under the influence of Sir William Hamilton, and was a distinguished student. In 1855 he was appointed assistant to Hamilton; and he held this post under Professor Campbell Fraser until 1860, when he was elected Professor of Logic, Rhetoric, and Metaphysics in the University of St. Andrews. In 1864 he was appointed to the Chair of Logic and Rhetoric in the University of Glasgow, which he filled with much credit for a period of thirty years. He died in September

1894.

His writings cover a varied range of topics. In conjunction with Mr. H. L. Mansel, he edited Sir William Hamilton's Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic-an undertaking which entailed much work. He wrote a lengthy Memoir of Sir William, which is the standard work on the subject. His translation of the Method, Meditations and Principles of Descartes, with an introduction and notes, is a very useful book for students. His Essay on Lucretius and the Atomic Theory appeared in 1875, and is a very interesting effort. His Institutes of Logic evince a wide and accurate historical knowledge of logical doctrine. In his Knowing and Being published in 1889, he touched on metaphysical problems, and criticised some of Hegel's conceptions. His labours, however, in other branches of literature are perhaps more notable. In 1878 his History and Poetry of the Scottish Borders appeared, and is a valuable and interesting contribution to this branch of literature. A second edition has been issued. His work entitled The Feeling for Nature in Scottish Poetry published in 1887, is pervaded by fine feeling and an elevated tone of expression. He had a poetic aspiration and feeling, and wrote several poems-The Tweed, Merlin, and others. His mind presented a characteristic combination of philosophic insight and poetic fervour.

John Stuart Blackie was born in Glasgow on the 28th of July, 1809. In 1812 his father, who was a banker, removed to Aberdeen to manage the branch of the Commercial Bank of Scotland. At the age of twelve he entered Marischal College, where he attended classes for three years, and subsequently he studied at Edinburgh University. In 1829 he proceeded to Germany, and pursued his studies at Gottingen and Berlin, and finally in Italy. On returning to Scotland, he studied law, and was called to the Scottish Bar in 1834; but it appears that he never practiced, his talents were ill-suited for the profession. For some years he was engaged in writing articles for periodicals. In 1841 he was appointed to the Chair of Humanity in Marischal College, Aberdeen, and he ardently devoted his attention

to the work. In 1852 he was appointed Professor of Greek in the University of Edinburgh. He held this Chair for thirty years, resigning it in 1882.

Blackie was a man of remarkable talents, and considerable culture associated with keen feelings and wide sympathies. These were combined in his peculiar personality with many comic eccentricities, which sharply distinguished him from all his contemporaries. He was very energetic outside the University, and delivered popular lectures in different quarters of the country, which were instructive and always highly amusing, calling forth applause and roars of laughter. He took a deep interest in the Highlands, and was a warm friend of the crofters, advocating their cause with much enthusiasm. It was mainly by his exertions that a Celtic Chair was established in Edinburgh University. He died at Edinburgh on the 2nd of March, 1895.

His energy was great. A noted traveller, he embraced every opportunity of observing men and things. A most versatile writer, he delivered his views on many subjects: comprising morals, religion, and political philosophy, songs, ballads, poetry, Gaelic literature, and translations. The following include his more important works-A metrical translation of Goethe's Faust published in 1834, of which a second edition with emendations was issued; A translation of the Lyrical Dramas of Eschylus in English verse published in 1850, in two volumes; Songs and Legends of Ancient Greece appeared in 1857; Homer and the Iliad, in four volumes, containing a translation of the Iliad in ballad measure, dissertations and notes, published in 1866. Four Phases of Morals, as represented by Socrates, Aristotle, Christianity, and Utilitarianism-a series of lectures; Natural History of Atheism, issued in 1877, and intended. to be a defence of theism against the modern tendencies of speculation; Self-Culture, Intellectual, Physical, and Moral. This work was one of his most successful efforts, many editions of it having been issued both in Britain and America. He was a great admirer and lover of Scottish songs and ballads, and was himself a writer of songs and verse. In 1872 his Lays of the Highlands appeared, in which there is vivid and effective writing, and considerable artistic combination. His Songs of Religion and Life was issued in 1876, and shows clearly that he was not a creed-limited devotee, but rather a worshipper in the great and glorious universe. Altavona-Fact and Fiction from my Life in the Highlands was published in 1882, and is

an interesting volume. His Scottish Song: its wealth, wisdom and social significance, issued in 1889, is an excellent book. He wrote a Life of Burns, and a number of other works.

The chief characteristics of Professor Blackie's style are freshness, cheerfulness, touches of pathos, comic turns, and wit. His main philosophical idea was founded upon Aristotle's doctrine that "all extremes are wrong." This was a special feature in his political opinions.

In the department of travels and exploration, Scotland has contributed her share, as the names of Bruce, Mungo Park, Livingstone, and others testify.

