Excelsior, Vols. I-VI

James Hamilton was a Scottish minister with a penchant for chemistry, botany and other natural sciences. At the time he edited Excelsior, he was minister of the National Scotch Church, Regent Square, London, where he spent most of his career. Excelsior was intended to be a general ‘cyclopaedia’ for young Christian men, containing within its pages the essential knowledge for the well-rounded individual together with a lively element of Christian teaching. Hamilton hoped that many of the great minds of the day would contribute little articles for the publication – he mentions Harriet Beecher Stowe in a letter to his publisher outlining his plan for the magazine. It’s difficult to say whether he was successful in that endeavour as most articles are credited by initials only. He did do a lot of the writing himself however, and at one point at least, complained of the difficulty in obtaining articles from contributors in a timely manner (some things never change…). In any case, he certainly succeeded in creating a fascinating compilation!