Trinity College School - Record Yearbook (Port Hope, Ontario Canada)

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TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD 13 wanderings in the wilderness, the sweetest is loyalty . He never forgot his friends and they never forgot him. Every- where he went he took with him joy and hope. I wish I could read you some of the letters he wrote for little children who were ill, or tell you some of the stories of his bedside talks in the sickroom of the young, of his cheer- ful whistle as he entered, of the jokes he made to make them laugh. He had an uncanny knowledge of children. Only the other day a friend of mine phoned to me and told me that when his wife was a little girl she was badly scalded. The great Dr. Osler came to see her, told her some fairy stories, and prescribed for her healing-a box of chocolates! . He had, too, a divine sense of humour-by which I do not mean the biting cruelty of the professional wit, or the smart shallowness of the so-called wisecracker-but that wonderful gift which takes the iron from a man's soul and puts a gentle irony in its place-that sense of humour which turns the tears of life into a rainbow. Servants and humble people all loved him. All humanity saluted him because he was a man and nothing which belonged to man- kind was foreign to him. His house and his heart were open to all comers. His residence at Oxford was known by the delightful name of The Open Arms . In his last year there, he entertained 1,600 men and officers of the American Forces of the First Great War. When his own greatest sorrow came, in the death of a brave only son, he took what he said was the only medicine that could cure him, the medicine of faith and hope and compassion and time. Always, above the clamour, he heard the still, sad music of humanity. I laugh, he said, in order that I do not weep. His coming was a comfort to all for he scattered health and joy with abundance in his path. In one of his great addresses to nurses and students he paid tribute to those who work for small rewards in lonely places, and told them your passport will be the

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12 TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD but to do what lies clearly at hand. He knew also and practised the humility of the seeker, the painstaking care, the persistence that searches for conclusions and does not jump at them, the wonder and the devotion that have always been the glories of true science. He never believed that Science at last would darken men's eyes and harden men's hearts, but that its mission was to bring healing to mankind and joy and leisure to man's life. He also walked in that fine tradition of Medicine that has always laid the gifts of its discovery freely and without payment upon the altar of suffering humanity. When he was a young man he promised that he would never enter the temple of Science in the spirit of the money-changer. He never did. When he was an older man, he could make his own, with truth, the proud boast of the Greek philosopher: I have loved no darkness Sophisticated no truth Nursed no illusion Allowed no fear. Those are a few of the reasons why I call him Great. But greatness and goodness are not always the same thing. May I tell you, as I bid you farewell, a few of the reasons why he deserves to be called good? I think one of the mottoes of his life was Two things stand like stoneg Kindness in another's trouble, Courage in one's own. For everybody who knew Osler or wrote about him or has spoken to me about him, dwells upon the all-pervading sympathy which marked his nature and his work. So many of his deeds were those unremembered acts of kindness and of love that mark a good man's life. He knew that that man is the greatest whose heart contains within it the most objects of compassion. He knew, too, that of all the words which men have brought with them from their

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14 TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD blessings of Him in whose footsteps you have trodden. unto whose sick you have ministered, and for whose chil- dren you have caredf' That surely is his passport to our hearts and to Heaven. Such was your schoolfellow, William Osler. I hope that he will always be visited by your proud thoughts and that you will cherish the immortal memory of what he was, even though his works may be forgotten- He does not die who can bequeath Some influence to the land he knowsg Who dares persistent interwreath Love permanent with the Wild hedgerows. He does not die, but still remains Substantiate, with his darling plains. May the boy who has gone, continue to hallow with his living presence the precincts of this School. May his memory bless forever this land which he loved dearly and served so nobly. iThis address and some of the service was broadcast on the Trans Canada and International networks of the C.B.C.l Post Script After the ceremony at the School I received a letter from Mrs. A. M. Matthews of Toronto. The life of Sir William touched hers at many times and places. I would like to record some of her memorable words. To know him was to love him, but I sometimes think that those who did not know him must believe that his friends exaggerate his fascination and his loving kindness. He never turned his face from any poor man and he did not ask if a poor man or woman was 'deservingi I remember at sea once we had a very poor steward and Dr. Osler gave him a huge tip as he was afraid no one else would give him anything. I was in Egypt with him once and wherever he went he was followed by crowds of little