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xxxvi speculation, and that, above all, in the direction of metaphysics. He had a remarkable power, in conversation on metaphysical points, of testing and turning on all sides dogmas received or advanced. I shall ever look back with mingled feelings of pleasure and regret on the long evenings of two-handed discussion which we spent together during the four winters of my residence in St Andrews. For depth of natural interest in the highest speculative questions; for openness, candour, and withal subtlety of fence, I have met no one who has surpassed him. He had, as seemed to me, no great interest in the questions of psychology, or in the details of formal logic; and he had read but slightly in either department. But metaphysic was his delight and his strength. The problem of Being, what it is; how to be analysed; how made intelligible; to get its principle and deduce its forms — was the centre round which his whole thought turned. The solution of the problem which he worked out for himself penetrated his entire life and convictions. His metaphysics were less of a professional accomplishment, and more completely himself, than was probably the case with any man, excepting Hamilton, whom I have known. His interest in ethical speculations seemed to me to be entirely subordinate to his metaphysical; and any ethical doctrine which he reached took its cast from his demonstrative theory of knowledge and existence.

"The play of his intellect was fine, subtle, arrowy