Froude combined, perhaps illogically, a belief in predestination with a deep sense of moral duty and the responsibility of man.

Every reader of his History must have been struck by his respect for all the manly virtues, even in those with whom he has otherwise no sympathy, and his corresponding contempt for weakness and self-indulgence.

In his second and final Address to the students of St.Andrews he took Calvinism as his theme.* By this time Froude had acquired a great name, and was known all over the world as the most brilliant of living English historians.

Although his uncompromising treatment of Mary Stuart had provoked remonstrance, his eulogy of Knox and Murray was congenial to the Scottish temperament, with which he had much in common.

It was indeed from St.Andrews alone that he had hitherto received any public recognition.