The Scottish Naturalist. 7 



so, is usually — or, at least, too frequently — due to some such 

 irrelevant cause as I have above specified under Head II. (the 

 " Real grounds of success") To some such reasons we owe it, 

 I believe, that certain of the foremost Naturalists of the age — 

 (for instance, Agassiz and Huxley) — are not now Professors in 

 Scottish Universities. 



The best men frequently do not offer themselves as can- 

 didates, because they are unwilling to subject themselves 

 to the humiliation of personal canvass amongst ignorant 

 ill-mannered electors — especially with the probability facing 

 them of being defeated by opponents inferior both in ability 

 and integrity — unscrupulous, perhaps, in the use of the means 

 whereby only they can gain their ends. Or, a candidate, 

 confident in his own qualifications, declines to compete upon 

 other terms than on the ground of merit, — deficient, as he pro- 

 bably is, in the political or church influence that is too likely 

 to carry the day : he refuses his assent even to intrigue, and the 

 unworthy means so usually employed in the contests for suprem- 

 acy or success in professorial vacancies. Or, the emoluments 

 of the Chair are such that all but men of independent means 

 are precluded from becoming candidates. Or, lastly, some 

 ancient restrictions connected with Patrons' or Founders' wills, or 

 University charters, exclude all but the graduates of this or that 

 University — the possessors of this or that irrelevant qualification 

 — from competition. Very different is the condition of matters in 

 America (United States), and on the Continent : where vacancies 

 are frequently offered, in the most flattering way, as honours or 

 prizes, to those who have distinguished themselves in particular 

 walks of scientific research ! 



I have frequently been much struck, while reading the bio- 

 graphies of eminent scientific men, by the fact of their remark- 

 able defeats and disappointments in contests for University 

 Chairs, at the hands of competitors infinitely their inferiors in 

 ability. There is this advantage in the consideration of such 

 cases, — that the whole history of the contest is generally ex- 

 posed : the actors having themselves disappeared from the 

 scene, their actions have become the subject of public and un- 

 biassed criticism, and we are favoured with a " full, true, and 

 particular" account of the real causes of success and failure. The 

 last case of the kind that occurred in the course of my reading 



