and  flexibility  of  literary  style,  we  doubt  if  it  has  many  equals."—  Scotsman. 


88  PRINCES   STREET,   EDINBURGH. 


The  Amazon. 

An  Art  Novel.    By  FRANZ  DINGELSTEDT.     Fcap.  8vo,  price  2s. 

"  It  belongs  to  a  class  of  novels  of  which  Wilhelm  Meister  is  chief — the  art  novel." 
—North  British  Review. 

Manual  of  Chemical  Analysis. 

By  W.  DITTMAR,  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  Andersonian  University,  Glasgow. 
1  vol.  fcap.  8vo.  [In  tJie  Press. 

Rough  Notes  on  Big  Game  Shooting  and  Natural  History 

in  South  and  South-Eastern  Africa.  From  the*  Journals  of  The  Hon.  WILLIAM 
HENRY  DRUMMOND.  Svo,  Illustrated.  [In  preparation. 

Memoir  of  Thomas  Drummond,  R.E.,  F.R.A.S.,  Under-Secre- 

tary  to  the  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  1835  to  1840.  By  JOHN  F.  M'LENNAN, 
Advocate.  Svo,  price  15s. 

"A  clear,  compact,  and  well-written  memoir  of  the  best  friend  England  ever 
gave  to  Ireland." — Examiner. 

Political  Survey. 

By  MOUNTSTUART  E.  GRANT  DUFF,  Member  for  the  Elgin  District  of  Burghs  ; 
Author  of  '  Studies  in  European  Politics,'  '  A  Glance  over  Europe,'  <fcc.  &c.  8vo, 
price  7s.  6d. 

By  the  same  Author. 
Elgin  Speeches.      8vo,  cloth,  price  8s.  6d. 

A  Glance  over  Europe.  Price  is. 

Address  as  Rector  at  the  University  of  Aberdeen.    Price  is. 

East  India  Financial  Statement,  1869.    Price  is. 

Remarks  on  the  Present  Political  Situation.     Price  is. 

Expedit— Laboremus.    Price  is. 


Veterinary  Medicines ;   their  Actions  and  Uses. 

By  FINLAY  DUN.     Fourth  Edition,  revised  and  enlarged.    Svo,  price  12s. 

Social  Life  in  Former  Days ; 

Chiefly  in  the  Province  of  Moray.  Illustrated  by  letters  and  family  papers.  By 
E.  DUNBAR  DUNBAR,  late  Captain  21st  Fusiliers.  2  vols.  demy  Svo,  price 
19s.  6d. 

The  late  Rev.  John  Duncan,  LL.D.,  in  the  Pulpit  and  at  the 

Communion  Table.  With  a  Biographical  Supplement.  Edited  by  DAVID  BROWN, 
D.D.,  author  of  "  The  Life  of  John  Duncan,  D.D."  Crown  Svo,  price  7s.  6d. 

Deep-Sea  Soundings.    Colloquia  Peripatetica. 

By  the  late  JOHN  DUNCAN,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Hebrew  in  the  New  College, 
Edinburgh  ;  being  Conversations  in  Philosophy,  Theology,  and  Religion.  Edited 
by  REV.  W.  KNIGHT,  Dundee.  Fourth  Edition.  1  vol.  fcap.  Svo.  Price  3s.  6d. 


EDMONSTON  AND   DOUGLAS, 


"  Since  these  lectures  were  published  there  has  appeared  an  exceedingly 
interesting  volume,  entitled  'Colloquia  Peripatetica,'  by  the  late  John  Duncan, 
LL.D.,  Professor  of  Hebrew  in  the  New  College,  Edinburgh.  These  Colloquies  are 
reported  by  the  Rev.  William  Knight,  who  seems  to  be  admirably  adapted  for  the 
task  he  has  undertaken.  His  friend  must  have  been  a  man  of  rare  originality, 
varied  culture,  great  vigour  in  expressing  thoughts,  which  were  worthy  to  be  ex- 
pressed and  remembered The  reader  who  shall  give  himself  the 

benefit  and  gratification  of  studying  this  short  volume  (it  will  suggest  more  to  him 
than  many  of  ten  times  its  size)  will  find  that  I  have  not  been  bribed  to  speak  well 
of  it  by  any  praise  which  Dr.  Duncan  has  bestowed  on  me.  The  only  excuse  for 
alluding  to  it  is,  that  it  contains  the  severest  censure  on  my  writings  which  they 
have  ever  incurred,  though  they  have  not  been  so  unfortunate  as  to  escape  censure. 
.  .  .  .  % .  .  .  Against  anf  ordinary  criticism,  even  a  writer  who  is  naturally 
thin-skinned  becomes  by  degrees  tolerably  hardened.  One  proceeding  from  a  man 
of  such  learning  and  worth  as  Dr.  Duncan  I  have  thought  it  a  duty  to  notice."  - 
Extract  from  Preface  to  'The  Conscience.'  By  (he  late  Professor  F.  D.  Maurice. 
Second  Edition,  1872. 

Recollections  of  the  late  John  Duncan,  LL.D.,  Professor  of 

Hebrew  and  Oriental  Languages,  New  College,  Edinburgh.  By  the  REV.  A. 
MOODY  STUART.  Extra  fcap.  Svo,  3s.  6d. 

"Mr.  Moody  Stuart  had  rare  opportunities  of  knowing  Dr.  Duncan." — Man- 
chester Ghiardian. 

Edmonston  and  Douglas'  Juvenile  Library. 

Square  ISnio,  with  Illustrations.     Is.  each. 


DICK  AND  I. 

LITTLE  TALES  FOR  TINY  TOTS. 
BIRDS'  NEST  STORIES. 
THE  CHARITY  BAZAAR. 


NELLY  RIVERS'  GREAT  RICHES, 

STORIES  TOLD  IN  THE  WOOD. 

NEW  NIGHT-CAPS. 

LITTLE  TRIX,  OR  GRANDMAMMA'S  LESSONS. 


A  Memoir  of  the  Right  Honourable  Hugh  Elliot. 

By  his  Granddaughter,  the  COUNTESS  of  MINTO.     Svo,  price  12s. 

"  Lady  Minto  produced  a  valuable  memoir  when  she  printed  the  substance  of 
the  work  before  us  for  private  circulation  in  1862.  It  now,  in  its  completed  shape, 
presents  a  full-length  and  striking  portrait  of  a  remarkable  member  of  a  remark- 
able race." — Quarterly  Review. 

The  Spiritual  Order,  and  other  Papers  selected  from  the  MSS. 

of  the  late  THOMAS  ERSKINE  of  Linlathen.     Crown  Svo,  cloth,  pr      5s. 

"  It  will  for  a  few  have  a  value  which  others  will  not  the  least  understand.  But 
all  must  recognise  in  it  the  utterance  of  a  spirit  profoundly  penetrated  with  the 
sense  of  brotherhood,  and  with  the  claims  of  common  humanity. " — Spectator. 

"Very  deserving  of  study." — Times. 

By  the  same  Author. 

The  Unconditional  Freeness  of  the  Gospel. 

New  Edition  revised.     Crown  Svo.     Price  3s.  6d. 
A  few  Copies  of  the  original  editions  of  Works  ~by  the  same  Author  are  still  for  Sale. 

An  Essay  on  Faith.     Fourth  Edition,  12mo,  3s. 

The  Brazen  Serpent;  or,  Life  Coming  through  Death. 

Second  Edition,  12mo,  3s. 


88  PKINCES   STREET,   EDINBURGH. 


Good  Little  Hearts. 

By  AUNT  FANNY.  Author  of  the  '  Night-Cap  Series.'  4  vols.,  fancy  covers,  Is. 
each ;  or  cloth  extra,  Is.  6d.  each. 

Charity  Bazaar.  I  Nelly  Rivers'  Great  Eiches. 

Birds'  Nest  Stories.  Stories  Told  in  the  Wood. 

First  Fruits  and  Shed  Leaves,    i  vol.  fcap.  8vo,  price  5s. 

"  The  author  seems  to  possess  many  of  the  qualities  which  go  to  make  a  poet. 
He  has  much  lyrical  power.  The  prose  essay  is  one  of  the  best  parts  of  the  book." 
— Graphic. 

"  He  (the  author)  touches  the  solemn  and  the  tragic  as  he  touches  the  tender 
and  the  true,  with  a  fine  vigour,  in  which  strength  and  gentleness  are  fitly  joined." 
— Scotsman. 

