University of Virginia - Corks and Curls Yearbook (Charlottesville, VA)

Page 16 text:

6 CORKS AND CURLS VOL.XIX anything that the hand and head of genius has been able to achieve, a living char- actereclose t0 the realization of the Apostles ideal of Charity. llI have counted it worth three years Of drudgery to have been granted the close and warm friendship of Professor Smith. To me, more than any professor or student, he has commended intellect in its most honorable and lovable mani- festation; a splendid mind set in a simple, unselfish and loyal soul; enlightened and consecrated manhood ; the ideal of the Son of Sirach. llIt is in such a light that I have known and honored and loved Frank H. Smith. Passibus non aequis-we travelled togetherethrough the mysteries of philology, through the depths of celestial and mechanical philosophy and geol- ogy, through the mists of metaphysics, and the secrets of Chemistry, through all the drudgery 0f the green ticketl. To me he has shone as among the Very brightest jewels of the University. He has to me been the most real and true of all University conceptions, of ideal democracy, and general knowledge? S. C. MITCHELL, Professor of History. Richmond College, Va. n. -4

Page 15 text:

W 1906 CORKS AND CURLS 5 W that here is a man whom purpose and circumstances have led into the deepest experiences in human life, yet, throughout it all, knowledge has only ehastened his mind and sorrow has only sweetened his character. He is gentle because he is great, like Robert E. Lee. He has the wisdom that is born of. suffering. He has the faith of a seer, because he knows the inherent potency of truth and has confidence in manis response to Divine Love. You can not but feel that this man has the Vision of God, because he is pure of heart. These are the subtle sources of his power, whether in the elass-room or around the fireside. In the evenness of his life, in his instinct for the golden mean in conduct and opinion, in the aosence of all perturbations Which spring from prejudice, in the calmness and completeness of his objective View of the world, in his sensitive response to beauty, and, finally, in the generous reach of his sympathies, he reveals a person- ality strikingly akin to the Greek of the Classic period. While he is above all a Christian, yet he has retained the sanity resident in the art and thought of the ancient masters of the ZEgean. giWe love the ancients, says Emerson, Hnot because they are old, but because they are naturaL What an inestimable blessing it has been to Virginia and the American nation that the formative spirits who, during the shuttle-Coek changes of the past half- Century, have gone forth from the University, have borne the impress of such a personality as that of this noble teacher, at once pious and patriotic. He has been alike the priest of nature and the child-like servant of the Church. Devout in the deepest sense, he exhibits that secular sense of justice and humanity which is kind toward the unthankful and evil. A follower of the Nazarene, he yet thrills with a rapture in the presence of the harmonies of nature, which we associate with Plato and Goethe. The two emotions, having their different sources in the spiritual and natural worlds, are fused in his soul into one sublime passion for truth and holiness. I am happy to be able to add to these inadequate words of mine the follow- ing sentences from a distinguished Citizen of Richmond, who has been a life- long friend of Professor Smith. ler. Froude says of Julius Caesar that he was as irresistible as a force of nature. Our friend is no less a force Of nature, but nearer to nature's heart and nearer to the divine mind. His great power is an intellect clear as the sunlight, pure and warm and health-giving as the Spring, and as irresistible as kind, wise and honourable manhood. His monument that he has established at the Univer- sity is and will be more lasting than brass, more influential and wholesome than

Page 17 text:

COLONEL THOMAS H. CARTER