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a transformation as did the revolutionary activities of Legge's own lifetime. Buchanan, a convert at first reluctant in tone but later adamant in commitment, could not have left a more profound influence on his impressionable Scottish student. Legge began to recognize his own need for conversion—a conclusion drawn as much from Buchanan as from his family's involvement in the relatively new Non-Conformist movement. In his autobiography, Legge spoke of his need to resolve this issue as a matter involving his passage into maturity.
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As a Scotsman of the nineteenth century, Legge rediscovered his Scottish uniqueness through the pen of Buchanan. In addition, through him, Legge gained a perspective on the rise and fall of clans and nations, a perspective broader and more reflective than usual in the sixteenth century.
At the end of his life, James Legge must have been a remarkable religious figure. Yet what his own statements suggest is that there was as much of the scholar in his early life as there was a missionary. Perhaps it would be more correct to say that it was the scholar who discovered his spiritual need, at least in part, through identification with the conversion of his Scottish predecessor. The religious and scholarly were intimately intertwined, but, as with Buchanan, it was the scholarly route which first awoke Legge's mind to greater things, leading later to the spiritual conversion which was the primary motive force for Legge's mature life.
III. Legge's Educational Philosophy
James Legge's first job was to teach Mathematics in Blackburn, England. He was quickly able to demonstrate his competence in other fields and was soon afterward also given responsibilities in teaching courses in his strongest subject, advanced Latin. It was during this period that the young Legge pursued the “question of religion”. The headmaster under whom he worked was also a Non-Conformist and so not only permitted him exposure to the Latin Church fathers, which he taught to students, but also involved him in weekend trips to nearby villages for preaching. Through these experiences and relationships, James Legge became convinced that he should become a missionary, and so after one and one-half years of teaching, he entered Highbury College, a Non-Conformist Seminary, to prepare for service in the London Missionary Society.