1913-14.] Obituary Notices. 279 
usual course at that time imposed on aspirants to a degree. The highest 
honours in mathematics and classics were won by him, and one of his 
fellow-students, himself a man of eminence, has told me that he was looked 
upon as the ablest man of his year. His original intention on leaving the 
University was to enter the ministry of the United Presbyterian Church, 
and with that in view he attended the Theological Hall in connection with 
that body in Edinburgh. Theology, as it was presented to him fifty 
years ago, was not to his taste, and he decided to renounce his intention of 
qualifying for admission to the Church, and to take up teaching as a 
profession. His first situation was on the mathematical staff of his old 
school, Perth Academy, so that, as he was fond of relating, he had as a 
predecessor William Wallace, afterwards the eminent occupant of the 
Chair of Mathematics in Edinburgh University. His stay in Perth was 
short — two years, 1 think, — and in 1866 he received an appointment as 
mathematical master in Edinburgh Academy, an institution which retained 
his services until he retired in 1904. His long connection with this well- 
known school had far-reaching effects both on the school and on Hr Mackay 
himself. To the very last he took unabated interest in all that pertained 
to the life of the school, and showed the most unswerving loyalty to every- 
thing connected with it. Indeed, at the beginning of the present year, 
when his eyesight failed him, he was engaged in compiling a register of 
pupils who attended the Academy since its establishment in 1824. Many 
of his pupils have risen to great eminence in various walks of life, both at 
home and abroad, and few of them revisited Edinburgh without spending 
some hours with their old master, whom they were proud to reckon among 
their friends. His affection for his pupils was real and genuine, and he 
followed their careers with a truly paternal interest. 
Dr Mackay was singularly well suited for a teacher. His ready sympathy 
and kindly disposition immediately secured for him the goodwill of his 
pupils, while his great learning and nobility of character were so evident 
that they must have exercised a very powerful influence for good on the 
whole school. His well-stored mind was ever ready to give of its contents ; 
and, while some men in such circumstances look on their learning as 
wasted, Dr Mackay, quite otherwise, thought nothing too good for his 
boys. A pupil of his own, a distinguished man of letters of this city, has 
put on record the following appreciation, and I cannot do better than quote 
his words : “ In reviewing the list of those with whom he happens to have 
been brought into contact, the present writer can think of few more richly 
endowed than he with the qualities which really matter. He was eminently 
straight, he was eminently loyal, and he was eminently magnanimous. It 
