ADAM, Alexander, Rector of the High School, Edinburgh, and author of several valuable works connected with Roman literature, was born on the 24th of June 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 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 of June 1768.
From this period the history of his life is little more than
Adam. 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.
.....mihi tarda sunt ingrataque tempora, quam spem
Consiliumque morantur agendi graviter id, quod
Aequa pauperibus prodest, locupletibus aequa,
Aequa, neglectum, pueris senibusque nocet.
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, unsuccessfully) 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. Although it 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.
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.
In 1794, he published his Summary of Geography and History, in one thick octavo 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.
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 MS. of this important work, which he did not survive to complete, is deposited in the library of the school over which he so long and so ably presided. He died on the 18th of December 1809, after an illness of five days. 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.
The magistrates of Edinburgh, whose predecessors had not always been alive to his merits, showed 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, by whom he had two daughters and a son. (p. 1—8.)