an old crofter who, in his early years,
worked at the loom with Alexander Bain, late Professor in the University
of Aberdeen. Half a century ago, John Stuart Mill said that Bain's
erudition was encyclopaedic. From long residence in France, I know that
few British philosophers are better known than Bain (whose name the
French amusingly pronounce to rhyme with _vin_). This old crofter tells
how he used to chaff the future professor for invariably having a book
in front of him as the shuttle was plied. Bain, by slow and careful
work, overcame prejudice, and secured a high position among the leaders
of thought. Long ago, those who had to sit for the London degrees used
to regard him as the greatest thinker in Europe. When he retired from
the examinership at London, students lost some of their old veneration
for him, and when he married a second time, a Miss Barbara Something,
they even ventured to make a logical joke on him, and say that he had
been fascinated by _Barbara's perfect figure_. I know that many pupils
of our public schools, in love with football more than syntax, often
regretted that Bain ever composed his _English Grammar_. No book (unless
perhaps Morell's _Analysis_) has ever been more cordially execrated, and
no book ever more richly deserved it, for though, like Aberdeen granite,
it is stately and impressive, it is also ruthless, cold, and implacable.
The draught may be wholesome and medicinal, but there is no honey on the
rim of the cup.

PROFESSOR BLACKIE IN THE HIGHLANDS.

One hears a great deal of Professor Blackie in the North and West, and
no wonder. He was a laughing, jocular, impressionable man, who hobnobbed
with landlords and amiably slapped drivers and policemen on the back,
throwing a Gaelic greeting at them as he did so. His faculty for writing
poetry is seen in many a guidebook; Oban, Inverness, Pitlochry, and
numberless other places, have had their beauties celebrated by this
animated writer. He was a good friend to the Highlands--studied Gaelic
most arduously, translated some of the finest of the Celtic bards,
worked assiduously for the establishment of a Celtic Chair in Edinburgh,
spoke many a good word for the crofters--in fact, did everything well
except what he was paid to do, viz., teach Greek to his students. Grave
D.D.'s could not understand or condone his cantrips. I have been assured
that on one occasion, when Professor in the College of Aberdeen, he
actually _stood on his head_