BOOKS.

ION KEITH-FALCONER.*

THE subject of this memoir had a brief life, yet one that was full, true, winning, marked by considerable achievement, and rich in auspicious promise. He was among the happy souls of whom it may be said, not that they chose religion, but that religion possessed them from the first. The third son of the late Earl of Kintore, he spent a gladsome childhood at the family seat of Keith Hall, in Aberdeenshire. From his earliest days he was notable by reason of sundry characteristics not uncommon in children of good disposition who are carefully nurtured, but evinced by him in surpassing measure. His mother and his nurse, in a brace of lifelike little sketches, singularly exempt alike from mawkishness or transport, tell of his innate and intense truthfulness, his thoughtful considera- tion for others, his steady self-denial and self-sacrifice which found a peculiarly early development. The child proved father to the man. His boyish impulses passed into a habitual and very commanding determination, which his whole mind with compactest fidelity supported him in pursuing. Securely privileged against the inroads of misgiving or timidity, he acquired an evenness of power, the strength of a self- sustaining force, which might have become unamiable had it not been mated with a subduing gentleness and an exquisite courtesy. His soul was never torn by doubt, longing, or despair ;

• Memorials of the Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer, MA. Late Lord Almoner's Pro- tases of Arabic at Cambridge, and Missionary to the Mohammedans of Southern Arabia. By the Rev. Robert Sinker, B.D., Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge : Deighton, Bell, and Co.

yet he loved no darkness, paltered with no truth, was even con- scious to some degree of his narrownesses and partialities- Mild and sweet, ardent and sincere, upright and dignified, he respected the feelings and the liberties of others, and was truly noble because, though staunch, he was tolerant, while his purity was unsullied. His course, all along, was that of an ever upward-tending metamorphosis, though the transformation was less than the growth. It is a just complaint that we have too many biographies. In this instance there was not a great deal to tell ; but it deserved telling. The narrative is given with taste and discretion. There is not an over-indulgence in details that are irrelevant or uninteresting. As little is there of a too scrupulous reticence. The author has done his work deftly. His book will be prized outside the circle of friends.

Falconer was a pupil at Harrow, at Cambridge, and at Leipzig. In the three places, his strong individuality, his tender affectionateness, his clear and absolute convictions as to all that is essential and lustrous in the Christian economy, were seen and honoured. At Harrow he varied his work in the school by learning shorthand, in which he became a proficient ; by practice as an athlete and bicyclist, attaining success in both characters, especially the latter ; and by figuring as a temperance advocate. Withal he gave a thoroughly conscientious attention to his studies, is clear- headedness matching his diligence. One of his ma;:ers, with great pertinence, regards this latter trait as a necessary concomitant of his moral single-mindedness. At Cam- bridge he wrought bard. He had a special aptitude for the- aequisition of languages ; but his versatile nature gave him a firm grasp of a good many subjects. At the same time, he pondered more deeply than before those grave problems that affect eternal interests, while simultaneously he developed a considerable power of public address, which he employed to utter, with the keen directness of a genuine religious insight, piercing and reconciling words to the wretched and the out- cast. Mr. Sinker's acquaintance with him began when he decided to read as a candidate for theological honours. His aspect and character are thus described :-

" His appearance, his manners, his tastes, were all strikingly like what they were in later times. He had a remarkably tall, well-shaped figure, whose symmetry seemed to take off from his height of 6 ft. 3 in. Physically very strong he certainly was, in one sense, or his wonderful feats of athletic endeavour would have been impossible. Yet for all those feats, which were partly due, no doubt, to the sustaining power of a strong will, he could not really be called robust. His kindly voice and genial smile will live in the recollection of his friends ; like good Bishop Hacket, he might have taken as his motto, Serve God and be cheerful.' Side by side with his geniality there was at all times the most perfect, and, so to speak, transparent simplicity. Never was a character more free from any alloy of insincerity or meanness.. No undertone of veiled unkindness, or jealousy, or selfishness, found place in his conversation."

