Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/147

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1885.]
Sir Alexander Grant.
141

On leaving Bombay in 1868, he spoke of the years passed there as the happiest in his life. He made many new friends, among them Sir Bartle Frere, – the bond that united them being one of mutual regard and of mutual confidence. He enjoyed the society of all classes with whom he was brought into contact, – soldiers and civilians, merchants and missionaries, Europeans and natives. It might seem at first sight to require explanation why he left a position so congenial to him in every way, and a post of great influence and distinction, for a new sphere, which could scarcely afford equal scope for his practical originality, and was at the same time ready to sacrifice a handsome income for one, at that time, almost ludicrously inadequate to the position which he was called upon to fill. The explanation is, that while interest in his work always constituted a great part of his happiness, the strength of his affection for his family constituted a still more essential part of it. Part of the price paid for our pride of empire is the pain of family separation, which life in India imposes on many brave men and tender-hearted women. The loss of two of their children in India had been a great sorrow to him and to Lady Grant, and the necessity of a long separation from the others had been thus painfully impressed upon thorn. Thus, when the electors to the Principalship of Edinburgh University, on the death of Sir David Brewster, invited him to accept the vacant office, he willingly consented. The position of Principal in a Scottish university is very different from that of the Head of a college at Oxford or Cambridge. It is sometimes spoken of invidiously as a merely ornamental position, or, in a more complimentary style, as a position of learned or scientific leisure. It is a doubtful question whether the office of Principal ought to be combined with any teaching duties. Probably the disadvantages of such a combination would, in most cases, predominate over its advantages. But in his case it would have been a gain to himself and a very great gain to the University. For himself, it would have supplied a constant and regular stimulus to his speculative originality and literary accomplishment; it would have added a new and original element to the teaching power of the University. But the especial advantage of this union would have been, that it would have enabled him to realise, by practical experience and actual contact, what it is so difficult for one who has neither studied nor taught in a Scottish university to realise, – the strength and the weakness of its teaching, and the peculiar characteristics of Scottish students. It was known to be in accordance with his own wish, that the teaching of a subject which then seemed to be unappropriated should be assigned to him; but the legitimate objection to any infringement of the rights of one of the existing chairs, though they had for some time been unexercised, and the almost morbid jealousy which exists in Scotland against any plurality of offices, prevented that arrangement. At a much later time, when the temporary illness of the late Professor of Greek made it necessary that his classes should be taught by a substitute, he willingly undertook the duty. He enjoyed the work extremely; he thoroughly liked the students, and they thoroughly liked him and heartily appreciated his teaching. The growing interest which he felt in them, and his admiration