filment of one of his earliest aspirations. It will be remembered, that in the period of his youth, when he was about to commence his ministry in the parish of Kilmany, his earnest wishes were directed towards a chair in the university of St. Andrews; and now, after the lapse of more than twenty years, his desires were to be gratified. The professorship of Moral Philosophy in that university had become vacant, and it was felt by the professors that none was so well fitted to occupy the charge, and increase the literary reputation of the college, as Dr. Chalmers, their honoured alumnus, whose reputation was now diffused over Europe. The offer, also, which was neither of his own seeking nor expecting, was tendered in the most respectful manner. Such an application from his alma mater, with which his earliest and most affectionate remembrances were connected, did not solicit him in vain; and after signifying his consent, he was unanimously elected to the office on the 18th January, 1823. Six different applications had previously been made to him from various charges since his arrival in Glasgow, but these he had steadfastly refused, for he felt that there he had a work to accomplish, to which every temptation of ecclesiastical promotion or literary ease must be postponed. But now the case was different. The machinery which he had set in motion with such immense exertion, might now be carried on by an ordinary amount of effort, and therefore could be intrusted to a meaner hand. His own health had suffered by the labour, and needed both repose and change. He felt, also, that a new career of usefulness in the cause of religion might be opened up to him by the occupation of a university chair, and the opportunities of literary leisure which it would afford him. And no change of self-seeking, so liberally applied in cases of clerical translation, could be urged in the present instance; as the transition was from a large to a smaller income; and from a thronging city, where he stood in the full blaze of his reputation, to a small and remote county town, where the highest merit would be apt to sink into obscurity. Much grumbling, indeed, there was throughout Glasgow at large, and not a little disappointment expressed by the kirk session of St. John's, when the proposed movement was announced; but the above-mentioned reasons had at last their proper weight, and the final parting was one of mutual tenderness and esteem. The effect of his eight years' labours in that city is thus summed up by his eloquent biographer, the Rev. Dr. Hanna:—"When Dr. Chalmers came to Glasgow, by the great body of the upper classes of society evangelical doctrines were nauseated and despised; when he left it, even by those who did not bow to their influence, these doctrines were acknowledged to be indeed the very doctrines of the Bible. When Dr. Chalmers came to Glasgow, in the eye of the multitude evangelism stood confounded with a drivelling sanctimoniousness, or a sour-minded ascetism; when he left it, from all such false associations the Christianity of the New Testament stood clearly and nobly redeemed. When Dr. Chalmers came to Glasgow, for nearly a century the magistrates and town council had exercised the city patronage in a spirit determinately anti-evangelical; when he left it, so complete was the revolution which had been effected, that from that time forward none but evangelical clergymen were appointed by the city patrons. When Dr. Chalmers came to Glasgow, there and elsewhere over Scotland, there were many most devoted clergymen of the Establishment who had given themselves up wholly to the ministry of the Word and to prayer, but there was not one in whose faith and practice week-day ministrations had the place or power which he assigned to them; when he left it he had exhibited such a model of fidelity,
