Mid Ascog,
Wedy., May 20th, 1868
My Dear Father,
Your last letter which was handed to me just as I posted my last made me desire to retract the hint that I had written more letters than I had got; but unfortunately it was too late.
May thanks for sending off my paper. I fear there is after all little hope with the B[ritish] Q[uarterly] people. I only hope they may not lose the paper.[2]
I am glad you think I may add references to Candlish. He is getting on but slowly for really the passage is very difficult and it is difficult to hit a proper style of expression even when one has thoughts.
Am I to understand that Mamma may not go to Glasgow at all? At least I hope she may enjoy Edinburgh.
Will you ask Williams and Norgate if the have got Oehler’s “Prolegomena” which I ordered and paid for?[3] Also they may probably have some volumes of Kant (also paid for).
The Review of your Sermon in the F. P.[4] is most unsatisfactory to my mind. The quotation of the end of your second head is mere commonplace without the further development in the 3rd head to prove that “Sonderkirchen” cannot be practically more useful. Have you sent a copy to Rainy — I hope the sermon is selling now — not merely for your sake, for I really think people would be much better of it.
I had Lindsay here yesterday. He is living at Dunoon with an Uncle and came down and stayed overnight. I had sent him a general outline of your sermon which he seemed struck with and had wished to buy it before leaving Edinb. But had not got it. I gave him my copy as he evidently wished to read it.
L[indsay] is pretty sure of the Examinership in Autumn — is also (if Grant[5] gets the Chair) to be Assistant in Mor[al] Ph[ilosophy] at £100. This being a private appointment does not interfere with the Examinership. But I fancy both these are secrets as yet. Add the Shaw to this and he will be well off. He tells me that Tait’s[6] Assistant — not bound to grind air-pump — is probably about to leave – that Adams who has not graduated is not eligible and that there is no other Ed[inburgh] man and that I, he thinks, wd. have a good chance.[7] The work would be light and suit nicely with my Edinburgh Session. (Besides that to be assistant at Edinburgh gives a certain status.) Really I think it wd. be worth looking after. Examining papers is the main thing. But then how could I apply? The only person who might help would be Martin. Would it not be worthwhile to speak to him about it? Meantime Lindsay is to get more accurate details, whether the present man is certainly leaving &c.
I have on more point. Mr McK. who thinks I can get more work out of his sons than my predecessors wh. I can hardly credit, for they do next to nothing — would like me to stay 10 days longer, i.e. to 1st of July, at the same rate. I fancy once here I may as well do so; especially as I now know that I cannot as I once hoped get a few days to go through the west Highlands with Lindsay. However, I said I would consult you first which he of course thought reasonable.
Mr McK. is in Edinburgh at the Assembly of wh. he is a member. He paid me £12 12/- before leaving. Evidently he is satisfied with my work or he wd. not push for even so small a time as 10 days more. He regretted too that I cd. not be here longer yet I cannot flatter myself that I have had any real success.
You will prob. see him at the Assembly. Don’t get on the Union Question, for he is nervously excitable about it and evidently painfully distressed at the prospect; so that it is really cruel to speak about the matter.
Perhaps if you see Davidson he may give you a book or a paper of mine that he has: but do not ask him for either — in fact do not mention them, as I would be sorry to hurry him.
I have only to add that I am quite well though we have had some unsettled weather again. Today was very hot; the first very hot day we have had. If such weather last [sic] the heat will soon be oppressive. Oh yes! Lindsay met a Glasgow Student, a friend of Hunter’s lately who told him no one had any chance agst. H. So you see H’s friends are puffing him. Lindsay very foolishly told him to tell Hunter next time he saw him “that Smith was so splendidly up that no one need go in agst. Him.” I think however that on the whole since the end of the Session, Lindsay has recovered his Spirits and has good hopes though he still over-rates me. I must say the more I hear of Hunter’s cheek the more anxious I am to have a “shy” at him.
Your aff. Son,
Wm. Robertson Smith
[1] CUL ADD 7449 C100 TS
[2] Presumably WRS had sent his paper on “Prophecy and History” to the editors of the British Quarterly after its rejection by the Contemporary Review. At this stage he has not succeeded in getting his name in print, although his ambitions in that respect become increasingly evident from now on.
[3] Oehler, Gustav Friedrich (1812–1873): a German theologian whose Theology of the Old Testament came to be translated from the German by WRS’s sister Ellen and was published in 1874 by T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh.
[4] The Aberdeen Free Press.
[5] Alexander Grant was indeed appointed to the chair of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University in 1868.
[6] Tait, Peter Guthrie (1831–1901): Professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University from 1860, and someone with whom WRS was to have a particularly close relationship for many years. Having been examiner for the Ferguson scholarships, Tait had by 1866 already become aware of Smith’s intellectual brilliance. Cf. B&C pp.101f.
[7] This is the first reference in the correspondence to Peter Guthrie Tait (1831–1901), Professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University from 1860, with whom WRS was to have a particularly close relationship for many years. Having been an examiner for the Ferguson scholarships, Tait had already become aware of Smith’s intellectual brilliance. Cf. B&C pp.101f.