Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Bain, Alexander
BAIN, Alexander, LL.D., born at Aberdeen in 1818, entered Marischal College in 1836, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1840. From 1841 to 1844 he taught, as deputy, the class of Moral Philosophy in Marischal College; from 1844 to 1845, the Natural Philosophy Class. In 1845 he was elected Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Andersonian University, Glasgow, but retired at the end of a year. In 1847 he was appointed by the Metropolitan Sanitary Commissioners their Assistant-Secretary, and in 1848 became Assistant-Secretary to the General Board of Health, which post he resigned in 1850. From 1857 to 1862 he was Examiner in Logic and Moral Philosophy in the University of London. In 1858, 1859, 1860, 1863, 1864, 1868, and 1870, he acted as Examiner in Moral Science at the India Civil Service Examinations. In 1860 he was appointed, by the Crown, Professor of Logic in the University of Aberdeen. In 1864 he was re-elected Examiner in the University of London, and continued to hold that position till 1869. His first literary production was an article, in 1840, in the Westminster Review, to which he contributed at various times. In 1847–8 he wrote textbooks on Astronomy, Electricity, and Meteorology, in Messrs. Chambers's school series, several of Chambers's "Papers for the People," and the articles on Language, Logic, the Human Mind, and Rhetoric in the "Information for the People." In 1852 he published an edition of the "Moral Philosophy of Paley," with dissertations and notes. "The Senses and the Intellect" appeared in 1855, and "The Emotions and the Will," completing a systematic exposition of the human mind, in 1859. "The Study of Character, including an Estimate of Phrenology," was published in 1861, an English Grammar in 1863, and "Manual of English Composition and Rhetoric" in 1866. His more recent works are, "Mental and Moral Science," 1868; "Logic, Deductive and Inductive," 1870; "Mind and Body; Theories of their Relation," 1873; a collection of "The Minor Works of George Grote, with Critical Remarks on his Intellectual Character, Writings, and Speeches," 1873; "A Companion to the Higher English Grammar," 1874; "Education as a Science," 1879; "James Mill, a Biography," and "John Stuart Mill, a Criticism, with Personal Recollections," 1882. In 1880 he retired from the Logic chair of Aberdeen University. In 1881 he was elected, by the students, Lord Rector of the University.