Excerpt from Autobiography of Thomas Guthrie: And Memoir by His Sons, Rev. David K. Guthrie and Charles J. Guthrie By his Will, Dr. Guthrie directed that all his papers should be placed in the hands of the two members of his family whose names appear on this volume - to be used for publication at their discretion, with the advice of his son-in-law, the Rev. William Welsh. These papers included an unfinished Autobiography, several sketches of eminent men whom he had known, and a mass of general correspondence. One obvious difficulty and disadvantage under which we labour in compiling a memoir of our father arises from our connection with him. A biographer who is a near relative - like a draughtsman placed too near the object he would represent - is doubtless in danger of taking a one-sided view of the subject. There is, however, this counterbalancing advantage in our case: we were of necessity familiar with the personal habits, the tastes, the opinions, and everyday life of Dr. Guthrie in a way that no one outside his family could be. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.