L'Histoire  d'Angleterre.    Par  M.  LAME  FLEUEY.   ismo,  cloth,  2s.  6d. 
L'Histoire  de  France.    Par  M.  LAME  FLEUEY.   New  Edition,  corrected  to 

1873.     18mo,  cloth,  2s.  6d. 

Christianity  viewed  in  some  of  its  Leading  Aspects. 

By  EEV.  A.  L.  E.  FOOTE,  Author  of  'Incidents  in  the  Life  of  our  Saviour.'  Fcap. 
cloth,  3s. 

Autobiography  of  Mrs.  Fletcher  of  Edinburgh. 

Edited  by  her  daughter.     Crown  8vo.  [Immediately. 

Kalendars  of  Scottish  Saints,  with  Personal  Notices  of  those 

of  Alba,  etc.  By  ALEXANDER  PENEOSE  FOEBES,  D.C.L.,  Bishop  of  Brechin. 
1  vol.  4to.  Price  £3  :  3s.  A  few  copies  for  sale  on  large  paper,  price  £5  : 15  :  6. 

"A  truly  valuable  contribution  to  the  archaeology  of  Scotland."— Guardian. 

"  We  must  not  forget  to  thank  the  author  for  the  great  amount  of  information 
he  has  put  together,  and  for  the  labour  he  has  bestowed  on  a  work  which  can  never 
be  remunerative." — Saturday  Review. 

"  His  laborious  and  very  interesting  work  on  the  early  Saints  of  Alba,  Laudonia, 
and  Strathclyde." — Quarterly  Review. 

The  Deepening  of  the  Spiritual  Life. 

By  A.  P.  FOEBES,  D.C.L.,  Bishop  of  Breehin.  Fifth  edition.  18mo,  cloth,  price 
Is.  6d. ;  or  paper  covers,  Is.  ;  calf,  red  edges,  3s.  6d. 

Frost  and  Fire; 

Natural  Engines,  Tool-Marks,  and  Chips,  with  Sketches  drawn  at  Home  and  Abroad 
by  a  Traveller.  Ee-issue,  containing  an  additional  Chapter.  2  vols.  Svo,  with 
Maps  and  numerous  Illustrations  on  Wood,  price  21s. 

"  A  very  Turner  among  books,  in  the  originality  and  delicious  freshness  of  its 
style,  and  the  truth  and  delicacy  of  the  descriptive  portions.  For  some  four-and- 
twenty  years  he  has  traversed  half  our  northern  hemisphere  by  the  least  frequented 
paths ;  and  everywhere,  with  artistic  and  philosophic  eye,  has  found  something  to 
describe— here  in  tiny  trout-stream  or  fleecy  cloud,  there  in  lava-flow  or  ocean 
current,  or  in  the  works  of  nature's  giant  sculptor — ice. " — Reader. 

The  Cat's  Pilgrimage. 

By  J.  A.  FEOUDE,  M.A.,  late  Fellow  of  Exeter  College,  Oxford.     With  7  full 
page  Illustrations  by  Mrs.  BLACKBURN  (J.  B.)    4to,  price  6s. 
Gifts  for  Men.    By  x.  H. 

1.  The  Gift  of  Eepentance.  I         3.  The  Gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

2.  The  Gift  of  the  Yoke.  I         4.  The  Promise  to  the  Elect. 

Crown  Svo,  price  6s. 

"  There  is  hardly  a  living  theologian  who  might  not  be  proud  to  claim  many  of 
her  thoughts  as  his  own." — Glasgow  Herald. 


10  EDMONSTON  AND  DOUGLAS, 


Glimpses  of  Life  in  Victoria. 

By  a  Resident.     Svo,  with  Illustrations,  price  12s. 

"  Out  of  sight  the  best  book  about  Australia  that  has  come  into  our  hands."— 
British  Quarterly. 

The  Gospel  in  Isaiah :  being  an  Exposition  of  the  55th  and 

56th  Chapters  of  the  Book  of  his  Prophecies.  By  JOHN  GEMMEL,  M.A.,  Fairlie. 
Ex.  fcap.  Svo,  price  5s. 

Arthurian  Localities :  their  Historical  Origin,  Chief  Country, 

and  Fingalian  Relations,  with  a  Map  of  Arthurian  Scotland.  By  JOHN  G.  S. 
STUART  GLENNIE,  M.A.  Svo,  price  7s.  6d. 

Works  by  Margaret  Maria  Gordon  (ne'e  Brewster). 

WORKERS.     Fourth  thousand.     Fcap.  Svo,  limp  cloth,  Is. 

WORK  ;  or,  Plenty  to  do  and  How  to  do  it.    Thirty-fifth  thousand.     Fcap.  Svo, 

cloth,  2s.  6d. 
LITTLE  MILLIE  AND  HER  FOUR  PLACES.      Cheap  Edition.      Fifty-fifth  thousand. 

Limp  cloth,  Is. 

SUNBEAMS  IN  THE  COTTAGE  ;  or,  What  Women  may  do.     A  narrative  chiefly  ad- 
dressed to  the  Working  Classes.    Cheap  Edition.    Forty -fourth  thousand.    Limp 

cloth,  Is. 

PREVENTION  ;  or,  An  Appeal  to  Economy  and  Common-Sense.     Svo,  6d. 
THE  WORD  AND  THE  WORLD.     Twelfth  edition.     Price  2d. 
.    LEAVES  OF  HEALING  FOR  THE  SICK  AND  SORROWFUL.    Fcap.  4to,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 

Cheap  Edition,  limp  cloth,  2s. 
THE  MOTHERLESS  Boy;  with  an  Illustration  by  J.  NOEL  PATON,  R.S.A.     Cheap 

Edition,  limp  cloth,  Is. 

"  Alike  in  manner  and  matter  calculated  to  attract  youthful  attention,  and  to 
attract  it  by  the  best  of  all  means — sympathy." — Scotsman. 

'  Christopher  Worth  ;' 

A  Memoir  of  John  Wilson,  late  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  the  University  of 
Edinburgh.  Compiled  from  Family  Papers  and  other  sources,  by  his  daughter, 
MRS.  GORDON.  Third  Thousand.  2  vols.  crown  Svo,  price  24s.,  with  Portrait, 
and  graphic  Illustrations. 

'  Mystifications.' 

By  Miss  STIRLING  GRAHAM.  Fourth  Edition.  Edited  by  JOHN  BROWN,  M.D. 
With  Portrait  of  '  Lady  Pitlyal.'  Fcap.  Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 

Scenes  from  the  Life  of  Jesus. 

By  SAMUEL  GREG.     Second  Edition,  enlarged.     Ex.  fcap.  Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 

"  One  of  the  few  theological  works  which  can  be  heartily  commended  to  all 
classes." — Inverness  Courier. 

Arboriculture;    or,  A   Practical   Treatise   on   Raising  and 

Managing  Forest  Trees,  and  on  the  Profitable  Extension  of  the  Woods  and  Forests 
of  Great  Britain.  By  JOHN  GRIGOR,  The  Nurseries,  Forres.  Svo,  price  10s.  6d. 

"  He  is  a  writer  whose  authorship  has  this  weighty  recommendation,  that  he  can 
support  his  theories  by  facts,  and  can  point  to  lands,  worth  less  than  a  shilling  an 


88  PRINCES    STREET,  EDINBURGH. 


11 


acre  when  he  found  them,  now  covered  with  ornamental  plantations,  and  yielding 
through  them  a  revenue  equal  to  that  of  the  finest  corn-laud  in  the  country.  .  .  . 
His  book  has  interest  both  for  the  adept  and  the  novice,  for  the  large  proprietor 
and  him  that  has  but  a  nook  or  corner  to  plant  out." — Saturday  Review. 

"  Mr.  Grigor's  practical  information  on  all  points  on  which  an  intending  planter 
is  interested  is  particularly  good.  .  .  .  We  have  placed  it  on  our  shelves  as  a 
first-class  book  of  reference  on  all  points  relating  to  Arboriculture  ;  and  we  strongly 
recommend  others  to  do  the  same." — Farmer. 

An  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Scotland, 

From  the  Introduction  of  Christianity  to  the  Present  Time.  By  GEORGE  GRUB, 
A.M.  4  vols.  Svo,  42s. 

The  Laws  of  Trade-Unions  in  England  and  Scotland. 

