Supplement to the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica/Adam (Alexander)
ADAM (Alexander) Rector of the High School Edinburgh, and author of several valuable works connected with Roman literature, was born June 24th 1741, on a small farm which his father rented, not far from Forres, in Morayshire. He does not appear to have received any powerful direction to literary pursuits, either from the attainments of his parents, or the ability of the parochial schoolmaster; but is referable to a class of men, of which Scotland can produce a very honourable list, whom the secret workings of a naturally active mind have raised above the level of their associates, and urged on to distinction and usefulness under the severest pressure of difficulties. The gentle treatment of an old schoolmistress first taught him to like his book, and this propensity induced his parents to consent that he should learn Latin. To the imperfect Instruction which he received at the parish school, he joined indefatigable study at home, notwithstanding the scanty means and poor accommodation of his father’s house. Before he was sixteen, he had read the whole of Livy, in a copy of the small Elzevir edition, which he had borrowed from a neighbouring clergyman; omitting for the present all such passages as his own Sagacity and Cole’s dictionary did not enable him to construe. It was before day-break, during the mornings of winter, and by the light of splinters of bog-wood dug out of an adjoining moss, that he prosecuted the perusal of this difficult classic; for, as the whole family were collected round the only fire in the evening, he was prevented by the noise from reading with any advantage; and the day-light was spent at school.
In the autumn of 1757, he was a competitor for one of those bursaries, or small exhibitions, which are given by the university of Aberdeen to young men who distinguish themselves for their classical attainments; but as the prize was awarded to the best written exercises, and as Adam, with all his reading, had not yet been accustomed to write, he was foiled by some youth who had been more fortunate in his means of instruction. About the same time Mr Watson, a relation of his mother’s, and one of the ministers of the Canongate, sent him a tardy invitation to come to Edinburgh, “provided he was prepared to endure every hardship for a season;”—a condition not likely to appal one who yet knew nothing of life but its hardships. The interest of Mr Watson procured him free admission to the lectures of the different professors, and as he had now also access to books in the College Library, his literary ardour made him submit with cheerfulness to the greatest personal privations. Eighteen months of assiduous application enabled him to repair the defects of his early tuition, and to obtain, after a comparative trial of candidates, the head mastership of the foundation known by the name of Watson’s Hospital. At this period he was only nineteen, on which account the governors of the institution limited the appointment to half a year; but his steadiness and ability speedily removed their scruples. After holding the situation for three years, he was induced, by the prospect of having more leisure for the prosecution of his studies, to resign it, and become private tutor to the son of Mr Kincaid, a wealthy citizen, and afterwards Lord Provost, of Edinburgh; and it was in consequence of this connection that he was afterwards raised to the office for which he was so eminently qualified. He taught in the High School, for the first time, in April 1765, as substitute for Mr Matheson the rector; in consequence of whose growing infirmities, an arrangement was made, by which he retired on a small annuity, to be paid from the profits of the class; and Mr Adam was confirmed in the rectorship on the 8th June 1768.
From this period, the history of his life is little more than the history of his professional labours, and of his literary productions. No sooner was he invested with the office, than he gave himself up with entire devotion to the business of his class, and the pursuits connected with it. For forty years his day was divided with singular regularity between the public duties of teaching, and that unwearied research and industry in private, which enabled him, amidst the incessant occupation of a High School master’s life, to give to the world such a number of accurate and laborious compilations. So entirely did these objects of public utility engross his mind, that he mixed but little with society, and considered every moment as lost that was not dedicated in some way or other to the improvement of youth. Few men certainly could adopt, with more truth and propriety, the language of Horace, both with regard to his own feelings, and the objects on which he was occupied:
Consiliumque morantur agendi gnaviter id, quod
Æquè pauperibus prodest, locupletibus æquè,
Æquè, neglectum, pueris senibusque nocebit.
Epist. I. 1. 23.
The rector’s class, which, in the High School, is the most advanced of five, consisted of no more than between 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 utmost anxiety to condense the greatest quantity of useful knowledge into the smallest bulk, and afford it to the student at the cheapest rate. It was intended chiefly for the use of schools, and to be followed by a larger work, containing copious illustrations of every word in the language. The character which he had acquired by his former works for patient research and correct detail, stamped a high and deserved authority on this book. The clear account of the different meanings of words, the explanation of idioms, and happy translation of difficult passages, which abound, particularly in the latter half, are admirably well adapted to remove the difficulties of the younger student, and render the work, notwithstanding the modesty of its pretensions, equally valuable to the more advanced. It is much to be regretted, ne did not live to complete his larger work, on the extended scale on which the latter part of the small one is executed. He had proceeded as far as the word Comburo, with a plenitude of illustration that would have made the work a treasure of Latinity, when he was seized in school with an apoplectic affection,—occasioned, perhaps, by the intenseness of his application, and the small portion of sleep he allowed himself; certainly not by his mode of living, which was simple and abstemious to an extreme degree. He lingered five days under the disease. Amidst the wanderings of mind that accompanied it, he was constantly reverting to the business of the class, and addressing his boys; and in the last hour of his life, as he fancied himself examining on the lesson of the day, he stopped short, and said, “But it grows dark, you may go;” and almost immediately expired. He died on the 18th of December 1809, at the age of sixty-eight.
The magistrates of Edinburgh, whose predecessors had not always been alive to his merits, shewed their respect for his memory by a public funeral. A short time before his death, he was solicited, by some of his old pupils, to sit to Mr Raeburn for his portrait, which was executed in the best style of that eminent artist, and placed, as a memorial of their gratitude and respect, in the library of the High School.
He was twice married; first in 1775, to Miss Munro, eldest daughter of the Minister of Kinloss, by whom he had several children, the last of whom died within a few days of his father; and, in 1789, to Miss Cosser, daughter of Mr Cosser, Comptroller of Excise, who, with two daughters and a son, are still alive.(F.)