“ From his earliest youth he manifested a remarkable faculty for the study of languages, and when he came to Scotland as tutor in the marquis of Tweeddale’s family at the age of 18 he had already made progress in Sanskrit, Arabic and Hebrew. ”

“ He applied his Chinese learning to the determination of important points connected with Chinese religion, and published a vast number of parallel passages illustrative of the Book of Proverbs. In 1880 the university of Edinburgh conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.D. No modern scholar, perhaps, has so nearly approached the linguistic omniscience of Mezzofanti; but, like Mezzofanti, Dr Malan was more of a linguist than a critic. ”