By  WILLIAM  GUTHRIE,  Advocate.     Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 

"  Should  be  in  the  hands  of  every  Trade  Union  officer  in  the  kingdom. "—GEORGE 
HOWELL,  Secretary  of  Parliamentary  Committee  on  Trade  Unions. 

Chronicle  of  Gudrun ; 

A  Story  of  the  North  Sea.  From  the  mediaeval  German.  By  EMMA  LETHER- 
BROW.  With  frontispiece  by  Sir  J.  NOEL  PA  TON,  R.S.A.  New  Edition,  price  5s. 

Notes  on  the  Early  History  of  the  Royal  Scottish  Academy. 

By  Sir  GEORGE  HARVEY,  Kt.,  P. R.S.A.     Second  Edition.     Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 

The  Resurrection  of  the  Dead. 

By  WILLIAM  HANNA,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  author  of  'The  Last  Day  of  our  Lord's 
Passion,'  etc.  1  vol.  fcap.  Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 

The  Life  of  our  Lord. 

By  the  REV.  WILLIAM  HANNA,  D.D.,  LL.D.  6  vols.,  handsomely  bound  in 
cloth  extra,  gilt  edges,  price  30s. 

Separate  vols.,  cloth  extra,  gilt  edges,  price  5s.  each. 

1.  THE  EARLIER  YEARS  OF  OUR  LORD.     8th  Thousand. 

2.  THE  MINISTRY  IN  GALILEE.    Second  Edition. 

3.  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  MINISTRY.     6th  Thousand. 

4.  THE  PASSION  WEEK.     5th  Thousand. 

5.  THE  LAST  DAY  OF  OUR  LORD'S  PASSION.    47th  Thousand. 

6.  THE  FORTY  DAYS  AFTER  THE  RESURRECTION.     9th  Thousand. 

The  Guidman  of  Inglismill,  and  The  Fairy  Bride. 

Legends  of  the  North.     With  Glossary,  etc.     4to,  price  2s.  6d. 


Heavenly  Love  and  Earthly  Echoes. 

By  a  Glasgow  Merchant.     5th  Edition.     ISmo,  price  Is.  6d. 

"  Fitted  to  be  useful  and  heart-stirring  to  all  who  are  in  earnest  in  religion, 
hope  and  believe  it  will  reach  many  more  editions."— Christian  Work. 


We 


Herminius. 

A  Romance. 


By  I.  E.  S.     Fcap.  Svo,  price  6s. 


12  EDMONSTON  AND  DOUGLAS, 


Historians  of  Scotland. 

Price  to  Non-Subscribers,  15s.  per  volume.    An  Annual  Payment  of  £1  will  entitle 
the  Subscriber  to  Two  annual  volumes. 

1st  |  FORDDN'S  SCOTICHRONICON.     VoL  I. 

Issue.  /  WYNTOUN'S  CHRONICLE.    Vol.  I. 

2d  )  WYNTOUN'S  CHRONICLE.    Vol.  II. 

Issue.  )  FORDUN'S  SCOTICHRONICON.     Vol.  II. 

3d  |  LIVES  or  ST.  NINIAN  AND  ST.  KENTIGERN. 

Issue.  J  LIFE  OF  SAINT  COLUMBA. 

"  Mr.  Skene  has  laid  students  of  Scottish  history  under  a  further  obligation  by 
his  careful  and  scholarlike  edition  of  Fordun's  work." — Quarterly  Review. 

***  Detailed  Lists  of  the  forthcoming  Volumes  on  application. 


If  the  Gospel  Narratives  are  Mythical,  what  then  ? 

Crown  Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 

"  This  is  a  striking  little  essay  .  .  .  thoughtful  and  subtle.  It  is  an  attempt  to 
show  that  something  like  the  philosophy  of  the  Christian  Gospel  would  be  forced 
upon  us  by  the  facts  of  our  spiritual  nature."— Spectator. 

Lectures  on  Scotch  Legal  Antiquities. 

By  COSMO  INNES,  F.S.A.,  author  of  'Scotland  in  the  Middle  Ages.' 

Contents:— I.  Introductory.  II.  Charters.  III.  Parliament.  IV.  The  Old 
Church.  V.  Old  Forms  of  Law.  VI.  Rural  Occupations.  VII.  Student's  Guide 
Books.  VIII.  Appendix.  In  1  vol.  demy  Svo,  price  10s.  6d. 

By  the  same  Author. 

Sketches  of  Early  Scotch  History.   Svo,  price  16s. 
Concerning  some  Scotch  Surnames.   Small  4to,  cloth  antique,  5s. 

Instructive  Picture-Books. 

Folio,  7s.  6d.  each. 

"  These  Volumes  are  among  the  most  instructive  Picture-books  we  have  seen, 
and  we  know  of  none  better  calculated  to  excite  and  gratify  the  appetite  of  the 
young  for  the  knowledge  of  nature."— Times. 

I. 

The  Instructive  Picture  Book.  A  few  Attractive  Lessons  from  the  Natural 
History  of  Animals.  By  ADAM  WHITE,  late  Assistant,  Zoological  Department, 
British  Museum.  With  54  folio  coloured  Plates.  Eighth  Edition,  containing  many 
new  Illustrations  by  Mrs.  BLACKBURN,  J.  STEWART,  GOURLAY  STEELL,  and  others. 

II. 

The  Instructive  Picture  Book.  Lessons  from  the  Vegetable  World.  By  the 
Author  of  'The  Heir  of  Redclyffe,'  'The  Herb  of  the  Field,'  etc.  New  Edition, 
•with  64  Plates. 

III. 

The  Instructive  Picture  Book.  The  Geographical  Distribution  of  Animals,  in  a 
Series  of  Pictures  for  the  use  of  Schools  and  Families.  By  the  late  Dr.  GREVILLE. 
With  descriptive  letterpress.  New  Edition,  with  60  Plates. 


88  PRINCES  STREET,  EDINBURGH.  13 


IV. 
Pictures  of  Animal  and  Vegetable  Life  in  all  Lands.     48  Folio  Plates. 

V. 

Recreative  Instruction.  Pictorial  Lessons  on  Form,  Comparison,  and  number, 
for  Children  under  7  years  of  age,  with  explanations.  By  NICHOLAS  BOHNY.  Fifth 
edition.  26  Oblong  folio  Plates,  price  7s.  6d. 

The  History  of  Scottish  Poetry, 

From  the  Middle  Ages  to  the  Close  of  the  Seventeenth  Century.  By  the  late 
DAVID  IRVING,  LL.D.  Edited  by  JOHN  AITKEN  CARLYLE,  M.D.  With  a  Memoir 
and  Glossary.  Demy  Svo,  16s. 

Johnny  Gibb  of  Gushetneuk,  in  the  Parish  of  Pyketillim : 

with  Glimpses  of  the  Parish  Politics  about  A.D.  1843.  Fourth  Edition,  with  a 
Glossary.  12mo,  ornamental  boards,  price  2s.  ;  or  cloth,  price,  2s.  6d. 

"  It  is  a  grand  addition  to  our  pure  Scottish  dialect ;  .  ...  it  is  not  merely 
a  capital  specimen  of  genuine  Scottish  northern  dialect ;  but  it  is  a  capital  specimen 
of  pawky  characteristic  Scottish  humour.  It  is  full  of  good  hard  Scottish  dry  fun." 
— Dean  Ramsay. 

Sermons  by  the  Rev.  John  Ker,  D.D.,  Glasgow. 

Tenth  Edition.     Crown  Svo,  price  6s. 

"  This  is  a  very  remarkable  volume  of  sermons.  We  have  not  seen  a  volume 
of  sermons  for  many  a  day  which  will  so  thoroughly  repay  both  purchase  and 
perusal  and  re-perusal.  And  not  the  least  merit  of  these  sermons  is,  that  they  are 
eminently  suggestive." — Contemporary  Review. 

"  The  sermons  before  us  are  indeed  of  no  common  order ;  among  a  host  of  com- 
petitors they  occitpy  a  high  class — we  were  about  to  say  the  highest  class — 
whether  viewed  in  point  of  composition,  or  thought,  or  treatment." — British  and 
Foreign  Evangelical  Revieiv. 

Studies  for  Sunday  Evening ;  or,  Readings  in  Holy  "Writ. 

By  LORD  KINLOCH.    New  edition,  in  2  vols.  fcap.  Svo,  price  9s. 
By  the  same  Author. 

Faith's  Jewels. 

Presented  in  Verse,  with  other  devout  Verses.     Ex.  fcap.  Svo,  price  5s. 

