(1893) and 'The Evolution of Theology in the Greek Philosophy' (1904, 2 vols.). The books were based on two courses of Gifford lectures, the first delivered before
the University of St. Andrews in 1891-2 and the second before the University of Glasgow in 1900. In the first work he exhibits the spiritual sense of mankind as at first dominated by the object, but constrained by its own abstractions to swing round so as to fall under the sway
of the subject. In the second work
there is the same exhibition of spiritual
continuity and evolution. The story of Greek
philosophy, which Caird considered mainly
in its relation to theology, was carried from
Plato to Plotinus and St. Augustine; and
was told 'with a thoroughness and mastery
of detail, a soundness of judgment, and a lucidity of expression, which makes it the best complete text-book on the subject.' Two volumes of 'Essays on Literature and Philosophy' (1892) bore further witness to the breadth and depth of his interests. In literature Goethe and Carlyle divided his allegiance with Dante and Wordsworth.
On the death of Jowett, Master of Balliol, on 1 Oct. 1893, Caird was elected to the mastership by the fellows. He returned to Oxford after much grave reflection and only because he felt that to follow Green and Jowett was to continue his Glasgow work in a situation in which, as he said to a friend, 'he could have his hand on the heart of England.' He found himself face to face with a new kind of task in conditions that were very different from those of the Oxford of his Merton days, but he adapted himself to the situation. 'Where it was necessary,' wrote one of his Balliol colleagues, 'Caird acquainted himself with the often trivial details of college business ; took his full share, both by lecturing and personal tuition, in its teaching work ; showed the liveliest interest in all sides of the college life ; made himself readily accessible to all members of the college, and always found time to listen to those who wished to consult him ; was lavishly generous in his estimate of the knowledge and work of others and loyally trustful of his colleagues.' In general university affairs 'he was deeply interested in the movement for the extension of university education to women and was chosen to propose to the university the motion for granting degrees to them. When that motion was defeated he continued to help the movement in other ways.' He supported the university settlement at Toynbee Hall, London, and the Ruskin College for the education of working-men at Oxford. In politics, as in all else, he remained steadfast to his early beliefs and stoutly opposed the Boer war. He therefore resisted the bestowal of the honorary degree by the university on Cecil Rhodes [q. v. Suppl. II] in 1899. But his devotion to philosophic speculation was his main interest. He was a candidate in 1897 for the Whyte professorship of moral philosophy on the vacancy caused by the death of his friend William Wallace [q. v.], and the failure of his candidature was an unwelcome rebuff, but his activity as a college lecturer on philosophy was unc&minished. Throughout his career as Master, too, he delivered impressive lay-sermons on social problems in the College Hall, and occasionally at Toynbee Hall, and he wrote many articles on literature and philosophy in the reviews. He collected into a volume 'Lay Sermons and Addresses delivered in the Hall of Balliol College, Oxford' (1907). In 1907 serious illness compelled him to resign the mastership of Balliol, and he removed from the college to a residence in Oxford, where he died on 1 Nov. 1908. He was buried in St. Sepulchre's cemetery beside Green and Jowett.
Caird married on 8 May 1867 Caroline Frances, eldest daughter of John Wylie, minister of the parish of Carluke in Lanarkshire. She survived him without issue. Caird was made hon. LL.D. of St. Andrews in 1883, of Glasgow in 1894 ; hon. D.C.L. of Oxford in 1891, and D.Lit. of Cambridge in 1898 and of the University of Wales on 9 May 1902. He became in 1902 one of the original fellows of the British Academy, before which he read on 24 May 1903 a paper on ' Idealism and the Theory of Knowledge.' He was also elected a corresponding member to the French Academic des Sciences morales et politiques. Besides the works cited, Caird wrote the article 'Cartesianism' in the 'Encyclopædia Britannica' (llth edit.) and on Anselm's argument for the being of God in 'Journal of Theological Studies ' (Oct. 1899).
Of singularly tranquil and passive temperament and of simple, frank nature, Caird must be credited with genuinely great intellectual and moral stature. His life was devoted to what was for him the only 'one reasonable controversy' the controversy not as to the existence but as 'to the Nature of the all-embracing unity on which every intelligible experience must rest, and on the other hand, as to the nature of the differences which it equally involves.' He would probably have admitted that the total effect of his labour, sustained
