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

38 HENRY BAIRD FAVILL
the other person's point of view and simply and directly
giving sympathy and help was not all. He knew how to
develop character out of tragedy and weakness, how to
inspire and to encourage, how to criticise, how to lead or
to command. The latent forces in men he developed and
directed. He was the family doctor of those in trouble and
here again his one aim was to so direct that he taught prevention,
and he left each situation securer for his guidance.
OUR
TRIBUTE BY R. B. OGILVIE
lamented friend, Dr. Henry Baird Favill, was in
mind and heart one of those rarely gifted characters
who gave to scholarship a broader culture, to philosophy
a bolder range, to friendship a firmer faith. He did
many things well but nothing so well as he talked. His
conversation I have seldom heard equalled. Though
remarkably fluent and select it was neither fluency nor
choice of diction, nor wit, nor sentiment that gave it its
peculiar power, but accuracy of statement, keen discrimination,
and a certain weight of judgment that made him
the idol of any company. He was everywhere a welcome
guest. His arrival was a holiday, and so was his abode with
any of his wide circle of admiring friends. He seemed like
a king of some parliament of love, who carried the key to
all confidences, and to whom every question was finally
referred, and yet there was so much of intellectual aim and
activity breathed through his alliance as to give dignity to
them all. He was indeed the friend. This was his vocation.
Into whatever home he entered he brought a benediction
of truth, justice, tolerance, and honor. He knew
by intuition and experience how to interpret the inner life
of every man or woman, and through his interpretation he
could sooth and strengthen.
Such was the man, the friend,
the citizen we fondly loved in life, and whose untimely
death we so much deplore.