PRESENTATION OF TABLET 63 



Principal Lang said Dr. Forbes White, on behalf 

 of the University, I accept with gratitude the custody 

 of the tablet which has been unveiled. I take it from 

 you, for you assured me of this before I saw it, that 

 both in its conception and in its execution this work 

 reflects the highest credit upon the artist. But its 

 merit is enhanced by its association with the name of 

 one whose splendid service in Marischal College, whose 

 devotion to natural science, and whose acknowledged 

 eminence both as author and teacher have shed lustre 

 on the annals of this ancient seat of learning. The 

 biography to which you have so felicitously and tenderly 

 alluded is inspiring, whilst it is also pathetic. Born in 

 the old city of Bishops Elphinstone and D unbar, the 

 city whose presidium et dulce decus, next after the 

 venerable Cathedral, is the Grey Crown of King's 

 College never did son of the north more admirably 

 exemplify those qualities of persistency in purpose, of 

 indomitable courage, of the surrender of the mere self- 

 life to a selected aim, which have distinguished so many 

 natives of the northern counties. What a picture is 

 suggested in the tale of the young Aberdonian trudging 

 on foot from Aberdeen to London, with a meagre 

 supply of money in his pocket, a scanty wardrobe in 

 his wallet his wealth consisting, indeed, in his journal, 

 in his copy of Smith's Flora Britannica, and in his own 

 brave heart. The lad who could do that had in him the 

 stuff of which heroes are made. And so, we follow 

 him ascending rung by rung the ladder which, planted 

 against the Hill of Difficulty, reaches to the place of 



