10 William Keith Brooks 



PROFESSOR HOWELL 



Just twenty-nine years ago, as an undergraduate stu- 

 dent, I first made the acquaintance of Dr. Brooks. Since 

 that time it has been my privilege to be brought close to 

 him in many ways, as a student, a colleague, and a friend. 

 The great respect and esteem which I soon learned to feel 

 toward him as a teacher, has deepened into a lasting 

 admiration and affection, as I have learned to appreciate 

 his unique character and his great intellectual qualities. 

 His death has occasioned, I believe, an unusual feeling of 

 sadness among his old students, partly because of the 

 affectionate regard in which he was held, and partly, 

 perhaps, because it was recognized by most of us that 

 physically he was not a robust man, and that in the acci- 

 dents of life he was liable to be stricken down at any 

 moment. The very concern that this thought occasioned 

 has served to intensify our sorrow for his death. It is as 

 though our worst fears had been realized all too soon. 



In speaking of him before this company of friends it is 

 not necessary to refer to his personal qualities. We all 

 recognized him as a man different from others, a man 

 with peculiarities, yes, oddities of manner, which set him 

 apart from the average conventional individual; but we 

 all know that his peculiarities were of that lovable and 

 gentle sort which arise essentially from the absence of 

 what we may call worldliness, and which therefore serve 

 only to call forth a greater response of kindly and pro- 

 tective affection from all generous hearts. Indeed, I have 

 always fancied that I could detect in the attitude of 

 Dr. Brooks's students toward him a certain kind of chival- 

 rous relationship, a pact, as it were, founded upon 

 principles different from those which usually control the 

 conflict of selfish interests in the intercourse of men. 

 They sat at his feet, intellectually speaking, and they 

 regarded him without question as their master, but in 



