hildren.

Bain's life was mainly that of a thinker and a man of letters. But he also
took a keen interest and frequently an active part in the political and
social movements of the day; and so highly did the students of Aberdeen
rate his practical ability, that, after his retirement from the chair of
logic, they twice in succession elected him lord rector of the university,
each term of office extending over three years. He was a strenuous advocate
of reform, especially in the teaching of sciences, and supported the claims
of modern languages to a place in the curriculum. A marble bust of him
stands in the public library and his portrait hangs in the Marischal
College.

Wide as Bain's influence has been as a logician, a grammarian and a writer
on rhetoric, his reputation rests on his psychology. At one with Johannes
Mueller in the conviction _psychologus nemo nisi physiologus_, he was the
first in Great Britain during the 19th century to apply physiology in a
thoroughgoing fashion to the elucidation of mental states. He was the
originator of the theory of psycho-physical parallelism, which is used so
widely as a working basis by modern psychologists. His idea of applying the
natural history method of classification to psychical phenomena gave
scientific character to his work, the value of which was enhanced by his
methodical exposition and his command of illustration. In line with this,
too, is his demand that psychology shall be cleared of metaphysics; and to
his lead is no doubt due in great measure the position that psychology has
now acquired as a distinct positive science. Prof. Wm. James calls his work
the "last word" of the earlier stage of psychology, but he was in reality
the pioneer of the new. Subsequent psycho-physical investigations have all
been in the spirit of his work; and although he consistently advocated the
introspective method in psychological investigation, he was among the first
to appreciate the help that may be given to it by animal and social and
infant psychology. He may justly claim the merit of having guided the
awakened psychological interest of British thinkers of the second half of
the 19th century into fruitful channels. He emphasized the importance of
our active experiences of movement and effort, and though his theory of a
central innervation sense is no longer held as he propounded it, its value
as a suggestion to later psychologists is great. His autobiography,
published in 1904, co