His nervous energy was abundant. He could call upon him- self with facility for the expenditure of force in diversified. ways to an unwise extent. There can be little doubt that he

exhausted his strength where he meant to train it, drawing on capital when he deemed that he was making investments.. Here is an example of a bicycling feat described by himself in a letter to Isaac Pitman, the phonographer, who had advised him to drop smoking :—

"I think the following will gratify you. Early in the year, I consented to meet John Keen, the professional champion, in a five- mile bicycle race on our ground at Cambridge in October. I forgot all about my engagement till I was accidentally reminded of it nine days before it was to come off. Immediately I began to train hard. The first great thing was to knock off smoking, which I did. Next, to rise early, and breathe the fresh air before breakfast, which I did. Next, to go to bed not later than 10, which I did ; next, to- eat wholesome food, and not too much meat or pastry, which I did ; and finally, to take plenty of gentle exercise in the open air. What was the result? I met Keen on Wednesday last, and amidst yells of delight this David slew the great Goliath,—to speak in plain language, I defeated Keen by about five yards. The time was by far the fastest on record."

It lasted only fifteen minutes and twelve seconds. The last " lap" of 440 yards was accomplished at the rate of more than eleven yards in a second, under forty in all. He describes himself as having been in " beautiful condition. I did not perspire nor blow from first to last." He expresses gratifica- tion at having been able, notwithstanding his other work, to beat with comfort the fastest rider in the world, and adds,—" I

am bound to say that smoking is bad, bad for the wind and general condition." At Leipzig he had a special friend in old Dr. Delitzsch, whom he pictures as " very small of stature ; white hair ; neck encased in white bandages ; with head broad and flat, not high nor intellectual-looking. He is very poetical and mystic in his conversation, very kind and homely in his manner, and hunts up all English-speaking students, especially the Scots."

Returning to this country in 1881. Falconer resumed in the East End of London that work among the poor to which he had given some of his efforts at Cambridge. Here he was brought into close intercourse with General Gordon, and became largely subject to the spell of his fascination.

There are many characteristic letters from him. In one, he vents the wish that " I could put you into some- thing that would give you the work you need,—viz., secular

and religious running side by side," and asks,—" Would you go to Stamboul as extra unpaid attache to Lord Dufferin ? If so, why not try it, or else as private secretary to St. Peters-

burg ? If not, then come to me in Syria to the Hermitage." This last invitation Falconer afterwards regretted he did not accept. He went to Assiout, on the Nile, some two hundred miles above Cairo, in order that he might study Arabic. His letters from thence are very readable and full of thought, though he was disappointed with Egypt, its climate, its scenery, and its people. Returning to Cambridge, he was appointed Hebrew lecturer at Clare College, then Arabic Pro- fessor, published a translation from the Syriac of the Kalilah, a work that had been on his anvil for a long while, and married Miss Bevan. From 1884 he had begun to revolve the idea of becoming a foreign missionary. Some writings by General Haig, advocating an attempt to evangelise Arabia, determined his purpose. His wife shared his enthusiasm. They went together to Aden at his own expense, though the mission was connected with the Scottish Free Church, of which, from his earliest days, he was a devoted adherent. His plans had a tinge of the adventurous spirit that beseemed his friend Gordon ; yet they were deliberate, well-weighed, and feasible, especially to one of such inflexible vigour alike in will and execution. He took with him a medical colleague, upon whose ministrations he set great store, looking for

advantageous effects from them. He was not to see the issue. Soon he was prostrated by fever. His sufferings were endured

with heroic equanimity They did not last long, for God's finger touched him and he died, passing away in sleep. His work is to be continued, though such another worker will not be easily found,—one that recalls that old elegy on Sir Philip Sydney :—

" A sweet, attractive kind of grace, A full assurance given by looks, Continual comfort in a face

The lineament of gospel books ; For sure that count'nance cannot lie Whose thoughts are written in the eye."