When his name was called he sat as if he had no concern
in what was going on, and then rose with an easy smile, partly of
modesty, but in great measure of indifference.
"Dr. Rae, the Arctic explorer and first discoverer of the fate of Sir
John Franklin, who is an M.D. of Edinburgh, was now made LL.D. He is
of tall, wiry, energetic figure, slightly baldish, with greyish, curly
hair, keen, handsome face, high crown and sloping forehead, and his
bearing is that of a soldier--of a man who has both given and obeyed
commands, and been drilled to stand steady and upright. Carlyle
himself was offered the degree of LL.D., but he declined the honour,
laughing it off, in fact, in a letter, with such excuses as that he
had a brother a Dr. Carlyle (an M.D., also a man of genius, I insert
parenthetically, and known in literature as a translator of 'Dante'),
and that if two Dr. Carlyles should appear at Paradise, mistakes might
arise.
"After all the LL.D's had heard their merits enumerated, and had had
a black hood or wallet of some kind, with a blue ribbon conspicuous in
it, flung over their heads, Principal Brewster announced that the Lord
Rector would now deliver his address.
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