BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 19 



to him : ** I cannot understand, sir, how you are able to re- 

 member all these different and difficult names , " * ' Madam , ' ' 

 he replied with a courtly bow, *' did you ever know a mother 

 who could forget the names of her children? These plants 

 and flowers are my children. How can I forget them?" 



On a certain occasion when a bottle of choice Medoc was 

 upon the table, Mr. Shaw — diluting his glass — remarked 

 with a smile: ** I learned to take my wine with a little 

 water, from Montaigne." 



He was a great lover of the wise and witty old Gascon 

 (from whose fountain so many writers have drawn their 

 wit and wisdom without acknowledging the debt) and 

 learned from him much more important things than the 

 dilution of his wine. <« He was, I think," says a close 

 observer of him, " of the same bent of mind so far as life 

 is concerned." Emerson, in his " Representative Men," 

 takes Montaigne as a typical sceptic, not so much in relig- 

 ion — for, whatever may have been his private opinions, 

 publicly he lived and died a Catholic — but in his general 

 views of life. The device upon his seal was a pair of scales 

 and the motto beneath, in old French : " What do I know?'* 

 Mr. Shaw might have adopted the same device and motto, 

 for he certainly was governed in large measure by the prin- 

 ciple they set forth. He took as little as possible upon 

 trust, and as far as possible tested everything and every- 

 body before giving his faith and confidence. He believed 

 fully in men and things only after they had been fully tried 

 and found worthy. A gentleman who had long business 

 association with him says: " It was more than two years 

 after our first acquaintance before he was what is called 

 * social ' with me, and five years before he invited me to 

 his house. After that his confidence in me seemed to be 

 established, and was never, so far as I know, withdrawn." 

 But it is doubtful whether Mr. Shaw ever had, at any time, 

 what is called " a bosom friend;" one to whom he could un- 

 reservedly reveal himself. He had not that need of sym- 

 pathy and support which such intimacy usually implies. 



