1 844-54- LIFE OF DR - JOHN REID. Ip7 



I have a great delight in the study of men's lives." " I 

 promise myself an amount of personal gain from the con- 

 templation of such a life as John Reid's was, that will 

 amply recompense me for any trouble. To promise this 

 is presumption ; I should rather have said that I pray for 

 God's blessing to myself and others in connexion with the 

 undertaking, and already have cause to thank Him that He 

 has put it into my heart to take up the matter. Let not 

 your prayers, my true friend, 1 be wanting ; for nothing but 

 His help will enable me to write serviceably a sketch 

 which will be keenly criticised, and better not written 

 at all, than so as to do no service to the cause of Christ. 

 I have not the fear of man before me, but I have the 

 fear of my own unworthiness, and a sense of responsibility 

 often dispiriting." 



Many remonstrances were made to him as to the unde- 

 sirableness of giving the " Life " a religious cast, but he 

 followed out his own convictions of right as to this ; and 

 looking back at the close of his work, he says, " It was 

 written with prayers and tears, not to procure me fame or 

 wealth, but to do good." Though published 2 a year later 

 than the " Life of Cavendish," the two were on hand at the 

 same time. The first-named being the volume issued for 

 1851 by the Cavendish Society, he was compelled to finish 

 it within a given time, and not until the winter of 1851-2 

 was he able to devote his scanty leisure to the comple- 

 tion of Dr. Reid's Memoir. An extract from a letter 

 referring to the employments of heaven, will be read with 

 interest: "I exceedingly like the allusion to the continuation 



1 This letter is addressed to Dr. Cairns. 



2 " Life of Dr. John Reid, late Chandos Professor of Anatomy and 

 Medicine in the University of St. Andrews." Edinburgh : Sutherland 

 and Knox. 1852. 