The  Circle  of  Christian  Doctrine  ; 

A  Handbook  of  Faith,  framed  out  of  a  Layman's  experience.  Third  and  Cheaper 
Edition.  Fcap.  Svo,  2s.  6d. 

Time's  Treasure; 

Or,  Devout  Thoughts  for  every  Day  of  the  Year.  Expressed  in  verse.  Fourth  and 
Cheaper  Edition.  Fcap.  Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 

Devout  Moments.    Price  6d.    Hymns  to  Christ.    Fcap.  8vo,  price  3s.  6d. 

A  History  of  Scotland,  chiefly  in  its  Ecclesiastical  Aspect, 

from  the  Introduction  of  Christianity  till  the  Fall  of  the  Old  Hierarchy.  For  the 
Use  of  Schools.  By  M.  G.  J.  KINLOCH.  Edited  by  the  BISHOP  OF  BRECHIN. 
ISmo,  price  2s.  6d. 

"  Miss  Kinloch  must  have  worked  hard,  and  as  in  a  labour  of  love,  to  accumulate 
all  the  ecclesiastical  lore  she  displays." — Scotsman. 


14  EDMONSTON  AND  DOUGLAS, 

Lindores  Abbey,  and  the  Burgh  of  Newburgh :  their  His- 
tory and  Annals.  By  ALEXANDER  LAING,  F.S.A.  Scot.  1  vol.  small  4to. 
With  Illustrations.  [Nearly  ready. 

Scottish  Rivers. 

By  the  late  SIR  THOMAS  DICK  LAUDER,  Bart.,  author  of  the  'Morayshire 
Floods,'  '  The  Wolf  of  Badenoch,'  etc.  With  Illustrations  by  the  AUTHOR,  and 
a  Preface  by  JOHN  BROWN,  M.D.,  LL.D.  1  vol.  crown  8vo,  price  Ss.  6d. 

The  Philosophy  of  Ethics  : 

An  Analytical  Essay.  By  SIMON  S.  LAURIE,  A.M.    Demy  Svo,  price  6s. 

Notes,  Expository  and  Critical,  on  certain  British  Theories 

of  Morals.     By  SIMON  S.  LAURIE.    Svo,  price  6s. 

The  Reform  of  the  Church  of  Scotland 

In  Worship,  Government,  and  Doctrine.  By  ROBERT  LEE,  D.D.,  late  Professor 
of  Biblical  Criticism  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and  Minister  of  Greyfriars. 
Part  I.  Worship.  Second  Edition,  fcap.  Svo,  price  3s. 

Letters  from  Jamaica:  'The  Land  of  Streams  and  Woods.' 

Fcap.  Svo,  price  4s.  6d. 

"Nowhere  else  that  we  know  can  you  get  a  better  idea  of  the  outward  aspect  of 
things  in  Jamaica." — Scotsman. 

"A  very  entertaining  and  well- written  book."— Graphic. 

"  Letters  from  Jamaica  certainly  do  not  sin  on  the  side  of  '  speaking  an  infinite 
deal  of  nothing.'  They  contrive  to  convey  in  a  little  space,  and  in  a  pleasant  form, 
much  information  about  a  place  and  people  of  unusual  interest. "  —  Pall  Mall 
Gazette. 

Life  among  My  Ain  Folk. 

By  the  Author  of  "  Johnny  Gibb  of  Gushetneuk."  12mo,  ornamental  boards, 
price  2s.  ;  cloth,  2s.  6d.  [In  the  Press. 

Life  in  3$Tormandy ; 

Sketches  of  French  Fishing,  Farming,  Cooking,  Natural  History,  and  Politics, 
drawn  from  Nature.  By  an  ENGLISH  RESIDENT.  Third  Edition,  crown  Svo, 
cloth,  ex.  gilt,  price  4s.  6d. 

A  Memoir  of  Lady  Anna  Mackenzie, 

Countess  of  Balcarres,  and  afterwards  of  Argyle,  1621-1706.  By  ALEXANDER 
LORD  LINDSAY  (Earl  of  Crawford).  Fcap.  Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 

"  All  who  love  the  byways  of  history  should  read  this  life  of  a  loyal  Covenanter. " 
— Atlas. 

Lismore,  Book  of  the  Dean  of. 

Specimens  of  Ancient  Gaelic  Poetry,  collected  between  the  years  1512  and  1529, 
by  the  REV.  JAMES  M'GREGOR,  Dean  of  Lismore — illustrative  of  the  Language 
and  Literature  of  the  Scottish  Highlands  prior  to  the  Sixteenth  Century.  Edited, 
with  a  Translation  and  Notes,  by  the  Rev.  THOMAS  M'LAXJCHLAN,  LL.  D.  The  Intro- 
duction and  additional  Notes  by  WILLIAM  F.  SKENE,  LL.D.  Svo,  price  12s. 

Literary  Relics  of  the  late  A.  S.  Logan,  Advocate,  Sheriff 

of  Forfarshire.     Extra  fcap.  Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 


88  PRINCES  STREET,  EDINBURGH.  15 


Little  Ella  and  the  Fire-King, 

And  other  Fairy  Tales.    By  M.  W.,  with  Illustrations  by  HENRY  WARREN.    Second 
Edition.     16mo,  cloth,  3s.  6d.     Cloth  extra,  gilt  edges,  4s. 

Little  Tales  for  Tiny  Tots. 

With  6  Illustrations  by  WARWICK  BROOKES.     Square  ISmo,  price  Is. 

Little  Trix;  or,  Grandmamma's  Lessons. 

Square  ISmo.     Price  Is. 

A  Survey  of  Political  Economy. 

By  JAMES  MACDONELL,  M.A.     Ex.  fcap.  8vo,  price  6s. 

"  The  author  has  succeeded  in  producing  a  book  which  is  almost  as  easy  read- 
ing as  a  three-volume  novel."— Athenceum. 

"  Of  its  class  it  is  one  of  the  best  we  have  seen  ;  and  had  we  to  choose  for  a 
beginner  among  the  crowd  of  manuals  and  introductions  to  the  study,  there  is 
much  which  would  induce  us  to  recommend  the  present  volume." — Spectator. 

"  Mr  Macdonell's  book,  entitled  '  A  Survey  of  Political  Economy,'  establishes 
him  as  a  writer  of  authority  on  economical  subjects." — MR.  NEWMARCH. 

Ten  Years  North  of  the  Orange  River. 

A  Story  of  Everyday  Life  and  Work  among  the  South  African  Tribes,  from  1859  to 
1869.  By  JOHN  MACKENZIE,  of  the  London  Missionary  Society.  With  Map 
and  Illustrations.  1  vol.  crown  Svo,  cloth,  extra  gilt,  price  4s.  6d. 

Nug83  Canorae  Medicse. 

By  DOUGLAS  MACLAGAN,  Professor  of  Medical  Jurisprudence  in  the  University 
of  Edinburgh.  A  new  edition,  enlarged,  with  Illustrations  by  THOMAS  FAED,  E.A.  ; 
WILLIAM  DOUGLAS,  E.S.A. ;  JAMES  ARCHER,  R.S.A.  ;  JOHN  BALLANTYNE,  E.S.A., 
etc.  In  1  vol.  4to,  price  7s.  6d. 

The  Duns  and  Stone  Circles  of  Ancient  Scotland. 

With  Plans  and  Illustrations  by  C.  Maclagan,  Lady  Associate  of  the  Society  of 
Antiquaries  of  Scotland.  1  vol.  folio.  [Immediately 

Memorials   of   the   Life    and   Ministry   of  Charles   Calder 

Mackintosh,  D.D.,  of  Tain  and  Dunoon.  Edited,  with  a  Sketch  of  the  Religious 
History  of  the  Northern  Highlands  of  Scotland,  by  the  Rev.  WILLIAM  TAYLOR, 
M.A.  With  Portrait.  Second  Edition,  extra  fcap.  Svo,  price  4s.  6d. 

MacvLcar's  ( J.  G.,  D.D.) 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  THE  BEAUTIFUL;  price;  6s.  6d.  FIRST  LINES  OF  SCIENCE 
SIMPLIFIED  ;  price  5s. 

Mary  Stuart  and  the  Casket  Letters. 

By  J.  F.  N.,  with  an  Introduction  by  HENRY  GLASSFORD  BELL.  Ex.  fcap.  Svo, 
price  4s.  6d. 

