20 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



He was always self-supporting and self-poised, requiring no 

 outside aid of any kind from any quarter. His friends 

 were many, and he valued their friendship ; but the nearest 

 of them felt that they could come just so near, and no 

 nearer — that there was a certain point they could not pass, 

 even if so inclined; a place where he desired no compan- 

 ionship, where he stood alone. 



Montaigne, if we may judge from the inimitable ** Es- 

 says," looked at life from the philosophic standpoint, and 

 rarely suffered his equanimity to be disturbed by any inci- 

 dent or accident, however annoying. In this enviable pe- 

 culiarity Mr. Shaw followed his example. His naturally 

 high temper was under such complete control that few ever 

 suspected its existence. *' In twenty-three years," says 

 Mr. Gurney, the head gardener, "I never heard him speak 

 a harsh or an irritable word. No matter what went wronjr — 

 and on such a place and with so many men things will go 

 wrong occasionally — he was always pleasant and cheerful, 

 making the best of what could not be helped." Illustrating 

 this control of temper another informant says : *' The only 

 time, I think, I ever saw Mr. Shaw actually angry was when 

 a certain person had failed to keep an important engage- 

 ment and given a poor, if not provoking, excuse for his 

 failure. Mr. Shaw relieved his mind to me on the subject, 

 speaking very strongly and sharply for some minutes, while 

 I sat watching the unusual exhibition with considerable 

 curiosity. At last he caught my eye, stopped short and 



said; * Ah, Mr. A , I see by your face what you are 



thinking of. You are thinking that I have lost my tem- 

 per — and you are right. Let us go into the next room 

 and take a glass of wine together. And will you be kind 



enough to ask Mr. C (the offending party) to dine 



with mc next Sunday?' " 



Montaigne — as everybody who has read him knows — 

 was the very prince of egotists, and had, so to speak, reduced 

 egotism to a most delightful science. Mr. Shaw was no 

 egotist, and, if he had a grain of egotism in his composition, 



