Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
- Contents
- CHAPTER I PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 1809–1819
- CHAPTER II AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. 1820–1829
- CHAPTER III STUDENT LIFE IN GÖTTINGEN. 1829
- CHAPTER IV STUDENT LIFE IN BERLIN. 1829–1830
- CHAPTER V ROME. 1830–1831
- CHAPTER VI END OF WANDERJAHRE. 1831–1832
- CHAPTER VII YEARS OF STRUGGLE. 1832–1837
- CHAPTER VIII THE TEST ACTS. 1837–1840
- CHAPTER IX INSTALLATION AND MARRIAGE. 1841–1842
- CHAPTER X ABERDEEN AND UNIVERSITY REFORM. 1842–1850
- CHAPTER XI ‘ÆSCHYLUS’ AND THE GREEK CHAIR. 1850–1852
- CHAPTER XII EDINBURGH. 1852–1857
- CHAPTER XIII LAYS, LECTURES, AND LYRICS. 1857–1860
- CHAPTER XIV HOMER. 1861–1866
- CHAPTER XV THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS. 1866–1870
- CHAPTER XVI PILGRIM YEARS. 1870–1872
- CHAPTER XVII ‘SELF-CULTURE.’ 1873–1874
- CHAPTER XVIII THE CELTIC CHAIR. 1875–1876
- CHAPTER XIX EGYPT. 1876–1879
- CHAPTER XX RETIREMENT FROM THE GREEK CHAIR. 1880–1882
- CHAPTER XXI CLASS-ROOM AND PLATFORM. 1841–1882
- CHAPTER XXII RECREATIONS OF AN EMERITUS PROFESSOR. 1882–1887
- CHAPTER XXIII “LIVING GREEK.” 1888–1891
- CHAPTER XXIV CLOSING YEARS. 1892–1895
- INDEX
CHAPTER VII - YEARS OF STRUGGLE. 1832–1837
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2010
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
- Contents
- CHAPTER I PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 1809–1819
- CHAPTER II AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. 1820–1829
- CHAPTER III STUDENT LIFE IN GÖTTINGEN. 1829
- CHAPTER IV STUDENT LIFE IN BERLIN. 1829–1830
- CHAPTER V ROME. 1830–1831
- CHAPTER VI END OF WANDERJAHRE. 1831–1832
- CHAPTER VII YEARS OF STRUGGLE. 1832–1837
- CHAPTER VIII THE TEST ACTS. 1837–1840
- CHAPTER IX INSTALLATION AND MARRIAGE. 1841–1842
- CHAPTER X ABERDEEN AND UNIVERSITY REFORM. 1842–1850
- CHAPTER XI ‘ÆSCHYLUS’ AND THE GREEK CHAIR. 1850–1852
- CHAPTER XII EDINBURGH. 1852–1857
- CHAPTER XIII LAYS, LECTURES, AND LYRICS. 1857–1860
- CHAPTER XIV HOMER. 1861–1866
- CHAPTER XV THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS. 1866–1870
- CHAPTER XVI PILGRIM YEARS. 1870–1872
- CHAPTER XVII ‘SELF-CULTURE.’ 1873–1874
- CHAPTER XVIII THE CELTIC CHAIR. 1875–1876
- CHAPTER XIX EGYPT. 1876–1879
- CHAPTER XX RETIREMENT FROM THE GREEK CHAIR. 1880–1882
- CHAPTER XXI CLASS-ROOM AND PLATFORM. 1841–1882
- CHAPTER XXII RECREATIONS OF AN EMERITUS PROFESSOR. 1882–1887
- CHAPTER XXIII “LIVING GREEK.” 1888–1891
- CHAPTER XXIV CLOSING YEARS. 1892–1895
- INDEX
Summary
In the spring of 1832 John Blackie established himself in Edinburgh, and began to read for the Scottish Bar. His lodgings were in Lauriston during the first year of his legal studies, but later he removed to more convenient quarters in Dublin Street. His wooing of the legal muse was both distasteful and unsuccessful in the preliminary stages. He found Bell and Erskine the driest and least intelligible of reading. Gifted and brilliant, his head a very beehive of ambitious fancies, theories, and reforms in active competition with sentiment, and all clamorous for articulate expression, he felt stupefied in the presence of the stereotyped and ancient Themis. To persevere at all needed a courage stimulated by intervals of dalliance with the more attractive Muses. But he made manful efforts, and sought admission into a lawyer's office, that he might the better conquer the dull terminology of the law.
The gentleman who helped him through the perplexities of bonds and bills was a Mr Alexander, a Writer to the Signet, well versed in their dreary details. His first valuable lesson was to reduce his pupil to a salutary sense of his own ignorance. This incident is told in the “Notes”:—
I remember shortly after I entered his office he brought me in a bundle of law papers, and ordered me to read them and give a legal opinion on the merits of the case. I did so with great speed, took my view with decision, and on being asked, gave a distinct deliverance that “the law of the case was quite clear—there could not possibly be two opinions on the point.” […]
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- John Stuart BlackieA Biography, pp. 96 - 115Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010