Charles Neaves, Lord Neaves
FRSE (1800–1876) was a Scottish advocate, judge, theologian and writer. He
served as Solicitor General (1852), as a judge of the Court of Session, the
supreme court of Scotland (1854), and as Rector of the University of St
Andrews (1872). Neaves was known as one of the early analysts of the history
of evolution, and is often quoted regarding the subjects of evolution and
women's rights.
Neaves was born in Edinburgh in 1800, the son of Charles Neaves, a Forfar
solicitor and clerk of the Justiciary Court in Edinburgh. Neaves was
educated at the High School and Edinburgh University. He became a member of
the Faculty of Advocates at age 22. He married Eliza Macdonald in 1835. From
1841 to 1845, he was Advocate Depute, and from 1845 to 1852 sheriff, of the
Orkney and Shetland islands. He became solicitor-general for Scotland in
1853, and served judge of the Court of Session from 1853 to 1858. From 1858
to his death, he was Lord of Justiciary, Scotland's supreme criminal court.
Neaves lived the majority of his life in Edinburgh, but when associated with
the Justiciary Court, he travelled to Glasgow thrice yearly and Lord Neaves
(although elderly and almost without hearing capability by the 1875)
acquired a reputation in Glascow as a man of justice and evenness. Charles
Neaves also had acknowledged skills as a composer of verse. He was
vice-president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1859–67, 1868–73 and
1874–76), and a president of the Heriot-Watt Institution. From 1872 to 1874,
he held the post of Rector at the University of St Andrews, the oldest
university in Scotland. The Rector chairs meetings of the University Court,
the governing body of the University of St Andrews. Neaves was a regular
author of poetry and essays to Blackwood's Magazine. Here we are bringing
you his book on Songs and Verses, Social and Scientific.
PREFACE
A great proportion of these
pieces were originally published in ‘Blackwood’s Magazine;’ some appeared in
the ‘Scotsman’ Newspaper; and the rest were written for the amusement of a
Scientific Club, or of a circle of private friends. They were received at
the time with some approbation; and they have since been collected mainly in
the hope of preserving or reviving in the minds of those who were then
pleased to approve of them a recollection of the feelings that attended
their first reception.
CONTENTS
The Origin of Species
The Memory of Monboddo
The Darwinian Era of Farming
The Leather Bottle
The Origin of Language
Grimm's Law
The Three R's
Don't Forget The Rich
O Why Should A Woman Not Get A Degree?
The Reading of Greek
AD Sodalitatis Helleneic Ac Socios
The Proposal of Poltys
The Penny of Pases
Platonic Paradoxes
Stuart Mill On Mind and Matter
The In-Osculation of Science and Art
Dust and Disease
Keep Your Mouth Shut
Gaster, The First M.A.
Gaster (Adapted to Music)
Beef and Potatoes
A Song of Proverbs
A Song of Truisms
How to Make a Novel
Hilli-Onnee
The Tourist's Matrimonial Guide Through Scotland
Decimis Inclusis
The Jolly Testator Who Makes His Own Will
O! He Was Lang O' Coming
Saturday at E'En
The Sheriff's Life at Sea
Let Us All Be Unhappy on Sunday
The Three Moderators
The Sons of the Manse
Song Sung At The Symposium of 1840
Song at the Symposium on Maga, 1841
Hey for Social Science, O!
I’m Very Fond of Water
The Permissive Bill
Old Noah's Invention
The Planting of the Vine
A Bottle and Friend
A Flask of Rosy Wine
A Page or Two of Epigrams, Etc.
L’Envoy
The Bagman's Life on Shore
Appendix - Music of Some of the Songs |