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word in Mr Smith's poetry that has not been previously used by some other poet.

One may imagine the appreciative laughter with which we joined Smith in seeing the reductio ad absurdum argument pressed home so effectually.

P. P. Alexander was, I have said, a man of great ability, but had somehow lost his way in life. He would have made an excellent soldier, and, had the choice been allowed him, would have adopted a military career. Balked in this, it is said, by his father's opposition, he did not take kindly to a commercial life, and ultimately gave it up. Having a moderate patrimony, he could afford to be intermittently industrious in literary effort, while, partly from natural temperament and partly from disappointment as to his life pursuit, he was persistently Bohemian. Evidence of this latter characteristic crops up frequently in his writings, and notably in his admirable Memoir of Smith. In all he wrote -humorous, philosophical, or pathetic cannot help feeling that his capacity was much greater than his performance, and regretting that he did not by continuous steady effort do, what he evidently could have done, earn for himself high distinction in literature. He had a wide acquaintance with the literary circles of

one

Edinburgh- Bohemian and other-and spent many evenings with friends among whom there was, as he says, "Much hearty, careless talk, frequently of a dreadfully unintellectual character." In the Saturday evening club of which I was for many years a member and which came to an end five or six years ago, killed by the steadily increasing lateness of Edinburgh dinner-hours, Mr Alexander was occasionlly present. It was purely a conversational club. At its inception, and for many years afterwards, it was the weekly meeting-place of university professors, doctors, lawyers, artists, and others of distinctly intellectual type. Informal discussions, sometimes on scientific, sometimes on literary, sometimes on social subjects, were carried on with much spirit and enjoyment. The creature comforts were pipes and moderate indulgence in the wine of the country.

One night the change in the drinking habits of people was incidentally referred to. Doubts were expressed about the authenticity of twelve and twenty tumblers of toddy being drunk at one sederunt. I professed no knowledge, personal or other, of such feats; but I said that a farmer in Aberdeenshire, of the highest respectability and wecht, whom I knew intimately-a man often appointed

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as arbiter in cases requiring sound judgment and accuracy of statement, and in whose veracity on ordinary subjects I had absolute confidenceassured me that he had been one of twelve farmers who had sat down to dinner at three o'clock in the afternoon, and at three o'clock in the morning every man had drunk twenty-four tumblers of toddy. Mr Alexander was present, and was evidently interested in my statement. Turning to me he said, "My dear Kerr, I have no doubt that you have correctly reported what your farmer friend told you, but I venture to say, on the strength of personal and very considerable experience in drinking whisky, that the story is not credible. The man who has taken twentyfour tumblers is not fit to give evidence."

I need not say that I found effective reply impossible, and that we all admired the quickness and logic with which he knocked the bottom out of a story so circumstantially told.

That he had sad as well as festive hours, and could give them finely poetical expression, is seen in the following lines:

"Death! I have heard thee in the summer noon

Mix thy weird whisper with the breath of flowers:
And I have heard thee oft in jocund hours,

Speak in the festal tones of music boon

Not seldom thou art with me late and soon,
Whether the waves of life are dancing bright,
Or, dead to joy of thought, and sound, and sight,
My world lies all distraught and out of tune.

But most-in lone, drear hours of undelight, When Sleep consents not to be child of choice, And shuddering at its own dread stillness, Night, Hung like a pall of choky dampness round, Makes Silence' self to counterfeit a sound— Methinks it is thine own authentic voice."

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CHAPTER XII.

CHANGES IN GRADUATION AND BURSARIES IN EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW ABERDEEN, WHY DIFFERENT-DICK BEQUESTGRADUATION AND BURSARIES FIFTY YEARS AGO AND NOWUNIVERSITY NO PLACE FOR POVERTY OF BOTH PURSE AND INTELLECT-BURSARIES, WHEREVER POSSIBLE, SHOULD BE OPEN TO FREE COMPETITION - CROOKED ANSWERS FROM EXAMINATION PAPERS.

In two very important respects there have been great changes in the southern universities of Scotland within the last forty years-the proportion of students who place the copestone on their studies in the Faculty of Arts by graduating, and the number of bursaries open to free competition. In Aberdeen it has always been the fashion to graduate, and not to do so almost a disgrace. In the southern universities the fashion was non-graduation. For this there were several reasons, the chief of which may be shortly stated. In Aberdeen graduation was encouraged by the Dick Bequest, which has done more for the promotion of advanced education than any fund with which I am acquainted.