PRESENTATION OF TABLET 57 



structive to the naturalist, wlio ought in his own 

 person to represent all these characters." Here, witli 

 modest unconsciousness, JNIacGillivray describes him- 

 self. It is on these lofty grounds — of his all-round 

 completeness — that he claims our admiration to-day. 



But I must turn to MacGillivray's work in his 

 class, and here I must notice how easily he attracted 

 to his special subjects even those students whose bias 

 lay rather towards classics and mathematics. For it 

 was a noticeable fact that many of his best prizemen 

 were not students of science, but of the other subjects. 

 I do not know exactly whether it was owing to the 

 magnetic influence of the earnest Professor, or whether 

 it was that such students were attracted by the fresh 

 study of Nature, hitherto to us a sealed book, but this 

 I can say, that even the students of literature felt that 

 there was no antagonism between the two pursuits, 

 but rather that the one was complementary to the 

 other. We felt that new powers were being awakened 

 within us ; that the hitherto dormant faculties of 

 observation, comparison, classification, and generalisa- 

 tion were receiving a new stimulus. It is true that 

 many of these students have drifted into other pursuits 

 and lines of study, but the influence of MacGiUivray's 

 methods and spirit abides indelible. They are 

 applicable to art as well as to science, truth in both 

 cases being the ultimate aim. 



MacGillivray's lectures were formal and precise, fuU 

 of detail — perhaps overladen with detail, as I see from 

 four thick volumes of notes taken by me in his class. 



