only the greatest ecclesiastical controversialist
of his day; his name is pre-eminent in another sphere. He was the most
learned Scot of his time; and our Universities never had a teacher
within their walls who did so much to spread their reputation. His fame
as a scholar not only checked the habit among the _elite_ of Scottish
students of resorting to the Continental Universities; it drew many
foreign students to Glasgow and St. Andrews. His academic distinction
has been overshadowed by his fame as the leader of the Church in one of
the most momentous struggles in her history, but it was equally great in
its own sphere. A Scottish historian--John Hill Burton--has sought,
with a singular perversity, to belittle Melville as a scholar, and
speaks of M'Crie as having _endeavoured_ to make out his title to
distinction in this respect from the natural ambition to claim such an
honour for one of his own ecclesiastical forebears. The chapter which
follows will show the value of such a judgment.

There is still another and a higher ground for our interest in Melville,
namely, his massive personality. It is not so much in the polemic or in
the scholar we are interested, as in the man. The appreciation of his
character by his countrymen has suffered from his proximity to Knox. Had
he not stood so close on the field of history to the greatest of Scots,
his stature would have been more impressive. In historic picturesqueness
his life will not compare with that of Knox, although it had incidents,
such as his appearances before the King and Council at Falkland and
Hampton Court, which are unsurpassed by any in Scottish history for
moral grandeur. There were not the same tragic elements mixed up with
Melville's career. His life fell on duller times and among feebler
contemporaries. He had not such a foil to his figure as Knox had in
Mary; there was not among his opponents such a protagonist as Knox
encountered in Mary's strong personality. And yet it may be justly
claimed for Melville that in the highest quality of manhood, in _moral
nerve_, he was not a whit behind his great predecessor. He never once
wavered in his course nor abated his testimony to his principles in the
most perilous situation; in the long struggle with the King and the
Court he played the man, uttered fearlessly on every occasion the last
syllable of his convictions, made no accommodation or concession to
arbitrary authority, and kept an untamed and hopeful spirit