CHAP. III. WOEKSHOP, AND COLLEGE. 127 



The range of his knowledge was most extensive : he was 

 familiar with the whole circle of the accurate sciences, 

 arid in imparting information his understanding seemed 

 to work with extraordinary energy and rapidity. The 

 labours of others rose in value under his hands, and new 

 views and ingenious suggestions never failed to enliven 

 his prelections on mechanics, hydrodynamics, astronomy, 

 optics, electricity, and magnetism, the principles of which 

 he unfolded to his pupils in language at once fluent, 

 elegant, and precise. Lord Cockburn remembers him as 

 somewhat remarkable for the humour in which he in- 

 dulged in the article of dress. " A pigtail so long and 

 thin that it curled far down his back, and a pair of huge 

 blue worsted hose, without soles, and covering the limbs 

 from the heel to the top of the thigh, in which he both 

 walked and lectured, seemed rather to improve his wise 

 elephantine head and majestic person." He delighted 

 in holding familiar intercourse with his pupils, whom he 

 charmed and elevated by his brilliant conversation and 

 his large and lofty views of life and philosophy. Rennie 

 was admitted freely to his delightful social influence, 

 and to the close of his career he was accustomed to look 

 back upon the period which he spent at Edinburgh as 

 amongst the most profitable and instructive in his life. 



During his college career Rennie carefully read the 

 works of Emerson, Switzer, Maclaurin, Belidor, and 

 Grravesande, allowing neither pleasure nor society to 

 divert him from his line of study. As a relief from 

 graver topics, he set himself to learn the French and 

 German languages, and was shortly enabled to read both 

 with ease. His recreation was mostly of a solitary cha- 

 racter, and, having a little taste for music, he employed 

 some of his leisure time in learning to play upon various 

 instruments. He acquired considerable proficiency on 

 the flute and the violin, and he even went so far as to 

 buy a pair of bagpipes and learn to play upon them, 

 though the selection of such an instrument probably 



