PRINCIPAL SHAIRP PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS WITH PORTRAIT LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET PREFACE THE distinctive feature in a memoir of Principal Shairp must be the study of his character. His outward life was uneventful, and its story is easily told; but to present an adequate picture of the man, in his manysidedness, is not easy; and it cannot be done by any of his friends, from a single point of view. He was something much rarer and finer, than either his writing, or his teaching-admirable as these were. He impressed himself with equal power on men of all classes, tendencies, and sympathies-on persons of the highest culture, and on poor students. There are not many such men at any time in the world. Few of his contemporaries were as rich as he was in the friendship of good men,-in the loyal attachment of a large circle, moving in widely different spheres of thought and of action. Even from his boyhood he seems to have drawn towards him the esteem of the nobleminded; and, as life advanced, he instinctively won the admiration of all who were idealists at heart. In consequence of this, he has left his mark upon his time, in the most beneficent, although in the least showy manner. There have been men with greater powers of intellect, of learning, and of administrative power; but there has been none, in the academical history of Scotland, from whose personality a greater "virtue has gone forth," touching other lives to fruitful issues. In the pages which follow I have 127836 merely tried to build a memorial cairn, with the stones which have been sent to me, in reverent and affectionate memory, by those who owe to him some of the best influences of their lives. Perhaps the most striking thing in these tributes to Shairp's memory, which have successively reached me from the most opposite quarters, is the unanimity with which they all express gratitude for his friendship—a friendship so strong, steadfast, and unselfish; and the picture of his life, now seen in retrospect under the light of these memories, is a very radiant one. We naturally ask for an explanation of so remarkable a range of friendship, with men of the most opposite opinions, and whose tendencies were altogether divergent. Many causes contributed to it. It was not due merely (or even mainly) to the width of his own sympathies, but rather to his entering so heartily-and with so little thought of himself into the subjects which most interested other people, just as they turned up. Naturally very sympathetic, he put himself at once, even with strangers, into the position of a listener-in self-detachment, and "a wise passiveness"-rather than assumed the role of an instructor. never talked as if it were more important to be listened to than to listen; and, in consequence, there was nothing in 1 him of the academic pedant, nothing either of the dictator or of the dominie. He In my own intercourse with him the most distinguishing feature of his character was its habitual unselfishness and real magnanimity. Few men have ever had a heart so much "at leisure from itself.” He was never known to make an egotistical speech, or a self-complaisant reference to his own writings, or his own work. Still less was there a trace of what has been said to be a common infirmity of literary men, viz. jealousy of others. This was so entirely |