The Life of Professor John Stuart Blackie, the Most Distinguished
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7'aken at his Highland hi.me, Alt-ra-Craig, Olan THE LIFE OF PROFESSOR joe mm THE MOST DISTINGUISHED SCOTSMAN OP THE DAT BY VARIOUS EMINENT WRITERS.. EDITED BY REV. JOHN G* DUNCAN, SPR1NGBURN. JOHN J. RAE, 127 STOCKWEU, STREET UA 031 b PREFACE. THIS book is not intended to be a full and continuous biography of the late Professor John. Stuart Blackie. So serious a work as that de- mands the services of one who, admitted to a closer friendship than I can claim, has also a greater literary power. I aim rather at giving the impressions left on my own mind and the minds of others, by a study of the life and work,, the sayings and sermons, the songs and lectures, the literary and other achievements of the late Professor. This volume is but a humble attempt to a to estimate give popular sketch of the man ; as far as possible the value of his contributions to life to contemporary thought and ; present within brief limits a picture of what he was and what he has done. To relate the story of the origin of this book and how I have been led to undertake the work of its Editor, would be an apology to myself rather than to the public ; but I may say that the task was not sought by, but was offered to^ me. At the time of the Professor's death I tried! in a sermon to point the lessons and the signifi- 959G34 cance of his life. Much of this sermon is included in the introductory chapter, and with slight alterations, is printed as it was delivered. To this effort the Publisher thought there should be given a more permanent and that I had been one of the form ; knowing Professor's students at Edinburgh University, he asked me to undertake the supervision of a work giving in more detail and from the different standpoints of different authors, the main out- lines of the life and character of Professor Blackie. I consented to make the effort on the understanding that the Publisher would provide the contributions and criticisms of the various authors. In such a work as this it must needs be that some repetitions, some overlapping should occur. It will be held as well-nigh im- possible that interviewers, students, preachers, and all the critics in the manifold literary fields of the modern world should write about one single life and not occasionally find the same prominent characteristic to be recorded. But this disadvantage is counter-balanced by the manifest advantage that in a work to which many have contributed there is less danger of any distinctive feature being overlooked. Where possible the names of the various contributors have been but notices in given ; newspapers and stray allusions in periodical literature do not lend themselves readily to direct acknowledge- ment. If the human and personal element in biog- " raphy be as Carlyle called it the most universally pleasant and profitable of all reading"; if as that same sage has remarked " Great men are the inspired texts of that divine Book of Revelation of which a chapter is completed from epoch to epoch, and by some named History," then there ought to be some profit and inspiration in reading the record of the life of one who was so true a type of the Christian and the hero, as John Stuart Blackie. Misconceptions have gathered around his name : men have fixed upon merely accidental features in his character, and understood him by these instead of by the steady and constant mani- festations of his inner nature. To bring forward these into clear light : to remove the dust which has obscured the fine gold : to shew that he was .a man with a mission and a message has been the aim of the following pages. No man could, with more truth, accept for himselt the high function of the poet as described and fulfilled ty one whose poetry greatly influenced him "William Wordsworth. Was there ever a loftier description of the aim of poetry than that " written to a friend by him who uttered nothing " base" ? "I doubt not," he said, that you will share with me an invincible confidence that my writings, and among them these little poems,, will co-operate with the benign tendencies of human nature and society, wherever found ; and that they will in their degree, be efficacious in making men wiser and better To con- sole afflicted to to the ; add sunlight daylight the to teach the by making happy happier ; young and the gracious of every age to see, to think, to feel, and therefore to become more actively and securely virtuous, this is their office which I trust they will faithfully perform long after we, that is all that is mortal of us, are mouldered in our graves." These noble words describe the message of the genial Scotch Professor whose bright hopeful spirit, undaun- ted by evil, will live in our memories when his- merely superficial eccentricities are both for- given and forgotten. JOHN G. DUNCAN. SPRINGBURN GLASGOW, 20th May, 1895. CONTENTS. PACE CENERAL INTRODUCTION, ... 