Max  Havalaar; 

Or,  The  Coffee  Auctions  of  the  Dutch  Trading  Company.  By  MULTATULI ; 
translated  from  the  original  MS.  by  Baron  Nahuys.  With  Maps,  price  14s. 


16  EDMONSTON  AND  DOUGLAS, 


Why  the  Shoe  Pinches. 

A  contribution  to  Applied  Anatomy.  By  HERMANN  MEYER,  M.D.,  Professor 
of  Anatomy  in  the  University  of  Zurich.  Price  6d. 

The  Estuary  of  the  Forth  and  adjoining  Districts  viewed 

Geologically.  By  DAVID  MILNE  HOME  of  Wedclerburn.  Svo,  cloth,  with  Map 
and  Plans,  price  5s. 

The  Herring  : 

Its  Natural  History  and  National  Importance.  By  JOHN  M.  MITCHELL.  With 
Six  Illustrations,  Svo,  price  12s. 

The  Insane  in  Private  Dwellings. 

By  ARTHUR  MITCHELL,  A.M.,  M.D.,  Commissioner  in  Lunacy  for  Scotland, 
etc.  Svo,  price  4s.  6d. 

Creeds  and  Churches. 

By  the  REV.  SIR  HENRY  WELLWOOD  MONCREIFF,  Bart.,  D.D.  Demy  Svo, 
price  3s.  6d. 

Ancient  Pillar-Stones  of  Scotland : 

Their  Significance  and  Bearing  on  Ethnology.  By  GEORGE  MOORE,  M.D.  Svo, 
price  6s.  6d. 

Political  Sketches  of  the  State  of  Europe— from  1814-1867. 

Containing  Ernest  Count  Miinster's  Despatches  to  the  Prince  Regent  from  the 
Congress  of  Vienna  and  of  Paris.  By  GEORGE  HERBERT,  Count  Miinster. 
Demy  Svo,  price  9s. 

Biographical  Annals  of  the  Parish  of  Colinton. 

By  THOMAS  MURRAY,  LL.D.     Crown  Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 

History  Rescued,  in  Answer  to  '  History  Vindicated/  being 

a  recapitulation  of  '  The  Case  for  the  Crown,'  and  the  Reviewers  Reviewed,  in  re 
the  Wigtown  Martyrs.  By  MARK  NAPIER.  Svo,  price  5s. 

The  Natural  or  the  Supernatural. 

By  a  Layman.     Fcap.  Svo,  cloth.  [Immediately. 

Nightcaps : 

A  Series  of  Juvenile  Books.  By  "AUNT  FANNY."  4vols.  square  16nio,  cloth. 
2s.  each  volume. 

1.  Little  Nightcaps.  i  3.  New  Nightcaps. 

2.  Big  Nightcaps.  4.  Old  Nightcaps. 

"  Six  pretty  little  books  of  choice  fiction.  The  only  objection  we  can  make  to 
the  quality  and  fashion  of  Aunt  Fanny's  Nightcaps  is,  that  some  of  their  joyous 
notions  are  more  calculated  to  keep  infantile  wearers  awake  all  night  than  to 
dispose  them  to  slumber.  As  nightcaps  for  the  daytime,  however,  they  are,  one 
and  all,  excellent." — Athenceum. 

NEW  NIGHTCAPS.     New  and  cheaper  Edition,  Fancy  Cover,  price  Is. 


88   PRINCES   STREET,   EDINBURGH.  17 


ODDS  AND   ENDS— P™  M.  Each. 

Vol.  I.,  in  Cloth,  price  4s.  6d.,  containing  Nos.    1-10. 
Vol.  II.,  Do.  do.  Nos.  11-19. 

1.  Sketches  of  Highland  Character.       2.  Convicts.       3.  Wayside  Thoughts. 

4.  The  Enterkin.  5.  Wayside  Thoughts — Part  2. 

6.  Penitentiaries  and  Reformatories.     7.  Notes  from  Paris. 

8.  Essays  by  an  Old  Man.  9.  Wayside  Thoughts— Part  3. 

10.  The  Influence  of  the  Reformation.  11.  The  Cattle  Plague. 
12.  Rough  Night's  Quarters.  13.  On  the  Education  of  Children. 

14.  The  Stormontfield  Experiments.      15.  A  Tract  for  the  Times. 
16.  Spain  in  1866.  17.  The  Highland  Shepherd. 

18.  Correlation  of  Forces.  19.  '  Bibliomania.' 

20.  A  Tract  on  Twigs.  21.  Notes  on  Old  Edinburgh. 

22.  Gold-Diggings  in  Sutherland.  23.  Post-Office  Telegraphs. 

Poems. 

By  DOROTHEA  MARIA  OGILVY,  of  Clova.  Second  Edition,  crown  Svo..  price 
4s.  paper ;  5s.  cloth ;  5s.  6d.  cloth  gilt. 

Willie  Wabster's  Wooing  and  Wedding. 

By  DOROTHEA  MARIA  OGILVT,  of  Clova.  Second,  Edition,  with  Glossary. 
12mo,  price  Is.  (5d. 

The  Orkneyinga  Saga. 

Edited,  with  Notes  and  Introduction,  by  JOSEPH  ANDERSON,  Keeper  of  the 
National  Museum  of  the  Antiquaries  of  Scotland.  With  numerous  Illustrations. 
Price  10s.  6d. 

"  No  labour  seems  to  have  been  spared  that  was  required  to  make  the  S;iga 
interesting  and  intelligible  to  the  ordinary  student  of  history."— Scotsman. 

Man :  Where,  Whence,  and  Whither  ? 

Being  a  glance  at  Man  in  his  Natural-History  Relations.  By  DAVID  PAGE, 
LL.D.  Fcap.  Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 

Kidnapping  in  the  South  Seas. 

Being  a  Narrative  of  a  Three  Months'  Cruise  of  11.  M.  Ship  'Rosario.'  By  CATJAIN 
GEORGE  PALMER,  R.N.,  F.R.G.S.  Svo,  illustrated,  10s.  6d. 

Prance :  Two  Lectures. 

By  M.  PREVOST-PARADOL,  of  the  French  Academy.     Svo,  price  Us.  6.1. 

"  Should  be  carefully  studied  by  every  one  who  wishes  to  know  anything  about 
contemporary  French  History."— Daily  Review. 

Suggestions  on  Academical  Organisation, 

With  Special  Reference  to  Oxford.  By  MARK  PATTISON,  B.D.,  Rector  of  Lin 
coin  College,  Oxford.  Crown  Svo,  price  7s.  tid. 

Practical  Water-Farming. 

By  WM.  PEARD,  M.D.,  LL.D.     1  vol.  fcup.  Svo,  price  5s. 

Prince  Perindo's  Wish. 

A  Fairy  Romance  for  Youths  and  Maidens.     Crown  Svo,  illustrated,  price  3s.  (id. 


18  EDMONSTON  AND  DOUGLAS, 


Popular  Genealogists; 

Or,  The  Art  of  Pedigree-making.    Crowii  8vo,  price  4s. 

The  Pyramid  and  the  Bible: 

The  rectitude  of  the  one  hi  accordance  with  the  truth  of  the  other.  By  a  CLBKOY- 
MAN.  Ex.  fcap.  Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 

Quixstar. 

By  the  Author  of  '  Blindpits.'    A  Novel,  in  3  vols.    Crown  8vo,  price  31s.  6d. 

"  '  Quixstar '  is  what  George  Eliot  would  call  '  a  study  of  provincial  life,'  and 
an  exceedingly  well-executed  and  well-rendered  study  it  is." — Literary  World. 

"  Undoubtedly  Quixstar  is  not  a  book  to  be  swept  away  with  the  mere  novels  of 
the  season." — Graphic. 

A  Critical  History  of  the  Christian  Doctrine  of  Justification 

and  Eeconciliation.  By  ALBRECHT  RITSCHL,  Professor  Ordinarius  of  Theology 
in  the  University  of  Gottingen.  Translated  from  the  German,  with  the  Author's 
sanction,  by  JOHN  S.  BLACK,  M.A.  Svo,  cloth,  price  12s. 

"  An  exceedingly  valuable  contribution  to  theological  literature.  The  history 
begins  no  earlier  than  the  Middle  Ages  ;  since  he  considers  that  in  earlier  times, 
while  the  theory  of  a  price  paid  to  Satan  was  current,  there  was  no  real  theology 
on  the  subject.  A  more  thorough  historical  study  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Atone- 
ment, and  a  correct  understanding  and  appreciation  of  the  various  forms  it  has 
assumed  in  different  schools,  are  very  much  needed  in  this  country."— British  and 
Foreign  Evangelical  Review. 

