xiv Postscript 



in the best and widest sense. It was impossible to meet him 

 without realizing that he combined with real intellectual 

 power a calm, sound, and practical judgment and a general 

 capacity for doing things well and thoroughly. No one who 

 knew him even slightly could be surprised to hear that his 

 associates in business conceived the highest opinion of him, 

 and that not only on account of his acuteness and adminis- 



/ 



trative ability, but of his fine and high-minded nature. 

 Many words full of praise and affection have been written 

 of this side of his life, and I am sorry that I cannot quote 

 them all. Mr. Storr, who was his predecessor as secretary 

 of Bolckow, Vaughan and Co., writes of him : 



" I admired his great abilities as I loved his character. 

 ... I (in conjunction with the Chairman of the Company) 

 selected him as my successor, trained him for the position, 

 worked for years in the closest contact and friendship with 

 him, and when I retired did so with the fullest confidence 

 that he had a long and successful career before him, and that 

 the Company could not have chosen a better man." 



Dr. J. E. Stead, the distinguished metallurgist of 

 Middlesbrough, who had been his companion on a business 

 tour in America, says : 



' During our American tour I got to know him well and 

 find out what he really was. Before that, however, I had 

 learnt that he had ability and intelligence of the highest 

 order. ... It was impossible to be with him long without 

 gaining for him a most affectionate regard, and I looked 

 forward and anticipated for him a splendid record of 

 usefulness." 



To these two striking pieces of testimony I should like to 

 add one more, not from Middlesbrough, but from London. 

 Mr. E. F. Turner, for many years the friend and solicitor of 

 the Darwin family, who has occupied a distinguished place 

 in his profession and enjoyed a peculiarly wide commercial 

 experience, writes of Erasmus in these terms : 



' Looking back on my closed professional experience, he 

 stands out as the ablest man of his generation that I have 

 ever come across, and his modesty was as great as his n:ental 

 powers." 



