yours very truly,

JOHN BROWN

P.S. I was in Glen-Garry the other week, and quite felt that look
of nakedness, and as if it just came from the Maker's hand; it was
very impressive

During the closing years of the Doctor's life he was often shadowed by
fits of deep melancholy. One day he was walking with a lady, who was
also subject to depression of spirits, and he said to her: "Tell me why
I am like a Jew?" She could not answer and he replied: "Because I am
_sad-you-see_" Tears and mirth dwelt very closely together in his keen,
fervid, sensitive spirit. It is remarkable that one who devoted himself
so assiduously to his exacting profession should have been able to
master such an immense amount of miscellaneous reading, and to have won
such a splendid name in literature. It is the attribute of true genius
that it can do great things easily, and can accomplish its feats in an
incredibly short time. He affirms that the immortal story of "Rab" was
written in a few hours! The precious relics of my friend that I now
possess are portraits of his father and of Dr. Chalmers, and of Hugh
Miller, which he presented to me, and which now adorn my study walls.

While I have always dissented from some of his theological views and
utterances, I have always had an intense admiration for Dean Stanley, in
whose character was blended the gentleness of a sweet girl with
occasional display of the courage of a lion. Froude once said to me: "I
wish that Stanley was a little better hater." My reply was: "It is not
in Stanley to hate anybody but the devil." My acquaintance with the Dean
of Westminster dates from the summer of 1872. The Rev. Samuel Minton, a
very broad Church of England clergyman, was in the habit of inviting
ministers of the Established church and non-conformists to meet at lunch
parties with a view of bringing them to a better understanding. One day
I was invited by Mr. Minton to attend one of these lunch parties, and I
found that day at his table, Dr. Donald Frazer, Dr. Newman Hall, Dr.
Joseph Parker, Dean Stanley and Dr. Howard Wilkinson, afterwards Bishop
of Truro. Stanley felt perfectly at home among these "dissenters" and
asked me to give the company some account of a remarkable discourse,
which, he was told, Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio, had recently delivered in
my Lafayette Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, on "Christian Unity." In the
discourse, Bishop McIlvaine had said: "The only difference between t