Keminiscences  of  the  *  Pen »  Polk. 

By  one  who  knew  them.    4to,  price  2s.  6d. 

Reminiscences  of  Scottish  Life  and  Character. 

By  E.  B.  RAMSAY,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.E.,  Dean  of  Edinburgh.  Library  Edition, 
in  demy  Svo,  with  Portrait  by  James  Faed,  price  10s.  6d. 

*»*  The  original  Edition  in  2  vols.,  with  Introductions,  price  12s.,  is  still 
on  sale. 

"  That  venerable  Dean,  who  is  an  absolute  impersonation  of  the  '  reminiscences  ' 
of  all  the  Scottish  Churches,  who  in  his  largeness  of  heart  embraces  them  all, 
and  in  his  steadfast  friendship,  his  generous  championship  of  forgotten  truths  and 
of  unpopular  causes,  proves  himself  to  be  in  every  sense  the  inheritor  of  the  noble 
Scottish  name  which  he  so  worthily  bears.  "—Dean  Stanley's  Lectures  on  the  Church 
of  Scotland. 

Dean  Ramsay's  Reminiscences  of  Scottish  Life  and  Charac- 
ter. The  Twenty-third  Edition,  containing  the  Author's  latest  Corrections  and 
Additions.  With  a  Memorial  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Dean  Ramsay,  by  COSMO 
INNES.  1  vol.  ex.  fcap.  Svo,  price  6s. 

"This  exquisite  miniature  biography  gives  to  that  unique  volume  a  greatly  en- 
hanced value  and  attractiveness. " — Daily  Review. 

Dean  Ramsay's  Reminiscences. 

85th  Thousand,  fcap.  Svo,  boards,  price  2s.  ;  cloth  extra,  2s.  6d. 

"  The  Dean  of  Edinburgh  has  here  produced  a  book  for  railway  reading  of  the 
very  first  class.  The  persons  (and  they  are  many)  who  can  only  under  such  circum- 
stances devote  ten  minutes  of  attention  to  any  page,  without  the  certainty  of  a 
dizzy  or  stupid  headache,  in  every  page  of  this  volume  will  find  some  poignant 
anecdote  or  trait  which  will  last  them  a  good  half-hour  for  after-laughter :  one  of 
the  pleasantest  of  human  sensations." — Athenceum. 

Recess  Studies. 

Edited  by  SIR  ALEXANDER  GRANT,  Bart.,  LL.D.     Svo,  price  12s. 


88   PKINCES   STREET,    EDINBURGH.  19 


Rockbourne. 

A  Tale.  By  MARION  ELIZA  WEIR,  author  of  «  Mabel's  Experience,'  '  Patience 
to  Work  and  Patience  to  Wait/  etc.  Ex.  fcap.  8vo,  cloth,  extra  gilt,  5s. 

"A  tale  of  a  very  noticeable  character." — Nonconformist. 

"  Admirably  fitted  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  young  people,  and  may  be  read 
with  profit  by  their  elders."— Daily  Review. 

Art  Hambles  in  Shetland. 

By  JOHN  T.  REID.    Handsome  4to,  cloth,  profusely  illustrated,  price  25». 

"  This  record  of  Art  Rambles  may  be  classed  among  the  most  choice  and  highly- 
finished  of  recent  publications  of  this  sort. " — Saturday  Review. 

A  Tale  of  Ages. 

Being  a  Description  of  some  of  the  Geological  and  Historical  changes  which  have 
occurred  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Edinburgh.  By  RALPH  RICHARDSON,  Hon. 
Secretary  of  the  Edinburgh  Geological  Society.  Demy  8vo,  price  6s. 

The  One  Church  on  Earth.    How  it  is  manifested,  and  what 

are  the  Terms  of  Communion  with  it.  By  REV.  JOHN  ROBERTSON,  A.M., 
Arbroath.  Extra  fcap.  8vo,  price  3s.  6d, 

Historical  Essays   in   connection  with  the  Land  and   the 

Church,  etc.  By  E.  WILLIAM  ROBERTSON,  Author  of  '  Scotland  under  her 
Early  Kings.'  In  1  vol.  8vo,  price  10s.  6d. 

Scotland  under  her  Early  Kings. 

A  History  of  the  Kingdom  to  the  close  of  the  13th  century.  By  E.  WILLIAM 
ROBERTSON.  In  2  vols.  8vo,  cloth,  36s. 

"  Mr.  Robertson's  labours  are  of  that  valuable  kind  where  an  intelligent  and 
thorough  sifting  of  original  authorities  is  brought  to  bear  upon  a  portion  of  history 
handed  over  hitherto,  in  a  pre-eminent  degree,  to  a  specially  mendacious  set  of 
Mediaeval  Chroniclers,  and  (not  so  long  ago)  to  a  specially  polemical  and  uncritical 
class  of  modern  Historians.  He  belongs  to  the  school  of  Innes  and  Skene,  and 
Joseph  Robertson,  and  has  established  a  fair  right  to  be  classed  with  the  Reeves 
and  Todds  of  Irish  historical  antiquarianism,  and  the  Sharpes,  and  Kembles,  and 
Hardys  in  England." — Guardian. 

Doctor  Antonio. 

A  Tale.    By  JOHN  RUFFINI.     Cheap  Edition,  crown  8vo,  boards,  2s. 

The  Salmon ; 

Its  History,  Position,  and  Prospects.     By  ALEX.  RUSSEL.    8vo,  price  7s.  6d. 

Druidism  Exhumed.     Proving   that   the   Stone   Circles   of 

Britain  were  Druidical  Temples.    By  REV.  JAMES  RUST.    Fcap.  8vo,  price  4s.  6d. 

A  Handbook  of  the  History  of  Philosophy. 

By  DR.  ALBERT  SCHWEGLER.  Fifth  Edition.  Translated  and  Annotated  by 
J.  HUTCHISON  STIRLING,  LL.D.,  Author  of  the  'Secret  of  Hegel.'  Crown  Svo,  price  6s. 

"  Schwegler's  is  the  best  possible  handbook  of  the  history  of  philosophy,  and 
there  could  not  possibly  be  a  better  translator  of  it  than  Dr.  Stirling." — Westminster 
Review. 

"The  Germans  are  fortunate,  in  consequence  of  their  philosophical  criticism,  in 
the  production  of  better  and  better  texc-books,  among  which  maybe  mentioned 
Schwegler's  History  of  Philosophy.  "—Professor  Rosenkram  of  Konigsberg  in  Journal  of 
Speculative  Philosophy. 


20  EDMONSTON   AND   DOUGLAS, 

Seven  Years  of  a  Life. 

A  Story.     1  vol.  crown  Svo,  price  7s.  6d. 

The   Scottish   Poor-Laws :    Examination  of  their    Policy, 

History,  and  Practical  Action.     By  SCOTUS.     Svo,  price  7s.  6d. 

"  This  book  is  a  magazine  of  interesting  facts  and  acute  observations  upon  this 
vitally  important  subject." — Scotsman. 

Gossip  about  Letters  and  Letter-Writers. 

By  GEORGE  SETON,  Advocate,  M.  A.  Oxon.,  F.S.A.  Scot.    Fcap.  Svo,  price  2s.  6d. 

"  A  very  agreeable  little  "brochure,  which  anybody  may  dip  into  with  satisfaction 
to  while  away  idle  hours."—  Echo. 

'Cakes,  Leeks,  Puddings,  and  Potatoes.' 

A  Lecture  on  the  Nationalities  of  the  United  Kingdom.  By  GEORGE  SETON, 
Advocate,  M.A.  Oxon.,  etc.  Second  Edition.  Fcap.  Svo,  sewed,  price  6d. 

Culture  and  Religion. 

By  J.  C.  SHAIRP,  Principal  of  the  United  College  of  St.  Salvator  and  St. 
Leonard,  St.  Andrews.  Fourth  Edition,  fcap.  Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 

"  A  wise  book,  and,  unlike  a  great  many  other  wise  books,  has  that  carefully- 
shaded  thought  and  expression  which  fits  Professor  Shairp  to  speak  for  Culture  no 
less  than  for  Religion. "— Spectator. 

John  Keble : 

An  Essay  on  the  Author  of  the  '  Christian  Year.'  By  J.  C.  SHAIRP,  Principal  of 
the  United  College  of  St.  Salvator  and  St.  Leonard,  St.  Andrews.  Fcap.  Svo,  price  3s. 

