ELACKIE, JOHN STUART, professor of Greek in the university of Edinburgh, was b. in Glas:row in 1809, but received his early education in Aberdeen. where his father was agent for a bank, After going through the usual course of a Scotch university education —partly at Marischal college, Aberdeen, partly at Edinburgh—with a view to the church, he went in 1929 to Germany, and studied for some time both at Gottingen and Berlin. Ire thus acquired a mastery of German, and an acquaintance more extensive than ordinary with the literature of that language. On his return, having abandoned the thought of entering the church, he began the study of law, and passed as advocate at the Edinburgh bar in 1834 But he soon found the practice of the profession uncon genial. and devoted himself henceforth to literary pursuits. Among his earliest pro ductions was his translation, in English verse, of Goethe's Faust, which was preferred by G. IL Lewes to any other of the metrical translations. He wrote also about this period numerous articles in the Foreign 9na•terly Rerietc, the Westminster, Blackwood. and Tail, chiefly on German subjects. In 1841, he was appointed by the crown to the chair in Marischal college, which he held until, in 1852, he was elected to the Greek chair in the university of Edinburgh. Ever since he became professor. he has been incessant in educational reform in Scotland. He took anacure part in the movement that led in 1859 to the remodeling of the Scottish universities. During 1874-76. 13. advocated throughout the country, with great enthusiasm, the foundation of a Celtic chair in Edinburgh university, and was successful in raising upwards of Z10,000 of endowment. Of works of a professional and philological kind may be men boned two lectures On the Studying and Teaching of Languages; On the Rhythmical Declamation of the Ancients; The I'ronunthation of Greek; Accent and Quantiay, 1852.
,A.niong the most matured and seholarly of 13.'s productions is his metrical translation, with notes, of the dramas of .,Eschylus, published in 1850. In 1853, he Spent above three months in Athens, acquiring a complete mastery of the language as now spoken; and as fruits of the visit, there appeared articles on the subject in the .North British and Wertminster Reviews. In 1866, prof. B. gave to tire e world 7'he Iliad of lloer, trans. latel into English Yew, with (.,'Qinnterdory and introductory Dissertations (Ellin,), in which he endeavors to present Ilomer to the English render in his distinctive character as a. popular singer. Of late years B. devoted himself with enthusiasm and success to raising funds for the endowment of a Celtic chair in the university of Edinburgh. In 1878 he spent some mouths in Egypt.
Not content with educational acid philological subjects, the versatile activity of prof. B. has led him to make incursions into the fields both of abstract speculation and of poe'ry. De published in 1858 a treatise on beauty, in refutation of lord Jeffrey's associa tio.t theory. Others of his works are Lays. and Legends cf Ancient Greece, with other Poem (1857); Lyrical Poems (1860); Musa Burschicosa (1869); War Songs of tho Germans a translation, 1870; Four Phases of Morals (1871); Songs of the highlands and Mande 1872); Sell Culture (1873); Hone IIellanico3 (1874); Songs of _Religion and Life (1876).