Robert Flint was born on 14 March 1838 at Greenburn, Sibbaldie, Dumfriesshire. He was educated at Evan Water and Moffat Schools in the area, and then at the University of Glasgow. He became licensed to preach in 1858 and held successive charges at the East Church of Aberdeen, 1859-62, and at Kilconquhar, 1862-64. In 1864 he was appointed to the Chair of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in the University of St. Andrews, a post he held till his transference to the Professorship of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh in 1876. In 1895 he declined the Moderatorship of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The Professor resigned his Chair at the University in 1903. His scholarly reputation had already been established when he came to Edinburgh. His books and pamphlets exercised a world-wide influence. They includedThe philosophy of history in France and Germany(1874),Theism(1876),Anti-theistic theories(1879),Socialism(1894),Hindu pantheism(1897), andAgnosticism(1903). He received honorary degrees from the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and from Princeton and Yale. Professor Flint died in Edinburgh on 25 November 1910 and was buried at Liberton in the city.