Romance of Learning.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13655, 25 July 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

Romance of Learning.

THE GIFFORD LECTURES. "The Religious Teachers of Greece/' being the Gilford -Lectures on Natural Religion delivered at Aberdeen, by James Adam, Litt.D., edited with a. memoir by Iris wife, Adela Marion Adam.

(By J. A. Steuart.) It is the reverse of dispraise or disparagement to say that to the general reader Ihe most interesting part of the book is the Memoir of its distinguished author by his accomplished wife. -...iiere once again is A illustration of the indomitable grit of the (Scotch, as well as of the romance with which that intrepid, sagacious, hard-headed race contrive to invest tlio enterprises of ambition. Last year James Adam died in Aberdeen lour hours after undergoing an operation, at the age of forty-seven. The career thus suddenly ended typifies a kind of romance, of adventure rarer, perhaps, south ,than north of the Tweed; but always and everywhere fascinating to such as care for things of the mind—that is to, say, for the only human beings that endure. Obstacles surmounted', obscure beginnings, meagre opportunities developed into splendid achievement, such in brief is the biography of Adam, as of thousands of his countrymen. He began in the rustic school of his native hamlet of Kinmiick, in Aberdeenshire, the mate and playfellow of cotters' children; he ended as Senior Tutor and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, a vital influence in the University, a scholar of European reputation. The way was hard, and he did' not'take it unscathed. "All distinguished Aberdonians die before they are fifty," said the late Professor Bain, referring to the tremendous pressure under which his students worked; and Mrs. Adam prints" a list that gives pathetic force to the statement. It includes the names not only of Adam and Sf radian,who died last year, but also of Robertson Smith, Minlo, and R. A. Neil. Ifc is questionable if Adam ever really discovered his natural spring and buoyancy after the rigours of his Aberdeen days. Working prodigiously, lie literally took all the classical honours the Northern University had to bestow: prizes, medals, scholarships, fell to him in turn; and a,t Cambridge he repeated his triumphs—with a- single exception. To the highest honours of the Tripos examinations he added the coveted' distinction of the First Chancellor's Medal for Classics. But most coveted distinction of all —the Craven Scholarship—he somehow missed. This, the solitary disappointment of his undergraduate course, may account for other disappointments later on. Thrice he was an unsuccessful candidate for Greek and Latin chairs in Scotland, t-wice in Aberdeen and once in Glasgow, though in one case a.t least a liian with nothing like his record was appointed. Again" on the death of Jebb, liis friends induced .him to become a candidate for the Regius Professorship of Greek in Cambridge. It was a foregone' conclusion that Dr. Jackson should be elected'to the vacant post, Cambridge men believe, however (a, belief which Mrs. Adam modestly omits to mention), that had Adam lived he was certainly destined to occupy the chair of Porson.

-Ais Tulor and IMlow of Emmanuel he might have drowsed along, " capable," as W. K Henley said in reference to the late G. W. -Sleeveus, "of living interest in nothing excepting drinks and the minor niceties, the riddles and oruees of classical scholarship." But this was not hi s wav. hvery year there are Chancellors' Medallists, scholars, first-class .honour-men,, and what not. Of the majority we never hear again. They decline" upon snug berths and inglorious turpitude. Adam had other ambition's: ' In- two passages in this book, one dealing with Homer, the other with Pindar, he dwells significantly on the motives that prompt'"to deeds of glory,- and the jov of difficulties faced and overcome. Achilles, the ideal of _ Greek chivalry, chose, he says, "a brief and strenuous life' in preference to unlaborious length of days at home. And everywhere there, is the same upward impulse, the same indomitable desire to climb

the rough and steep ascent of the hill of excellence." To that ideal of' excellence Adam, like Achilles, devoted himself with a consuming devotion. All his life ho " wrestled towards perfection." That nerve and brain suffered we know. In the midst of prosperity .he. was subject to strange 'fits ,of gloom and depression, the result of continuous overwork. From the portrait-frontispiece to the present volume there looks out on you a characteristically Scots face, alert, eager, sensitive, intellectual, wonderfully youthful, 100, yet with anxious, overstrained look in the fine eyes' as though the inquiring epirit -within pursued, its quest with. too much ardour. ( Ardent, indeed, he was from first to last: ardent, •and doggedly preseveriiig. Was the perfection he sought too costJy? Did he pay a, ruinous price for cmininence? These are questions which will be answered variously according to various points of view. But if; may be said that, while the man who has not the mettle to; strive miay often live at ease and-re-joice his soul with fatness, assuredly, he can never achieve distinction. Had James Adam been differently situated in youth or forced the pace less severely in "manhood, lie might have added many years to his life. What then?' Well, then he, -would have pocketed the, emoluments of a college tutor and lecturer, for some time to come. And we-should be deprived of the splendid stimulous, the rich inspiration of a career devoted with unswerving loyalty to imperishable ideals. All success in high enterprises meatus sacrifice. We consia back in reality to the device of Achilles. I think Adam: understood quite clearly -what his own choice meant. But he made it deliberately, unflinchingly, and, as always in such cases, the world is a great deal the richer in consequence. His published work is not voluminous; but it is all of rare excellence; and' it includes one book of first-rate importance. In this country at least his great edition of Plato's " Republic" is facile prineeps, and not only a prized but an indispensable possession to all real students of philosophy. The Memoir prefixed to this volume by Mrs. Adam—herself, by the way, a, distinguished, 6cholar—is written with tact, grace, and womanly charm. As to the main portion of the book, if deals '' with spiritual problems which are not of to-day or yesterday, but for all time," and' deals with them in a. manner entirely worthy of Mr Adam's reputation. It will delight the thinker, and even our intelligent, nvueh-esteemed friend, the man in the street,, may hud it deeply interesting. ' \ ..'..' '