Now let Alec once feel that a man was wiser and better than himself, and he was straightway incapable of envying him any additional superiority possible--would, in a word, be perfectly willing that he should both wear a better coat and be a better scholar than himself.

But to any one who did not possess the higher kind of superiority, he foolishly and enviously grudged the lower kinds of pre-eminence.

To understand this it must be remembered, that as yet he had deduced for himself no principles of action or feeling: he was only a boy well-made, with little goodness that he had in any way verified for himself.
On the second day after the commencement of lectures, it was made known to the first class that the Magistrand (fourth-class) Debating Society would meet that evening.

The meetings of this society, although under the control of the magistrands, were open, upon equal terms in most other respects, to the members of the inferior classes.

They were held in the Natural Philosophy class-room, at seven o'clock in the evening; and to the first meeting of the session Alec went with no little curiosity and expectation.
It was already dark when he set out from his lodgings in the new town, for the gateway beneath the tower with that crown of stone which is the glory of the ancient borough gathered beneath it.