HONEST JOHN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 July 1940, Page 7

HONEST JOHN

FORTY MONTHS WORK IN SIX. “Honest John” loved sitting at the top of a pair of steps. Born in 1775 he lived 35 years, and no man ever pushed more happiness into so short c time. His father was a Roxburghshire shepherd, and John had a very little schooling. But he entered Edinburgh University and studied French anc Spanish and Italian, adding Gcrmai and Hebrew and Arabic, together with Persian and ancient Icelandic and the classical languages, besides philosophj and chemistry and botany and mathematics and mineralogy. As a side-line he studied the old ballads of Scotland, and it was these he was intent upon in a second-hanc bookshop when Sir Walter Scott came upon him as he sat on the steps. Who does not know Sir Walter’;' famous book, Minstrelsy of the Scottis’. Border? But how many of us know that John Leyden had a big share :n its compilation, and that he once tramped on foot between 40 and 5( miles to get hold of a single poem trudging the whole way back, but singing as he took the last few steps? Everyone who knew clever and honest John loved him. He was brilliant but modest, a student but charminv and his friends wished to see him do well. He had a passion for Oriental languages, and eventually a little influence succeeded in getting him the position of assistant surgeon in the East India Company. But there was one apparently insurmountable difficulty: He must be ready in six months. And he knew nothing of medicine. The- course lie would have to take required al least three, if not lour, years What could be done? John Leyden did what seemed beyond any man’s ability. He crowded 40 months’ work into six. took his medical degree, published a book of verse, and sailed for the East on the appointed day. Within a few years he won the distinction of being the most marvellous Orientalist alive, and before many more years had passed he died during an expedition to Java.