SMITH, William Robertson, Oriental scholar: b. 1846; d. 31 March 1894. He was the son of the Free Church minister at Keig, Aber deenshire; was educated at Aberdeen Univer sity, where he graduated in 1865, taking the • highest honors. Subsequently he spent some time at the New College, Edinburgh, and con tinued his German studies at Bonn and Got tingen, where his ideas upon scientific research were acquired. Thereafter, from 1868 to 1870 he acted as assistant to Professor Tait, pro fessor of physics in Edinburgh University. In 1870 he was appointed to the chair of Hebrew and New Testament exegesis in the Free Church College at Aberdeen. His free criticism of the Old Testament writings resulted in a charge of heresy, and after prolonged discussion in the Free Church courts, curing which his honesty was no less conspicuous than his learning, he was removed from his professorship in 1881. From this period he became associated with Professor Baynes in the editorship of the 'Encyclopedia Britannica,) and when the latter died he succeeded to the position of editor-in chief. More than any other writer or re
searcher he emphasized the character of human editing and arbitrary rendering that has gone into the Scriptures and become classed as in spired. Meanwhile he had visited Arabia in 1879-80, where he gained an intimate knowl edge of the people and their language, which qualified him to fill the position of professor of Arabic in Cambridge University, to which he was appointed in 1883. Subsequently he became a Fellow of Christ's College, and in 1886 he was elected university librarian, a post which he exchanged in 1889 for the Adams professorship of Arabic. Probably his most popular works are 'The Old Testament in the Jewish Church) (1881) and the