Studies  in  Poetry  and  Philosophy. 

By  J.  C.  SHAIRP,  Principal  of  the  United  College  of  St.  Salvator  and  St. 
Leonard,  St.  Andrews.  Second  Edition,  1  voL  fcap.  Svo,  price  6s. 

A  Memoir  of  the  late  Sir  James  Y.  Simpson,  Bart.  M.D. 

By  JOHN  DUNS,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Natural  Science,  New  College,  Edinburgh. 
Demy  Svo.  With  Portrait.  Price  14s. 

"One  of  the  most  charming,  instructive,  and  useful  biographies  extant."— 
Courant. 

"  Will  be  much  read  and  admired." — Edinburgh  Medical  Journal. 

Archaeological   Essays  by  the  late  Sir  James  Y.  Simpson, 

Bart.,  M.D.,  D.C.L.  Edited  by  JOHN  STUART,  LL.D.,  Secretary  of  the  Society 
of  Antiquaries  of  Scotland,  Author  of  '  The  Sculptured  Stones  of  Scotland,'  etc. 
etc.  2  vols.  sm.  4to,  half  Roxburghe,  price  £2  :  2s. 

The  Four  Ancient  Books  of  Wales, 

Containing  the  Cymric  Poems  attributed  to  the  Bards  of  the  Sixth  Century.  By 
WILLIAM  F.  SKENE.  With  Maps  and  Facsimiles.  2  vols.  Svo,  price  36s. 

"  Mr.  Skene's  book  will,  as  a  matter  of  course  and  necessity,  find  its  place  on 
the  tables  of  all  Celtic  antiquarians  and  scholars." — Archceologia  Cambrentis. 


88   PRINCES   STREET,   EDINBURGH.  21 


The  Coronation  Stone. 

By  WILLIAM  F.  SKENE.  Small  4to.  With  Illustrations  in  Photography  and 
Zincography.  Price  6s. 

Fordun's  Chronicle  of  the  Scottish  Nation. 

With  English  Translation.  Edited,  with  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  WILLIAM 
F.  SKENE.  2  vols.  8vo,  price  30s. 

"Mr.  Skene  has  laid  students  of  Scottish  history  under  a  further  obligation  by 
his  careful  and  scholarlike  edition  of  Fordun's  work." — Quarterly  Review,  July  1873. 

Sketches  of  Highland  Character.    ("Butthequeys  wasgoot.") 

With  Seven  Full-Page  Illustrations  by  W.  RALSTON.     Engraved  by  WILLIAM 
BALLINGALL  and  J.  D.  COOPER.    1  vol.  4to,  price  (is. 
.  "  The  engravings  are  excellent."— Standard. 

"Mr.  W.  Ralston  has  here  the  proper  subject,  and  is  simply  delicious  both  in 
drawing  and  character,  and  we  certainly  say  with  him  and  the  author  '  The  Queys 
is  Goot.'" — Nonconformist. 

"Nothing  can  be  happier  or  truer  to  nature  than  the  artist's  representations. 
The  whole  story  is  indeed  excellent,  and  thus  illustrated  forms  a  bit  of  real  life 
and  nationality  preserved  for  all  time." — Inverness  Courier. 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

By  the  REV.  WALTER  C.  SMITH,  Author  of  '  The  Bishop's  Walk,  and  other 
Poems,  by  Orwell,'  and  'Hymns  of  Christ  and  Christian  Life.'  Crown  8vo, 
price  6s. 

Disinfectants  and  Disinfection. 

By  DR.  ROBERT  ANGUS  SMITH.     8vo,  price  5s. 

"  By  common  consent  Dr.  Angus  Smith  has  become  the  first  authority  in  Europe 
on  the  subject  of  Disinfectants. — Chemical  News. 

Life  and  Work  at  the  Great  Pyramid. 

With  a  Discussion  of  the  Facts  Ascertained.  By  C.  PIAZZI  SMYTH,  F.R.SS.L. 
and  E.,  Astronomer-Royal  for  Scotland.  3  vols.  demy  8vo,  price  56s. 

An  Equal-Surface  Projection  for  Maps  of  the  World,  and 

its  Application  to  certain  Anthropological  Questions.  By  C.  PIAZZI  SMYTH, 
F.R.SS.L.  <fe  E.,  Astronomer-Royal  for  Scotland.  Svo,  price  3s. 

Britain's  Art  Paradise  ;  or,  Notes  on  some  Pictures  in  the 

Royal  Academy,  1871.     By  the  EARL  of  SOUTHESK.     Svo,  sewed,  price  Is. 

Saskatchewan  and  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

Diary  and  Narrative  of  Travel,  Sport,  and  Adventure,  during  a  Journey  through 
part  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  Territories,  in  1859  and  1860.  By  the  EARL 
OF  SOUTHESK,  K.T.,  F.R.G.S.  1  vol.  demy  Svo,  with  Illustrations  on  wood  by 
WHYMPER,  price  18s. 

Sir  Walter  Scott  as  a  Poet. 

By  GILBERT  MALCOLM  SPROAT.     Svo,  cloth,  price  2s.  6d. 


22  EDMONSTON   AND   DOUGLAS, 


Ruined  Castles,  Monuments  of  Former  Men,  in  the  Vicinity 

of  Banff.     By  JAMES  SPENCE.     Crown  Svo,  price  5s. 

"  In  gleaning  out  and  collecting  into  a  book  all  that  has  survived  and  is  at  the 
same  time  worth  preserving  in  their  history,  accompanied  by  succinct  and 
pleasantly-written  descriptions  and  pen-and-ink  sketches  of  their  present  condi- 
tion, Mr.  Spence  has  done  some  service  to  his  county."— Scotsman. 

Scottish  Liturgies  of  the  Reign  of  James  VI.,  from  MSS.  in 

the  British  Museum  and  Advocates'  Library.  Edited,  with  an  Introduction  and 
Notes,  by  the  REV.  GEO.  W.  SPROTT,  B.  A.  Extra  fcap.  Svo,  cloth,  price  4s.  6d. 

"  The  title  of  this  book  will  be  enough  to  make  many  pass  it  by  as  of  mere 
denominational  interest.  It  is,  on  the  contrary,  one  of  national  importance,  and 
ought  to  be  carefully  studied  by  all  who,  through  any  line  of  descent,  connect 
themselves  with  early  Scotch  Protestantism."— Courant. 

Memoir    of   Sir  James   Dalrymple,   First  Viscount    Stair, 

President  of  the  Court  of  Session  in  Scotland,  and  Author  of  '  The  Institutions  of 
the  Law  of  Scotland.'  A  Study  in  the  History  of  Scotland  and  Scotch  Law  during 
the  Seventeenth  Century.  By  M.  J.  Q.  MACKAT.  Advocate.  Svo,  price  12s. 

History  Vindicated  in  the  Case  of  the  Wigtown  Martyrs. 

By  the  REV.  ARCHIBALD  STEWART.     Second  Edition.     Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 

Dugald  Stewart's  Collected  Works. 

Edited  by  Sir  WILLIAM  HAMILTON,  Bart.    10  vols.  Svo,  cloth,  each  12s. 

Vol.  I.— Dissertation.  Vols.  II.  III.  and  IV.— Elements  of  the  Philosophy 
of  the  Human  Mind.  Vol.  V.— Philosophical  Essays.  Vols.  VI.  and  VII.— 
Philosophy  of  the  Active  and  Moral  Powers  of  Man.  Vols.  VIII.  and  IX.— 
Lectures  on  Political  Economy.  Vol.  X.— Biographical  Memoirs  of  Adam 
Smith,  LL.D.,  William  Robertson,  D.D.,  and  Thomas  Reid,  D.D.  ;  to  which 
is  prefixed  a  Memoir  of  Dugald  Stewart,  with  Selections  from  his  Corre- 
spondence, by  John  Veitch,  M.  A.  Supplementary  Vol.— Translations  of  the 
Passages  in  Foreign  Languages  contained  in  the  Collected  Works ;  with 
General  Index. 

The    Procession  of  Pope   Clement  VII.  and  the  Emperor 

Charles  V.,  after  the  Emperor's  Coronation  at  Bologna,  on  the  24th  February  1530, 
designed  and  engraved  by  NICOLAS  HOGENBERG,  and  now  reproduced  in  fac- 
simile. With  an  Historical  Introduction  by  Sir  WILLIAM  STIRLING-MAXWELL, 
Bart. ,  M.  P.  In  one  vol.  large  folio.  [In  preparation. 

