The range of his knowledge and culture was almost encyclopædic, as was that of his friend and rival Robertson Smith; so that, like the late Professor Trail of Edinburgh-editor of the seventh edition of the" Encyclopædia Britannica❞— he was probably the only man in the University who could have been trusted on an emergency to conduct the class of any one of his colleagues if he were accidentally laid aside from duty.

It is a noteworthy circumstance that, when it was finally determined to separate the subjects of Logic and Literature in the University of Aberdeen, a memorial was addressed to Professor Minto, signed by 350 of his former pupils, asking him to accept the Chalmers Chair of English Literature.

The lectures published in this volume, which have been printed from Professor Minto's own MSS., are a very inadequate index of the extent of his knowledge, or his critical insight into the more delicate problems which arise in the study of English Literature; but, as he meant to recast them with a view to publication, they are sent forth in the belief that they contain literary judgments which he would himself have ratified in any subsequent work. At the same time, I believe that there are articles of William Minto's, I should not say buried, but-for the mass of readers-lost, in the "Encyclopædia Britannica," The Nineteenth Century, and other magazines, which, in their critical vision, their wise insight, and felicitous appraisal of authors little known (or at least little read), are greatly superior to those put together in this volume for the first time. There are papers on Wordsworth, and

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other magnates in our great English hierarchy, which will be found as valuable to posterity as the critical notices of any of our modern reviewers. In addition there are numerous Introductory Lectures delivered to his class,—such as those on "The English Language," on "The Usefulness of Plodding," on "Industry," and others delivered to literary societies in the north; that on "K., B., and Q.," or three new novelists (they were Kipling, Barrie, and QuillerCouch), which would adorn another volume of his, remains.

As Minto's knowledge was not derived from secondary sources, his criticism was invariably at first hand. I was often struck with his knowledge of out-of-the-way authors. He could quote "The Day's Estival" as readily as he showed his knowledge of the writings of Thomas, ex Albiis. These delightful days at Aberdeen, when-after a round of the Links-we used to watch the fleet of boats going out from the harbor to the herring fishing, and talk of Metaphysics or of Literature, vividly recall to me how glad Minto was to be ultimately relieved from what became-to a temperament like his— the drudgery of editorship. I nevertheless believe that his training in the editorial chair, and his varied literary work in London, developed his unique fitness for the work he did at the University. It prevented him from ever being pedantic. It gave simplicity, piquancy, and diversity to his style; and to it is greatly owing the fact that, in all his subsequent expositions of the abstruser matters of Philosophy, he was untechnical, and even vernacular.

In the following brief sketch of his life I avail myself of notes derived from several quarters.

William Minto was born at Nether Auchintoul, Alford, on the 10th of October, 1845, the farm then occupied by his father. He was sent to Gallowhill school, near Alford, which he left in May, 1854, going for six months to the parish school of Tough. In November, 1854, his father entered upon the tenancy of the farm of Littlemill, Auchterless, and the son was sent to a private school at Bruckhills in the neighborhood. Here he remained for two years, after which he went for a year to the Episcopal school at Fisherford, Culsalmond. In 1857 his parents removed to Huntly, where William was taught in the Gordon Schools under a very able master, the Rev. John Macdonald, who gave him a thorough training in classics as a preparation for the bursary competition at the University of Aberdeen. He cherished the memory of this teacher to the last, entertaining for him the greatest admiration and regard.

Before giving an outline of his College career an explanation of the constant race between him and the late Robertson Smith, the distinguished Professor of Arabic at Cambridge, is desirable. He went to College in the winter of 1861-62, at the age of sixteen, his means of preparation being such as already indicated. Robertson Smith was two years his senior; and, by his father's arrangement as a matter of policy, was kept at home studying to the very utmost under himself, he being one of the best teachers of the day, accomplished both in mathematics and classics. The consequence was that Smith carried

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off the first bursary with comparative ease, his Latin version being perfect, sine errore, in every respect-probably as good a version as the classical master could have produced. Minto, with his inferior advantages, was able to carry off the Moir bursary of fifteen pounds. The disparity in years and means of training made the start of the two competitors necessarily unequal; and it was by an extraordinary strain of application that Minto was able, in a very short time, to equal, and even to surpass, Robertson Smith in some of the subjects. At the end of the first year his work had been such that he took the eighth prize in Latin, and the second in Greek. In English he only attained a third place in the order of merit. Professor Bain writes: "In the English class one incident occurred which constituted the first occasion of my taking notice of his personality. I began in that year the system of setting in writing two essays a week, and engaged an assistant to read them. The only person that I could find as an assistant to begin with, before I got advanced pupils of my own, was an assistant librarian in the College. The out-of-door essays I made him examine and value, and also indicate errors, so that they might be returned. After giving them back one day Minto came up to me at the end of the hour, and showed me his paper with some red ink marks under portions of it, which was the mode of indicating some error or want of correctness. He asked me to tell him what that meant. I looked at it, and I found that there was really nothing to correct in the matter at all; and the incident showed me that the assistant was not to be trusted with the

function of indicating errors, so as to enable me to return the essays; and from that time forward I ceased the practice."

In the Honors examinations Minto had a first in Classics, a second in Mental Philosophy, and a second in Mathematical Science-a triple honor, never before or since accomplished. As prizes he carried off the Simpson in Greek and the Boxhill in Mathematics; he also obtained the Hutton prize (which was awarded for distinction both in Classics and in Philosophy)— the total money value of the prizes being £110.

He graduated as Master of Arts in 1865, and afterward obtained the Ferguson scholarship in Classics, open to graduates of all the Scottish Universities.

In the session of 1865-66 he attended the Divinity Hall, and in the summer of 1866 went to Merton College, Oxford, where he obtained an exhibition of eighty pounds.

His experience at Oxford seemed to impress him with the inexpediency of pursuing his studies there, and he resolved to leave it at the end of the year, which he did, without taking the Oxford degree. He seemed to think that to wait for a Fellowship at Merton would not be so advantageous to him as to go south to the metropolis, or to return to Scotland.

In the autumn of 1867 he was undecided as to his future; but, owing to his distinction in Science, as well as in Classics and Philosophy, an offer was made to him by Mr. David Thomson, the Professor of Natural Philosophy in Aberdeen, to become his endowed assistant-an office to which a salary of one hundred pounds a year was at