FLEEMING AND HIS SONS 



167 



ere we have done ; his own dog Plato went up 

 with him daily to his lectures, and still (like 

 other friends) feels the loss and looks visibly for 

 the reappearance of his master; and Martin the 

 cat Fleeming has himself immortalised, to the 

 delight of Mr. Swinburne, in the columns of the 

 Spectator. Indeed there was nothing in which 

 men take interest, in which he took not some ; 

 and yet always most in the strong human bonds, 

 ancient as the race and woven of delights and 

 duties. 



He was even an anxious father ; perhaps that Fleeming 

 is the part where optimism is hardest tested, sons, 

 He was eager for his sons ; eager for their health, 

 whether of mind or body; eager for their educa- 

 tion ; in that, I should have thought, too eager. 

 But he kept a pleasant face upon all things, 

 believed in play, loved it himself, shared boyishly 

 in theirs, and knew how to put a face of enter- 

 tainment upon business and a spirit of education 

 into entertainment. If he was to test the pro- 

 gress of the three boys, this advertisement would 

 appear in their little manuscript paper : ' Notice : 

 The Professor of Engineering in the University 

 of Edinburgh intends at the close of the scholastic 

 year to hold examinations in the following sub- 

 jects : (1) For boys in the fourth class of the 

 Academy Geometry and Algebra; (2) For boys 

 at Mr. Henderson's school Dictation and Recita- 



