Welsh Journals

Old Memories. By the late Sir Henry Jones, C.H. CHAPTER V (continued). ON one occasion only, so far as 1 ever heard, uki nas spirit 01 levity invade tne Moral i/miosopny Olass. u was when L,and loectureu-and that lor a lull hour-on lilt relations ol Howl ana boay," when he meant Soul and Dody. During mat lecture he was seen, every now and tnen, to hit his well-known suigie eye-giass to ins eye, and peer at the class in «. puzzled lasinon. i nave taught University students, as Professor ot Philosopny, tor more than 37 years, and 1 have nao tne iiKe good lortune; there has never been any need ot even thinking about order or dis- cipline. but 1 ooubt it any class I have ever taugnt could have stood the strain for a lull hour of listening to me lecturing about the bowl and the "sody." Edward Uaird's power over his class was even more fully expressed in the depth and permanence ot his influence* especially in the case of his best students. Old things passed away never to return. ihere was never any direct negative criticism of the traditional beliefs which we had, like others, accepted without examination or criticism. We were led, rather, to assume a new attitude of mind; and articles of our creed simply became obsolete. When I entered the Moral Philosophy Class the story of Jonah gave me no difficulty; and had Jonah been credited with swallowing the whale, I should have had no difficulty. And as to denying the story as it is told, on the biological ground that the throat of the whale is small and that he lives on small sea-creatures, I would have agreed with the reply of the Welsh preacher, who tossed the anatomical argument on one side with contempt, and said, My brethren; if the Lord wanted a whale with a big throat, he could have made a whale into which the Great Eastern could pass at one end and come out at the other end without striking a single sail." The argument even yet seems to me flawless, provided the miraculous premises are admitted. Before the end of the session miracles had lost their interest for me, and the legal and vindictive creed in which I had been nurtured had passed, away like a cloud. I wanted to shorten the creed so that it should consist of one article only I believe in a God who is omnipotent love, and I dedicate myself to His service." When the fact is recalled that those who enter the ministry of the Scottish Churches must take Moral Philosophy as one of their subjects in the University, it becomes more easy to recognize than it is to measure the extent of Edward Caird's influence upon the ethical and religious beliefs of his time. But I must return to my personal story. Caird, once a fortnight, gave his class three or loui subjects, on eaen ol whicn they were expectea to write briei exercises—unless they wrote tne optional essays prescribed once a month anu involving mucn more advanced work. nc waued througn and maae notes on one half 01 tnese Fiass exercises every lortnight — an immense amount ot trying worK-and returned Uie oLner hail unread, amongst the tirst set lie read was my class exercise, and it happened to be one of the best sent in. I was called up to read one of the exercises in the secono- hour" meeting ot the class. My success was wholly unexpected by me, and I was intoxicated with joy. And, there and then, 1 resolved to write the Optional Essays," which meant competing with my fellow students for the Class Honours. My first essay, which was the first English essay 1 ever wrote, ranked third in the first class; my second essay, if I remember rightly, stood higher; and before long it became evident that another student and myself were decisively ahead of the rest of the class. Recog- nizing this fact, and seeing him one day in the Reading Room which was then attached to the University Library, I went up to him and pro- posed that, in order to make the race fair, we should exchange the books that bore upon the subject of the essay at half-time. Till that moment we had been strangers; from that moment we were life-long friends. He accepted the proposal at once; and the competition bound us to each other ever more closely. He was Mr. Hugh Walker, of Kilburnie.* At the close of the session the class would fain have divided the first prize between us, for the result of the year's work seemed to put us on a par; but being a medal, that method was not practicable, and by the majority of the votes of his fellow- students the medal was awarded to Mr. Walker. I almost think that Mr. Walker would have preferred a different result. At any rate, as we walked together up to the College on the morn- ing of the vote we settled the matter between ourselves by each of us expressing his conviction of the other's superior claims. There never was more honourable or more friendly rivalry for what we deemed a great honour, and many un- expected consequences followed it. I passed the second part of the examination for the degree of M.A., namely, the Mathema- tical and Physical, at the close of this session. There remained for the third and last session the classes of Logic and of English Literature. Inasmuch as I had attended the Moral Philo- sophy Class already, under the guidance of Caird and also under his inspiring influence, while to all the other members of the Logic Class every branch of Philosophy was strange and new, I expected that my pre-eminence would be obvious and convincing. It was not. The result Now Professor of English Literature, St. David's College, Lampeter.