Scottish Perseverance. -- Thomas Carlyle, David Livingstone, and
General Gordon. -- Literary Exploits of a Scotchman. -- Scottish
Students. -- All the Students study. -- A useful Library. -- A
Family of three. -- Coming, sir, coming! -- Killed in Action. --
Scotchmen at Oxford. -- Balliol College.
It is not in business alone that the Scotchman shows that obstinate
perseverance which so characterises his nation. Thomas Carlyle would
have passed a whole year searching out the exact date of the most
insignificant incident. That is why his _Frederick the Great_ is the
finest historical monument of the century.
It is this same Scotch perseverance which makes Watts, Livingstones, and
Gordons. Never were there brighter illustrations of what can be done by
power of mind united to power of endurance.
I have seen them at work, those resolute, indomitable Scots. I have
known some whose performances were nothing short of feats of valour.
Here is one that I have fresh in my memory.
A young Scotchman, on leaving Oxford, had been appointed master in one
of the great public schools of England. He began with the elementary
classes. At that time he intended to devote himself to the study of
science.
He told the head master of his intention, and asked his advice.
"If I were you," said the head master, "I would do nothing of the kind.
I feel sure you have very special aptitude for Greek, and that if you
will but direct your attention to that, you have a brilliant future
before you. Let me trace you out a programme?"
This programme was enough to frighten the most enterprising of men. A
Scotchman alone could undertake to carry it out.
Our young master accepted the task.
He took an apartment in the Temple, turned his back on his friends, and
became an inaccessible hermit.
For three years he lived only for his books, consecrating to them that
which, at his age, is generally consecrated to pleasure and comfort.
Nothing could turn him from the end he had in view.
One after another he read all the Greek authors. Nothing that had been
written by poet, philosopher, historian, or grammarian, escaped him.
At the end of three years, he reappeared, wasted by the vigils and
privations of this life of study; but the last touches had been put to
the manuscript of a book, which, when it appeared three months later,
was pronounced a masterpiece of scholarship, and made quite a revolution
in the Greek world.
To-day this young Scotchman is one of the brightest lights in the higher
walks of literature in Great Britain.
* * * * *
The students of the great Universities of Scotland offer, perhaps, the
most striking proofs of perseverance to be found.
At Oxford and Cambridge, you find all sorts of students, especially
students who do not study.
In Scotland, all students study.
To be able to have the luxury of studying, or rather "residing" (such is
the less pretentious name in use), at Oxford or Cambridge, you must be
well-to-do.
In Scotland, as in Germany, Greece, Switzerland, and America, the
poorest young men may aspire to university honours; but often at the
cost of what privations!
Here are a few incidents of students' life in Scotland. They struck me
as being very interesting, very touching. I borrow them, for the most
part, from a writer who published them in a Scotch _Review_ during my
stay in Edinburgh.
He mentions one young man, of fine manners and aristocratic appearance,
who dined but three times a week, and then upon a hot two-penny pie. On
the other days he lived on dry bread.
Another had an ingenious way of turning his scanty resources to account.
Spreading out his books where the hearthrug would naturally have been,
he would lie there, learning his task by the light of a fire, made from
the roots of decayed trees, which he had dug in a wood near Edinburgh,
and carried to his lodgings.
Three Scotchmen, now occupying high positions, shared a room containing
one bed; and for a year at least, while attending Aberdeen University,
they had no other lodging. The bed was a very narrow one, and quite
incapable of holding two persons at once; so two worked while the other
slept, and when they went to bed, he rose.
Two other students excited a great deal of curiosity for some time. One
carried his books before him just as if they had been a tray, while he
glided noiselessly to his place. This mystery was explained when it was
learned that he had been a hotel waiter. During the winter he pursued
his studies; and when summer returned, it found him, with serviette
across his arm, earning the necessary fees for his next winter's course
of study.
He never could quite throw off the waiter. If a professor called his
name suddenly, he would start up and answer, "Coming, sir--coming!"
The other was more mysterious still. As soon as recitation was over, he
would start away from the class-room and make for the environs of the
town as fast as he could run. It was at last discovered that he kept a
little book shop at some distance from the University, and, being too
poor to hire an assistant, had to close his door to customers while he
went to recite his lessons.
Professor Blackie tells of one young student, who lived for a whole
session on red herrings and a barrel of potatoes, sent him from home.
The poor fellow's health so gave way under this meagre diet, that he
died before his course of study was finished.
The learned Professor mentions also another very touching case of a
young student who fell a victim to his thirst for knowledge. The poor
fellow had so weakened his stomach by privation, that he died from
eating a good meal given him by a kind friend.
I said just now that little work was done at the University of Oxford.
Exception must, however, be made in the case of the famous Balliol
College.
But whom do we find there?
This college is full of Scotch students, who succeed in keeping
themselves at Oxford, thanks to their frugality and industry. It is not
unfrequent to find them giving lessons to the undergraduates of other
colleges!
And what lessons the Scotch can give the English!