Edinburgh
24th March, 1868
My Dear Father,
I think I forgot to mention in my last that Candlish gave out subjects last week for Popular Lectures.
I had a choice between David’s lament over Saul & Jonathan, the latter part of the 2nd Chapter of John & Jer. 69-15. I have chosen the last passage, but no one of the lot is wholly to my liking.
On Friday evng at the Theol: I got on very well. My Criticism[2] was not complete as I had not much time to finish it; and there was some dispute as to whether or not my view was orthodox, owing I think to this incompleteness.[3]
After the discussion came the election of Office-bearers for next year. The Presidents (chosen from the present 3rd year) are to be Lindsay & Dickie.[4] The other Office-bearers had to be chosen from our year. I was chosen Secretary, Falconer[5] Treasurer; & the committee are (in addition to the office-bearers) Bell & Kippen. I have thus got the most important office for which I was eligible; but one which involves regular attendance & a deal of writing of Minutes, &c.
Dr Buchanan has got an attack of Tic this week, which has kept him at home. I fear this relief to us prevents us from sympathising fully with him. Dr Bannerman is still unable to appear & the reading of Homilies which Ban: had transferred to Buchanan now falls on Davidson who in addition has our discourses to hear. Three of these are to be delivered tomorrow & mine I believe is then the only one remaining.
I have got through my last Essay for Davidson & gave it in yesterday. He then told me to order for myself £3:3 worth of Books as the Essay Prize was mine & would be announced at the end of the week. I am going in wholly for German Books, chiefly exegetical, Delitzsch[6] on Isaiah, Keil’s Minor Prophets, Rothe zur Dogmatik, Hupfeld[7] , die Quellen der Genesis, Ewald’s Grammar.[8] And for the rest probably Kamphausen’s[9] part of Bunsen’s Bibelwerk[10] as a brief running Commentary on the whole O.T. with a good translation.
Ellen’s drawing master expressed regret yesterday that she was not to stay so that some of her drawings might appear at the Examination. Ellen is very nearly well now, I think; but the last few days have been unfavourable to a perfect recovery. On Sabbath there was so much rain that we did not go over to the New Town at all, but went to Buccleuch Church (Robert Gordon’s[11] ) close by. In the afternoon I went to the North but as usual missed Dr C. Brown & got his very commonplace assistant. I did not allow Ellen to go out twice.
Tell Isabellathat she may have my German Bible if she thinks it good enough. I can easily get another for myself if I wish it.
I rather think I may have to stay a night in Aberdeen and send Ellen right on.[12] If I go to Rothesay[13] I shall require a pair of trousers & if I am to work [on] phil: in the Summer I must, I imagine, subscribe to the University Library. I suppose the McD[onald]’s house is full; but might I write & ask a bed from the Brands?
Your affectionate Son,
W. R. Smith
P.S. I must also get a Scholarship wh: I have not written for.
P.P.S. I am quite well.
[1] CUL ADD 7449 C094 MS
[2] I.e. of a fellow-member’s presentation.
[3] The excuse offered here is strangely prophetic of the ambiguous apology offered by WRS to the F.C. General Assembly of 1880, following his admonition, that his “statements” had been so “incomplete” that “even at the end of three years, the opinion of this House has been so divided upon them”.
[4] James F. Dickie came from Ayrshire and, like Lindsay, was a year ahead of WRS at New College.
[5] Falconer, William Meek (b.1846): a fellow third year student at New College. Became minister of Free St Andrew’s Church, Edinburgh from 1871 and of St Paul’s Church, Edinburgh, from 1876.
[6] Delitzsch, Franz (1813–1890): German philosopher, theologian and Hebraist, professor of Old Testament at Rostock, Erlangen and from 1867 at Leipzig. Writer of many commentaries on books of the Bible.
[7] Hupfeld, Hermann (1796–1866): was professor of Theology at Marburg and one of the more advanced German biblical critics, being accused in 1865 of “having taught exegesis in a sense inconsistent with the recognised character of the O.T. as a divine revelation”. His groundbreaking work on the different sources of Genesis [Die Quellen der Genesis] was published in 1853.
[8] Ewald, Heinrich Georg August von (1803–1875): was perhaps the most highly regarded of German biblical scholars, his learning being unquestioned and his critical views relatively moderate. For the English-speaking world of the mid nineteenth century, Ewald was one of the most acceptable German theological scholars, being opposed to the more radical critical theories of the Tübingen school. His Hebrew Grammar (1827) and his Geschichte des Volkes Israel (1843–59) were particularly influential. J.S. Black’s 1879 article “Ewald” in EB9 is both laudatory and balanced.
[9] Kamphausen, Adolf (1829–1909): was private secretary to Christian Bunsen in Heidelberg and privat-docent at the University there from 1856 to 1859, later in Bonn being appointed associate professor of Old-Testament exegesis there from 1863 to 1868 and professor from 1868 to 1901. In 1871 he became a member of the committee for the revision of Luther’s translation of the Old Testament.
[10] Bunsen, Baron Christian Charles Josiah von (1791–1860): the eminent Prussian diplomat, theologian and Anglophile, Bunsen’s Bibelwerk incorporated both a translation of and commentary on the whole Bible.
[11] Gordon, Dr Robert (b.1823): was minister at Buccleuch Church, Edinburgh, from 1854.
[12] I.e. by train to Whitehouse station near the Free Church manse of Keig.
[13] As subsequent letters indicate, WRS did in fact spend some months of the vacation on the Isle of Bute tutoring (cf. B&C p.100).