An Appropriate Version
:
Schools.
The late Dr. Adam, Rector of the Grammar School,
Edinburgh, was supposed by his scholars to exercise a strong partiality for
such as were of patrician descent; and on one occasion was very smartly
reminded of it by a boy of mean parentage, whom he was reprehending rather
severely for his ignorance--much more so than the boy thought he would have
done, had he been the son of a _right honourable_, or even less. "You
dunce," exclaimed the rector, "I don't think you can even translate the
motto of your own native place, of the _gude_ town of Edinburgh. What,
sir, does '_Nisi Dominus frustra_,' mean?" "It means, sir," rejoined the
boy, "that unless we are lords' sons, it is in vain to come here."