An Edinburgh Eleven: Pencil Portraits from College Life — John Shaqi
An Edinburgh Eleven: Pencil Portraits from College LifeBarrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
General
An Edinburgh Eleven: Pencil Portraits from College Life
Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
University of Edinburgh -- Biography
Gregory was a member of that society--what has become of Gregory? He
was one of those men who professors say have a brilliant future before
them, and who have not since been heard of. Morton, another member, was
of a different stamp. He led in the debate on "Beauty of the Mind v.
Beauty of the Body." His writhing contempt for the beauty that is only
skin-deep is not to be forgotten. How noble were his rhapsodies on the
beauty of the mind! And when he went to Calderwood's to supper, how
quick he was to pick out the prettiest girl, who took ten per cent in
moral philosophy, and to sit beside her all the evening! Morton had a
way of calling on his friends the night before a degree examination to
ask them to put him up to as much as would pull him through.
Tait used to get greatly excited over the rectorial elections, and, if
he could have disguised himself, would have liked, I think, to join in
the fight round the Brewster statue. He would have bled for the
Conservative cause, as his utterances on university reform have shown.
The reformers have some cause for thinking that Tait is a greater man
in his class room than when he addresses the graduates. He has said
that the less his students know of his subject when they join his
class, the less, probably, they will have to unlearn. Such views are
behind the times that feed their children on geographical biscuits in
educational nurseries with astronomical ceilings and historical
wall-papers.
PROFESSOR CAMPBELL FRASER.
VI.
PROFESSOR CAMPBELL FRASER.
Not long ago I was back in the Old University--how well I remember
pointing it out as the jail to a stranger, who had asked me to show him
round. I was in one of the library ante-rooms, when some one knocked,
and I looked up, to see Campbell Fraser framed in the doorway. I had
not looked on that venerable figure for half a dozen years. I had
forgotten all my metaphysics. Yet it all came back with a rush. I was
on my feet, wondering if I existed strictly so called.
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