9 CHAPTER I. T3ARI.Y YEARS AND EDUCATION, . .40 CHAPTER II. THE PROFESSOR, 52 CHAPTER III. -THE AUTHOR, 69 CHAPTER IV. BLACKIE AND THE HIGHLANDS, . 8 1 CHAPTER V. THE PERIPATETIC LECTURER, . -97 CHAPTER VI. THE MANY SIDEDNESS OF HIS CHARACTER, IO6 CHAPTER VII. THE WIT, 130 CHAPTER VIII. EVENTIDE, 137 CHAPTER IX. THE DEAN CEMETERY, . .142 TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY AND GREATNESS. BY REV. JOHN G. DUNCAN, . .165 " ,, A. H. S., FROM LIFE AND WORK," . l8o ,, EMMA MOLYNEUX, . 190 ,, REV. WM. ROSS, . 192 TRIBUTES Continued. PAGE PROFESSOR MASSON, . 2OI T. ., CANNAN NESVALL, .... 205 ,, ARTHUR WARREN, 22O RUSKIN SOCIETY OF GLASGOW, . 229 "PUNCH," 231 ,, "THS STRAND MAGAZINE," . 232 " ,, THE ENGLISH ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE," 242 JAMES COLVILLE, .... 250- REV. ALEXANDER WEBSTER, . .251 DR. WHITE, . 253 ,, "THE GLASGOW HERALD," . 256 DR. MACGREGOR, 259 ,, ALEXANDER ANDERSON, . 271 "THE LEISURE HOUR," . .281 ,, J. M. BARRIE, . 283 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Frontispiece. Taken at his Highland Home, Alt-na-Craig, Oban, .... 2 Statuette of Professor Blackie, . 15 Professor Blackie, 17 Entrance Hall, 31 The Dining Room, . -33 The Drawing Room, .... 47 The Dining Room, (Second) . 49 " The Shrine "Bookcase, ... 63 The Drawing Room, (Second) . .65 Professor Blackie in His Study, . 79, LIFE OF John (Stuart $Hackie* < General Introduction. EOFESSOE JOHN STUAKTBLACKIE, has passed away at the ripe age of eighty- six. In him Scotland loses apatrioticcitizen, a rare scholar, and a distinguished patriot. The famous Professor of Greek has long figured as one of the most interesting and picturesque of our public men. He was wont to call himself a " " Modern Sophist in the original sense of the term, and there were few subjects 10 LIFE OF PROFESSOR BLACKIE. within the range of history, poetry, and philosophy on which he could not have instructed his fellow-men. Scotland, and indeed England too, is very much the poorer for his death professor, poet, philo- sopher, and patriot, as he was aptly called. For nearly forty years the Edinburgh Professor of Greek ha? figured as one of the most interesting, certainly the most picturesque of our public men. Above all things, he was always an ardent advocate, and in- deed practitioner, of Scottish song, and he has left behind him several volumes of verse which his countrymen will not readily let die. In an age of pessimism he held high the banner of human hope and human aims, and he was never accused of any unworthy action. In the literary history of Scot- land he will rank with celebrities like "Christopher North," with whose versatile and eccentric character he had very much in common. It is not too much to say that he made a figure in our generation which was altogether unique. A delightful poet and singer, he had a shrewd eye for an idea took of lusiness ; and when possession him no opposition deterred him from following it to its GENERAL VIEW OF HIS CAREER. 11 practical end. An untiring controversialist, he wae the most lovable of men. Erratic often, and some- times nonsensical, in his public declamations, none was more sane or logical when he wielded the pen. Patriotic almost to a fault, none appreciated more clearly the virtues of other nations, or was more un- sparing of the weaknesses of his own countrymen. Poet and publicist, scholar and teacher, patriot and (philosopher, he was A man so varied that he seemed to be, Not one, but all mankind's epitome. Scotland will doubtless never lack her share of not- able men. We cannot imagine a time when she will siot have her Stevensons, her Aytouns, her Wilsons, her Jeffreys, and even her Chalmerses, should the occa- sion arise it tries to ; but imagination collapses when picture another Blackie. But Professor Blackie, regarded as an extra- academic force, will be best remembered as a fervid upholder of the independence, if not the separateness of Scottish nationality. No one of his time, or per- haps of any time, has sung the praises of his .country's literature to such purpose : no one has 12 LIFE OF PROFESSOR BLACKIE. " " struck so many blows at West Endism and other things, and persons that tend to bring that literature into none has more contempt ; eloquently sang the praises of Burns (he wrote the volume on Burns " " for the Great Writers series in 1888), "poor- " child of whim as he has nevertheless called him. Columns could be filled with references of the barest kind to his poems, lectures, and other senti_ mental contributions of Professor Blackie to the de- fence of Scotch nationality.