1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Donaldson, Sir James

DONALDSON, SIR JAMES (1831–  ), Scottish classical scholar, educational and theological writer, was born at Aberdeen on the 26th of April 1831. He was educated at Aberdeen University and New College, London. In 1854 he was appointed rector of the Stirling high school, in 1866 rector of that of Edinburgh, in 1881 professor of humanity in the university of Aberdeen, and in 1890 principal of the university of St Andrews, by the Universities (Scotland) Act. His chief works are: Modern Greek Grammar (1853); Lyra Graeca (1854), specimens of Greek lyric poetry from Callinus to Soutsos; A Critical History of Christian Literature and Doctrine from the Death of the Apostles to the Nicene Council (i.-iii., 1864–1866; new ed. of i. as The Apostolical Fathers, 1874), a book unique of its kind in England at the time of its appearance and one which adds materially to the knowledge of Christian antiquities as deduced from the apostolic fathers; Lectures on the History of Education in Prussia and England (1874); The Westminster Confession of Faith and the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (1905); Woman, her position and influence in ancient Greece and Rome (1907). He was knighted in 1907.