Excerpt from Principal Shairp and His Friends 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 posi tion of a listener - in self-detachment, and a wise passive ness - rather than assumed the mile of an instructor. He never talked as if it were more important to be listened to than to listen; and, in consequence, there was nothing in him of the academic pedant, nothing either of the dictator or of the dominie. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.