THE PROFESSOR AND HIS CLASS. 237 



a good deal of derisive laughter and ironical cheering, the Professor, 

 tickled by the absurdity of the thing, threw himself into the contest, 

 on my side, and tumbled over some of my antagonists in an ex- 

 tremely delectable manner. This was a first revelation to me of a 

 power which I afterwards often observed with astonishment, — a 

 kind of intellectual gladiatorship, which enabled him, in a sort of 

 rollicking, playful manner, to overthrow his adversary with little 

 injury to him, but much humiliation. I can compare it to nothing 

 it so much resembles as a powerful, playful, good-natured mastiff 

 taking his sport with a snarling cur. As I shall have to mention more 

 especially, this was a powerful instrument of discipline in his class. 

 He never had to stand on his dignity. When it was worth his 

 while, he tumbled any transgressor about in a way that made him, 

 though unhurt, thoroughly ashamed of himself, and an example to 

 deter others from doing the like. On the occasion referred to, it 

 was possibly visible to the bystanders, and had I possessed more 

 experience, might have been known to myself, that I also had been 

 gently laid sprawling in the attacks that seemed directed entirely 

 against my adversaries ; but I happily saw only their discomfiture, 

 and rejoiced accordingly. All that was done for me was, however, 

 entirely neutralized by a random shaft from the Pole, finding mark 

 he never meant, and piercing more effectually than all the artillery 

 of my opponents. Looking with an air of intense gravity on the 

 whole discussion, he broke in with the inquiry, whether he. was right 

 or not in his supposition, that ' Apperdeen was verray illoustrious 

 for the making of stockingks?' After this, there was no use of 

 saying more on either side. 



" I wish I had tried to Boswellize, or could now remember the 

 talk of that, as of many other evenings. One little incident I 

 remember distinctly, but I am sure I shall be unable to tell it to 

 any effect. Some priggish remarks having been made by some one 

 on the power of exhaustive analysis, the Professor fell to illustrate 

 it by an attempt, through that process, to send a hired assistant, 

 name unknown, for a fresh bottle of claret. He began calling to 

 him by the ordinary names, John, James, William, Thomas, and so 

 on, but none hit the mark — the man standing by the sideboard, in 

 demure contemplation, as if inwardly solving some metaphysical 

 difficulty. The Professor then passed on in a wild discursive flight 

 through stranger names. At last he seemed to have hit the right 



