Читать книгу A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography - Various - Страница 152

Table of Contents

McCaul, Rev. John, D.D., late President of University College, Toronto, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1807, and died at Toronto, on the 16th of April, 1887, in the eighty-first year of his age. He was educated at Trinity College in his native city, and after a very successful university career, graduated with the highest honours in classics. At the request of the authorities of Trinity College, he for some time filled the post of classical tutor and examiner in that institution. While occupying this position, he devoted himself passionately to the pursuit of classical literature, and edited several editions of recognized value of various Greek and Latin texts. In 1838, Dr. Harley, then archbishop of Canterbury, hearing of his repute as a scholar, offered him the principalship of Upper Canada College, in Toronto, and Mr. McCaul having accepted the office, entered upon its duties the following year. In 1843, he became the president and professor of classics, logic, rhetoric and belles-lettres in King’s College, which by the Act of 1849, became the University of Toronto, and was freed forever from sectarian control. From that time up to the date of his retirement, some years ago, from all literary work, Dr. McCaul uninterruptedly filled the chair of classics in the university, of which for some years he was also the president. While zealously maintaining the pre-eminence of his own department, he actively assisted in introducing into the university curriculum the subjects of modern languages and natural sciences. His individual work is seen on every hand in the distinguished men who are to be found in every part of the province, and who cheerfully acknowledge their indebtedness to the late lamented president of University College, for the accuracy and thoroughness of their academic training. Among the works which have been issued from Dr. McCaul’s pen are exhaustive treatises on the Greek Tragic Metres and the Horatian Metres; on the Scansion of the Hecuba and Medea of Euripides; lectures on Homer and Virgil; an edition of Longinus, of selections from Lucian and Thucydides. His edition of the Satires and Epistles of Horace has long been looked upon as a standard one of this favourite author. His researches in Greek and Roman Epigraphy, and his work on “Britanno-Roman Inscriptions,” and “The Christian Epitaphs of the First Six Centuries,” entitle him to take high rank among the greatest classical scholars which the century has produced. Dr. McCaul married in 1840, Emily, the second daughter of the late Hon. Justice Jones. His wife, three sons and three daughters survive him.