Jerrold,  Tennyson,  Macaulay,  and  other  Critical  Essays. 

By  JAMES  HUTCHISON  STIRLING,  LL.D.,  Author  of  'The  Secret  of  Hegel.' 
1  vol.  fcap.  Svo,  price  5s. 

"  Dr.  Stirling's  opinions  are  entitled  to  be  heard,  and  carry  great  weight  with 
them.  He  is  a  lucid  and  agreeable  writer,  a  profound  metaphysician,  and  by  his 
able  translations  from  the  Gennan  has  proved  his  grasp  of  mind  and  wide  acquaint- 
ance with  philosophical  speculation. "—Examiner. 

Songs  of  the  Seasons. 

By  THOMAS  TOD  STODDART,  Author  of  "The  Angler'i  Companion.'  Crown 
Svo,  price  6s. 


88   PRINCES   STREET,   EDINBURGH.  23 


Christ  the  Consoler; 

Or,  Scriptures,  Hymns,  and  Prayers,  for  Times  of  Trouble  and  Sorrow.  Selected  and 
arranged  by  the  REV.  ROBERT  HERBERT  STORY,  D.D.,  Minister  of  Roseneath. 
Fcap.  8vo,  price  3s.  6d. 

A  Lost  Chapter  in  the  History  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  Be- 

covered,  with  portrait  of  Countess  of  Bothwell,  and  facsimile  of  Dispensation. 
By  JOHN  STUART,  LL.D.,  Author  of  'Sculptured  Stones  of  Scotland.'  Fcap. 
4to,  price  12s.  6d. 

Outlines  of  Scottish  Archaeology. 

By  REV.  G.  SUTHERLAND.     12mo,  sewed,  profusely  Illustrated,  price  Is. 

Memoir  of  James  Syme,  late  Professor  of  Clinical  Surgery  in 

the  University  of  Edinburgh.  By  ROBERT  PATERSON,  M.D.,  President  of  the 
College  of  Physicians,  Edinburgh.  With  Portrait  1  vol.  crown  8vo,  price  7s.  6d. 

Works  by  the  late  Professor  Syme. 

OBSERVATIONS  IN  CLINICAL  SURGERY.    Second  Edition.    8vo,  price  8s.  6d. 
STRICTURE  OF  THE  URETHRA,  AND  FISTULA  IN  PERINEO.    8vo,  price  4s.  6d. 
TREATISE  ON  THE  EXCISION  OF  DISEASED  JOINTS.    8vo,  price  5s, 
ON  DISEASES  OF  THE  RECTUM.     8vo,  4s.  price  6d. 
EXCISION  OF  THE  SCAPULA.    8vo,  price  2s.  6d. 

The  History  of  English  Literature. 

THE  STANDARD  EDITION.  By  H.  TAINE,  D.C.L.  Translated  by  HENRY  VAN 
LAUN.  New  and  carefully  Revised  Edition.  In  4  vols.  small  demy  8vo,  price 
7s.  6d.  each ;  also  kept  in  half-calf,  half-morocco,  and  full  tree-calf  bindings,  suit- 
able for  Presentation  and  School  Prizes. 

"  The  most  interesting  and  the  most  philosophical  history  that  has  been  written 
of  English  literature."— Globe. 

"  Will  take  its  place  in  the  very  foremost  rank  of  works  on  the  literature  of 
England.  "—Spectator. 

"  Deserves  a  conspicuous  place  in  every  library  filled  with  the  immortal  works 
of  which  it  narrates  the  history."— Daily  News. 

"  An  excellent  text-book  for  the  use  of  students  ;  very  much  superior  to  any  of 
those  now  in  use  at  our  schools  and  colleges."—  Examiner. 

Thermodynamics. 

By  P.  G.  TAIT,  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 
New  and  enlarged  edition.  [In  preparation. 

Sales  Attici : 

Or,  The  Maxims,  Witty  and  Wise,  of  Athenian  Tragic  Drama.  By  D'ARCY  WENT- 
WORTH  THOMPSON,  Professor  of  Greek  in  Queen's  College,  Galway.  Fcap.  8vo, 
price  9s. 

Two  Little  Rabbits,  or  the  Sad  Story  of  Whitetail. 
By  G.  A.  DALRYMPLE.    With  8  Illustrations.     Square  18mo,  price  Is. 

Hand-Book  of  the  Education  (Scotland)  Act,  1872. 

Containing— I.  A  digest  of  the  Act,  with  subjects  grouped  for  the  convenience  of 
School  Boards.  II.  Copy  of  the  Act,  with  Explanatory  Notes.  III.  The  Incor- 


24  EDMONSTON  AND  DOUGLAS. 


porated  Acts,  Industrial  Schools'  Act,  etc.,  and  Index.  By  JAMES  TOD,  Ad*o- 
cate.  Fifth  Edition.  Crown  Svo,  price  5s. 

"A  valuable  and  trustworthy  guide." — Courant. 

"The  most  thorough  and  most  useful  companion  to  the  Act." — Daily  Review. 

Travels  by  Umbra.    Svo,  price  ios.  6d. 
Hotch-Pot. 

By  UMBRA.     An  Old  Dish  with  New  Materials.     Fcap.  Svo,  price  3s.  6d. 

The  Merchant's  Sermon  and  other  Stories. 

By  L.  B.  WALFORD.     ISmo,  price  Is.  6d. 

"  A  volume  of  veiy  modest  appearance  which  deserves  more  than  the  brief 
notice  for  which  we  can  find  space.  The  four  tales  it  contains  are  all  pleasant  and 
spirited  little  stories.  The  last  of  these,  '  Polly  Spanker's  Green  Feather,'  is 
really  admirable." — Spectator. 

A  History  of  the  Battle  of  Bannockburn,  fought  A.D.  1314. 

With  Map  and  Armorial  Bearings,  and  Notices  of  the  principal  Warriors  who 
engaged  in  that  Conflict.  By  ROBERT  WHITE,  Author  of  '  A  History  of  the 
Battle  of  Otterburn.'  1  vol.  Svo,  price  12s. 

Dante's— The  Inferno. 

Translated  line  for  line  by  W.  P.  WILKIE,  Advocate.     Fcap.  Svo,  price  5s. 

Researches  on  Colour-Blindness. 

With  a  Supplement  on  the  danger  attending  the  present  system  of  Railway  and 
Marine  Coloured  Signals.  By  the  late  GEORGE  WILSON,  M.D.  Svo,  5s. 

Wordsworth's  Tour  in  Scotland  in  1803,  in  company  with 

his  SISTER  and  S.  T.  COLERIDGE  ;  being  the  JOURNAL  of  Miss  WORDSWORTH, 
now  for  the  first  time  made  public.  Edited  by  PRINCIPAL  SHAIRP,  LL.D. 
Second  Edition,  1  vol. ,  crown  Svo,  price  9s. 

"  If  there  were  no  other  record  of  her  than  those  brief  extracts  from  her  Journal 
during  the  Highland  Tour,  which  stand  at  the  head  of  several  of  her  brother's 
poems,  these  alone  would  prove  her  possessed  of  a  large  portion  of  his  genius. 
Larger  extracts  from  them  occur  in  the  poet's  biography  and  in  the  edition  of  the 
Poems  of  1S57,  and  often  they  seem  nearly  as  good  as  the  poems  they  introduce. 
Might  not  that  wonderful  Journal' even  yet  be  given  entire,  or  nearly  so,  to  the 
world?"— North  British  Review. 

An  Historical  Sketch  of  the  French  Bar,  from  its  Origin  to 

the  Present  Day.    By  ARCHIBALD  YOUNG,  Advocate.    Demy  Svo,  price  7s.  6d. 

"  A  useful  contribution  to  our  knowledge  of  the  leading  French  politicians  of 
the  present  day."— Saturday  Revieiv. 

Notes  on  the  Scotch  Salmon  Fishery  Acts  of  1862  and  1868. 

With  Suggestions  for  their  Improvement.  By  ARCHIE ALDjYOUNG,  Advocate 
Commissioner  of  Scotch  Salmon  Fisheries,  &c.  <fcc.  Svo,  price  Is.  6d. 


Blackie 


AU  THOR 


31 
On  self-culture .Bo 


TITLE 


Blackie  ,LC 

31 
On   self-culture  .Bo