James Bruce was born at Kinnaird House, in Stirlingshire, in 1730. He was intended for the legal profession; but he was averse to the irksome study of law, and commenced business as a winemerchant in London. Having visited Spain and Portugal, his attention was attracted to the architectural ruins and tales of the Moorish dominion; he earnestly devoted himself to the study of Eastern antiquities and languages. When he returned to England, it was proposed that he should make a journey to Barbary, and he was appointed to the consulship of Algiers. He left England and arrived at Algiers in 1762. Bruce spent six years at Algiers and in various travels, and having surveyed and sketched the ruins of Palmyra and Baalbec, he reached Alexandria in 1768. He then proceeded to Cairo, embarked on the Nile, and arrived at Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia. After a short stay there, he started for the sources of Bahr-el-Azrek, under the impression that this was the main branch of the Nile. At length the spot was pointed out to him by his guide, a hillock of green sod in the middle of a watery plain. The king of Abyssinia conferred high personal distinctions on Bruce. Returning through the great deserts of Nubia to Egypt, he encountered extreme hardships and dangers from the sand-storms and simoom of the desert.

After his return home, some parts of the narrative of his travels reached the public, and were much ridiculed and discredited. Even the sage Johnson doubted whether Bruce had ever been in Abyssinia! A complete account of his travels was published in 1790, in five volumes. But his statements were still deemed a fitting theme for the sneers and lampoons of the critics and wits of the time; and though Bruce felt these attacks keenly, he was an honourable and

proud-spirited man, and scorned to reply to such impeachments of his veracity. He died in 1804.

A second and third edition of his travels were published within eight years after his death. The general accuracy of his work, and the correctness of his drawings and maps, have long ago been confirmed from many different quarters. His style is prolix, but sometimes animated.

Mungo Park was born at Fowlshiels, in the vicinity of Stirling, in 1771. He studied for the medical profession; and, under the auspices of the African Association, formed in 1778 for the purpose of promoting discovery in the interior of Africa, he embarked in May, 1795. On the 21st of June he arrived at Jillifree, on the banks of the Gambia. Thence he proceeded towards the kingdom of Bambarra, and there he saw the chief object of his mission, the river Niger, flowing towards the east. Park's narrative of his journeythe various incidents, the sufferings which he encountered, his captivity among the Moors, and the manners, customs, and trade of the inhabitants, are all intensely interesting. He returned to England in the end of the year 1797; and, in 1799, his travels were published. His style is marked by simplicity, clearness, and fine moral feeling.

But his active mind and spirit was not satisfied, and he longed to renew his travels. He again sailed from England, arriving at Goree in the end of March, 1805. The expedition, which at first consisted of forty-five men, but now reduced to seven, was unfortunate. At Sansanding, he built a boat to continue his voyage down the river, and entered it on the 17th of November, 1805, resolved to discover the termination of the Niger or to perish in the attempt. After the party had sailed several days, on passing a rocky part of the river named Boussa, the natives attacked them, and Park himself and one of his companions were drowned while attempting to escape by swimming. His letters and journals had been sent to Gambia before embarking on the fatal voyage, and an account of the journey, compiled from these, was published in 1815.

The exploration of the interior of Africa long continued to be an object of adventurous and worthy ambition, and a number of men have spent the better part of their lives in such undertakings. Our countryman, David Livingstone, as a missionary and an explorer of Africa, takes a high rank. He was a man inured to hard labour from his youth, and his great work in Africa, his noble and wellconsidered efforts to enlighten and civilise the natives of the coun

tries which he visited, are unrivalled in the records of travellers, and will still be fresh in the minds of many of the present generation.

Livingstone's labours in Africa fall naturally into three periods. The first, extending from 1841 to 1857, in which he worked in Southern Africa as a missionary, and made various expeditions into the interior of the country. Having returned home, his Researches in South Africa were published in 1857, and is a deeply interesting volume. It describes his long and often perilous journeys, and contains much original information touching the natives, the geography, botany, and natural products of Africa.

The second period extends from 1858 to 1864: early in the former year he set out on his second important mission. In May he had reached the mouth of the Zambesi. In January the following year he explored the river and valley of the Shire, where a white man. had never before been seen. He proceeded up the Shire some two hundred miles, till stopped by the Murchison Falls. He found the Shire valley fertile and cultivated. By an overland march of twenty days from Shire, in September, 1860, he discovered the great lake of Nyassa. He afterwards revisited it, and concluded that the lake was about two hundred miles long and forty broad. The country was studded with villages, and the natives of the Shire and Nyassa valleys had good iron, and were manufacturers as well as agriculturists. Livingstone returned to England in 1864, and recorded his explorations in a Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its tributaries, and of the discovery of the lakes Sherwa and Nyassa.

In 1866, Livingstone started on his third and last expedition. In March he left Zanzibar and struck up the country towards lake Nyassa. For seven years he bravely prosecuted his travels and labours in Africa, suffering many hardships and dangers. At last, worn out, he died on the 1st of May, 1873. He had before expressed a wish to die in the still forest, "and no hand ever disturb my bones." But so beloved was he when alive, that his body was rudely embalmed by his faithful followers, and carried by them hundreds of miles to Zanzibar, whence it was conveyed to England and interred in Westminster Abbey, on the 18th of April, 1874. Thus lived and died Dr. Livingstone, a man equally remarkable for his great intelligence and sagacity, his warm-hearted and wide sympathies, which were admirably exerted for the elevation and good of the natives of Africa; his bravery, fortitude, and endurance were wonderful, and his strength of will and perseverance unmatched.