285 
our friend, that alleged science, in its ambitious or theoretical 
state, should be reduced to modesty by being openly brought 
face to face with fact and reason ; while at the same time the 
advances of true knowledge should be satisfactorily recorded. 
Such was the work to which he resolutely set himself. For 
this, henceforth, he gave up time, health, and much of worldly 
prosperity, nobly fulfilling in his early death the chosen motto 
of his life —' “ Ad majorem Dei gloriam ” 
How special his qualifications were for the inauguration 
of a work like this, though all associated with him were 
conscious of them, none perhaps could testify more distinctly 
than myself, contemplating the movement, as I long did, 
without otherwise sharing in it than as a member of the Insti- 
tute from the first. For I had known our friend at least half 
his life; and I can surely say, — nor ought I to withhold it 
here, though elsewhere the press has rightly honoured him as 
a public servant of high mark— but I feel bound to say, that 
so much fearlessness in truth, so much scorn of artifice, and 
inborn abhorrence of wrong, so much purity, rectitude, and 
confidence in God, I have rarely known, as in James Reddie. 
His intellectual capacity, we all know, was unusual ;— much 
vigorous thinking in his Fresh Springs of Truth will re- 
main to attest it, even for those who, with the freedom usual 
here, may question some of his views ; and his industrial 
energy and integrity were of that kind which the world is 
apt to account for by the term “ genius”: while the explana- 
tion to those who knew him was that he was supremely con- 
scientious in every work that he undertook. His character 
had in it that impatience of all treachery to right which 
reminded one of certain severe tones in the Psalms of the 
Hebrews — his favourite book of devotions — (words there 
uttered as by an ideal denouncer of wrong, leading the 
chorus in lifers solemn drama). But this only partly describes 
him ; nor may I now add what might seem unfit for the 
occasion, that which I myself know of the unselfishness of his 
friendship, its gentleness and warmth, manly yet unobtrusive, 
in any time of need. 
There is much to sadden and subdue in the loss of such a 
man; and yet he had not failed to reach the object of his life. 
For myself, I feel like some soldier in a wide battle-field 
gazing on the face of a younger comrade struck down by my 
side in the midst of a well-sustained effort. And as I gaze I 
have a cheerful look imprinted on my heart, and words seem 
to reach me, as from the Voice that shall award the future 
crowns to the moral conquerors, — “ Faithful unto death ! ” 
