Henry Baird Favill, AB, MD, LL.D., 1860-1916, a ... - University Library

4 HENRY BAIRD FAVILL
him, we who were proud of him, we who loved him.
We
shall miss his wise counsel, his large patience, his charity
of mind, his unwavering courage. Yet even though we are
met to-day to voice our grief at his death and our keen sense
of deprivation, our feeling is not wholly that of grief. For
even in our grief we rejoice that he was the man that he was,
had the thoughts that were his, did the deeds that he did,
and that, he being such as he was, it fell to us to know
him and count him as one of us.
"He was not content to be borne along on the current
of life — drifting and aimless like a chip in a stream. Always
he breasted the current with a heart of controversy, shaping
his course by a dimly seen but none the less truly apprehended
ideal.
"He looked out on life from many angles and, from
whatever angle he chanced to look, he sought 'to see life
steadily and see it whole.' He touched life at many points;
and wherever he laid his hand, he helped to do the task
or to lighten the load. He was in very truth a tower of
strength.
"We shall not wholly replace him; nor yet shall we
forget him. From time to time the thought of him will
spring forth into consciousness. And whenever we think
of him and what he was, we shall thrust to one side our
inconclusive wrestling with the enigma of life, our halfhearted
surmise of its futility, shall tighten our belts and
say in our hearts: Whatever it be or whencesoever it
came, life that bears such fruitage is not to be despised;
and, come what may, it is worth while to have shared life's
chances — its failures and its victories — in the company
of such as he.
"First and foremost Henry Favill was the physician
who tries to relieve the suffering of those who seek his service;
but, high as is this service, he did not rest with this:
he was also the physician who strives to ascertain the more
remote conditions that environ our lives and that cause