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 thirty and forty boys, when Dr Adam was appointed. His celebrity as a classical teacher, joined to the progress of the country in wealth and population, continued to increase this number up to the year of his death. His class-list for that year contained 167 names,—the largest number that had ever been collected in one class, and what is remarkable, equal to the amount of the whole five classes during the year when he first taught in the school.

He performed an essential service to the literature of his country, by introducing, in his own class, an additional hour of teaching, for Greek and Geography; neither of which branches seems to have been contemplated in the original formation of the school. The introduction of Greek, which he effected a year or two after his election, was regarded by some professors of the University as a dangerous innovation, and an unwarrantable encroachment on the province of the Greek chair; and the measure was accordingly resisted, (though, it is satisfactory to think, unsuccesstully,) by the united efforts of the Senatus Academicus, in a petition and representation to the Town-council, drawn up and proposed by the celebrated Principal of the University, Dr Robertson, This happened in 1772.

It is not possible for a man of principle and ordinary affections, to be occupied in training a large portion of the youth of his country to knowledge and virtue, without feeling a deep responsibility, and a paramount interest in their progress and well-doing. That such were Dr Adam’s feelings is proved, not less by the whole tenor of his life, than by his mode of conducting the business of his class; by the free scope and decided support he gave to talent, particularly when the possessor of it was poor and friendless; by the tender concern with which he followed his pupils into life; and by a test, not the least unequivocal, the enthusiastic attachment and veneration which they entertain for his memory. In his class-room, his manner, while it imposed respect, was kindly and conciliating. He was fond of relieving the irksomeness of continued attention by narrating curious facts and amusing anecdotes. In the latter part of his life, he was perhaps too often the hero of his own tale; but there was something amiable even in this weakness, which arose from the vanity of having done much good, and was totally unmixed with any alloy of selfishness.

Dr Adam’s first publication was his Grammar, which appeared in 1772. He had two principal objects in compiling it:—to combine the study of English and Latin grammar, so that they might mutually illustrate each other; and to supersede the preposterous method of teaching Latin by a grammar composed in that language, and of overloading the memory with rules in Latin hexameters, for almost every fact, and every anomaly in its grammatical structure. The change he proposed, reasonable as it was, could not be effected without running counter to confirmed prejudices, and interfering with established books. Although, therefore, the grammar met with the approbation of some eminently good judges, particularly of Bishop Lowth, the author had no sooner adopted it in his own class, and recommended it to others, than a host of enemies rose up against him, and he was involved in much altercation and vexatious hostility with the town-council, and the four under-masters. Dr George Stewart, then professor of humanity, was related to Ruddiman, whose grammar Dr Adam's was intended to supersede; and to this cause may be traced the commencement of the determined opposition that was long made to any change. In these squabbles, the acrimony displayed by some of his adversaries, now and then altered the natural suavity of Dr Adam's temper; and his high notions of independence, and contempt of presumptuous ignorance, led him perhaps to neglect too much those easy arts of conciliation, which enable a man, without the slightest compromise of his integrity, “to win his way by yielding to the tide.”

His work on Roman Antiquities was published in 1791, and has contributed, more than any of his other productions, to give him a name as a classical scholar. The vast variety of matter, the minuteness and accuracy of the details, the number and fidelity of the references, the constant bearing the work has upon the classics, and the light it throws on them at every step, were soon perceived and appreciated over the whole island. These solid excellencies abundantly compensate for a certain air of heaviness, and the absence of the lighter graces of interesting style and manner. His reader follows him as he would do a faithful guide, through a strange and difficult country, with a feeling of perfect assurance that he will arrive at the end of his journey, if not by the pleasantest road, at least by the most direct and secure. The Roman Antiquities is now adopted as a classbook in many of the English schools, and, even in those where the influence of custom opposes innovation, it is found in every master’s library, and recommended by him to his advanced pupils for private reading and reference.

In 1794, he published his Summary of Geography and History, in one thick 8vo volume of 900 pages, which had grown in his hands to this size from a small treatise on the same subject, printed, for the use of his pupils, in 1784. The object of this work was to connect the study of the classics with that of general knowledge; and it accordingly contains a curious compound of interesting matter, unwieldy as a schoolbook, and not always arranged in the most luminous or engaging order; but valuable to the young student, for its succinct account of the first principles of astronomical, mathematical, and physical science, and for the mass it contains of geographical and historical information, especially with regard to the fabulous ages of antiquity.

His Classical Biography, published in 1800, is the least in request of all his works; a circumstance owing, perhaps, to the more comprehensive and popular plan of Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary. It exhibits, however, ample proofs of well-directed industry; and in the number and unfailing accuracy of the references, furnishes an excellent index to the best sources of information, even where the book itself may be thought meagre and scanty.

His last work was his Latin Dictionary, which appeared in 1805, printed, like every other production of his pen, in the most unassuming form, and with the Rh