I INTRODUCTORY NOTE HAVE been asked by Mr. Douglas to write a short Note of Introduction to the papers of Professor Halliday Douglas which are here published. I think that it should be said at once that these papers have not been published without some hesitation. Professor Douglas was very sensitive about publication; and he had a high ideal of what he regarded as its legitimate demand. Moreover, I question if he had as yet come to be at his best in writing. I think that he was at his best in unrestrained conversation. These papers are published for those that knew 1 him, and they will touchingly remind them, I think, of two things which made Professor Douglas's friendship a pure gift of God to them--the regal strength of his intellect and the reverent tenderness of his affections. I imagine that it was his strength that first impressed those who met Halliday Douglas. Strength had a high place in his spiritual ambition. I remember that the great burden of one of the last prayers which he offered in a small circle of intimate friends was, "Lord, make us strong. He sought strength, and he possessed strength. I should not say that his life's service was strenuous : there is something of artificiality in that, and Halliday Douglas was essentially simple; but it was, from the beginning to the very end, strong. No reference to this would be at all complete that did not recall his physical beauty. He was tall and broad-shouldered; his complexion was singularly fair, and his eyes blue. But it was no special gift of body, it was his presence which carried with it strength. When he entered a room, his presence seemed to bring with it the joyous, healing strength that comes with sunshine. It was undoubtedly by his intellectual strength that Halliday Douglas chiefly impressed those that knew him. His mind was singularly pure and singularly strong. I do not think that I have known any man who so consistently impressed me with sheer intellectual strength. It was strength, not subtlety. At times his mind seemed simply to forge through intellectual difficulties, and habitually it moved through large subjects in a large and almost massive way. His mind, too, was singularly candid. He had a passion for intellectual honesty. |