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BIOGKAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE LATE REV. DR CHALMERS. 499 



view of his character to find how much he admired and respected learning in 

 others. He never undervalued an attainment because he did not possess it him- 

 self. He impressed his students with the value and importance of learning in 

 Theology, and revered what he called the " massive erudition" of divines of the 

 English Chm-ch. In describing the peculiarities of his mental constitution, we are 

 at once led to the conclusion of a remarkable predominance of one, and that is an 

 extraordinary abundance of the imaginative faculty, — the power of illustrating his 

 ideas, and of setting forth his subjects of discussion with never-ending variety of 

 imagery, comparison, and analogy. In some of his works it seems as if he 

 could not tear himself away from the pleasure of reproducing some great truth, 

 which he enforces under all the different garbs and attitudes with which he 

 can invest it. There is no question that this is a very effective and important 

 method of handling subjects, when the particular bent of the author's genius 

 enables him to pursue it effectually, and is specially adapted for leaving a 

 clear, distinct, and vivid impression upon the mind. In the case of Dr Chalmers, 

 attachment to science, and early pursuits in astronomy, chemistry, and other 

 branches of physical science, gave him a great advantage in furnishing types 

 for analogy and illustration. These he used on some occasions with happy 

 effect. Indeed, he never lost his interest in the exact sciences ; and, had the cir- 

 cumstances of life been favourable to their pursuit, would, no doubt, have 

 been distinguished in the branches of mathematical pursuits. His mind was 

 always aUve to scientific subjects. In 1838, when introduced to the present 

 Bishop of Nova Scotia, he heard, with much interest, the Bishop's description of 

 the Bay of Fundy (which is in his diocese), and the enormous roll of tide com- 

 ing in with a front 70 feet in height ; next day Dr Chalmers wrote a letter to the 

 Bishop, proposing the experiment of having a delicate pendulum placed on the 

 shore, and to watch the effect of the mass of water upon it, as they came into the 

 bay, similar to Dr Maskelyne's celebrated experiment at Schehalion, to test the 

 effect of gravity, but, with the advantage over Dr Maskelyne, that the waters 

 Avould form a homogeneous mass of matter, and the result be more striking, from 

 marking the effect of the mass approaching the pendulum.* When I said, there- 

 fore, that, in Dr Chalmers, the faculty of imagination was an abounding and pro- 

 minent endowment, I was far from meaning that this implied a poverty of the 

 reasoning faculties, or defect in other mental qualities. On the contrary, he had 

 a mind remarkably adapted for the apprehension of great principles, of broad and 

 profound truths. He delighted to grasp primary and fundamental elements. 

 He expatiated, with the fullest enjoyment, on reasonings of such authors as Bishop 

 Butler, Bacon, Newton. His admiration of Butler was intense : as an ex- 

 pounder of gi'eat elementary truths, he placed him in the first and highest class 



* This experiment, I find, had been suggested by Professor Robison, in his Elements of 

 Mechanical Philosophy, § 474. 



