Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/181

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M A G M A 163 readiness to help all workers in science, especially young of promise. Besides the works already cited, men M Lennan wrote Life of Thomas Drummond (Edinburgh, 1867). His later labours had for immediate object the solution of the origin of exogamy that is, of laws prohibit ing the marriage of relations (laws of incest) ; and in con nexion with this he had prepared materials for a description of the social state of the less advanced races of men (keeping totemism in view as it bore on the history of society rather than the history of religion), which, he believed, would throw much light on the history of marriage and the family, of kinship, and laws of inheritance. MACLEOD, NORMAN (1812-1872). There were three Norman Macleods, all ministers of the Church of Scotland, and all men of some note in their day. The first was settled in Morven, the " Highland parish," looking out on the Sound of Mull, of which his grandson has given us so many pleasant and sunny reminiscences. The second was minister of Campbeltown, afterwards of Cauipsie, and finally of St Columba s Gaelic Church in Glasgow, an able Celtic scholar and popular preacher, with a dash of dry humour in him, and general Highland "pawkiuess." The third Norman was born in Campbeltown on June 3, 1812, and, like his father, he too could tell a good story, only his humour was not of the pawky kind, but verged on caricature, when it had not, as it mostly had, a vein of pathos in it ; for he had received, probably from his mother, Agnes Maxwell, a richer blood and a larger life than we can trace in his more purely Celtic ancestry. A sunny, light-hearted youth, full of jest and song, given to miscellaneous literature rather than to accurate scholar ship or professional learning, would hardly seem to have been the kind of training to prepare for the life of an eloquent preacher and earnest pastor. Yet the broad human sympathies which were thus fostered were, after all, more serviceable for the work that lay before him than a knowledge of the Greek drama or of Dutch divinity ; and, though he was never much of a scholar or a theologian, he was out and out a man, which is of more consequence in the long run. He had also moved about, and seen a good deal of the world in Highland Morven, in Glasgow, in Edinburgh, in England, and in Germany, when in 1838, on the recommendation of Dr Chalmers, he was presented by the dowager marchioness of Hastings to the parish of Loudoun, and began his ministry among a curious com bination of Davie Deanses and Silas Marners covenant ing small farmers and Chartist hand-loom weavers. There, in the small rural parish, his work had the same character istic features as in the larger sphere which afterwards opened up to him in the Barony church and in general literature. He carefully prepared for his pulpit, yet he was most eloquent when most spontaneous, for he was naturally more of a speaker than a writer. Courteous and chivalrous, yet also homely and ready-witted, he was as much liked by the radical weavers as he was honoured and trusted by the marchioness and her family. And if his natural gaiety of heart, which now and then amounted to rollicking animal spirits, gave him an occasional twinge of conscience which is duly recorded in his secret diary, that only shows that his genuine piety had not yet harmonized his whole nature, as it afterwards did, blending the grave and gay in one beautiful human service. When he began his ministry, the troubles in the Scottish Church were already gathering to a head, and he found himself compelled to look around, and choose his ground. He wanted to get for the church all that Chalmers and his friends wanted. He felt that the best men, both lay and cleric, were with them, and against himself. He had no love for lay patronage, and he wished the church to be free to do its proper work. But more than all else he clung in those days to the idea of a national Established Church ; and it was not without a sinking of heart that he saw the long array file out of the Assembly of 1843 after Drs Welsh and Chalmers. Yet he girded himself up for the task that had now to be done with courage and wisdom. It was a heavy job to fill four hundred and thirty pulpits with such materials as came to hand, mostly men who had already failed, and practically given up the profession. For years Macleod, and those who worked with him, toiled almost despairingly to inspire them with any living interest in the real business of the Christian Church. But in the long run his labours were crowned with a large measure of success, though his own brethren to the last hardly gave him the credit for it which was due almost to him alone to him, at any rate, above all others. With his broad sympathies he flung himself upon the masses, and taught the working men to feel that the Church of Scotland was still as interested in their wellbeing as any denomination. Discerning also that the harder forms of Calvinism had no longer the hold on their minds that they once had, he made room for the thoughtful teachings of his cousin, Dr John Macleod Campbell, whom the Evangelical party had formerly east out as a heretic, gaining by this means not a little influence with the young and inquiring intellects of the country. And finally, by his efforts to diffuse a wholesome religious literature through the land, he so identified his church with the growing spirit of the age that at length he lived to see it, not indeed the strong and united community which in his youth practically controlled the nation, but yet once more a great power, dear to the hearts of many of the people, and doing good Christian service to the land. It may be doubted if the work which Norman Macleod did for Scotland could have been done in his day without the disruption of the church. For the Evangelical party, using that word in its technical sense, had not only gained the confidence of the people by much faithful service, but also had confirmed their power by somewhat sharp treat ment of all who differed from them. It needed a different kind of church to tolerate the views of Macleod Campbell ; but as these were now, more or less, identified with the living element in the kirk, with those who were most diligent in parochial work, and most zealous in mission enterprise, they gradually established their right to be preached in Calvinistic pulpits. Norman Macleod, of course, was not long left to expend his energies on the weavers of Loudoun. Removing first to Dalkeith, he was finally, in 1851, called to the Barony church, Glasgow, where the rest of his days were passed, in honour and influence, as the foremost of its citizens. There the more liberal theology rapidly made way among a people who judged it more by its fruits than its arguments. And, as they heard his eloquent voice pleading on behalf of churches and schools for the poor, penny savings banks, foreign missions, and every likely scheme for doing good to men, they learned to look without suspicion at opinions which yielded such Christian results. Two other events also helped not a little to increase his influence. These were his position as editor of Good Words, and his relation to the queen and the royal, family. In 1860 a magazine was projected which was to deal with subjects common to all, only with a decidedly religious tone. It was not for Sunday only, nor was it for Christians only; but it was to be broadly human, and at the same time clearly pious. For the conduct ing of such a magazine Macleod was singularly well qualified. Not that he had yet attained any great lite rary position, or indeed was ever likely to do so. He

had written some ecclesiastical pamphlets, amusing but