WILLIAM THOMPSON SEDGWICK 261 



"Faith, Hope and Charity" are the things that count in the 

 long run ; and these virtues were his in bountiful degree. 



He had an abiding faith in the general scheme of things, a 

 faith based firmly on the biologists' knowledge of the great 

 underlying forces which have brought us up from the slime of 

 the rockpools and which will yet carry us to heights undreamed 

 of. He "Accepted the Universe," he trusted "that power not 

 ourselves that makes for righteousness." His courage was 

 absolute and instinctive. When he saw the truth he followed 

 it. In times of doubt and and hesitation, one turned to him as 

 to a well of clear water in the wilderness. 



His optimism was no less notable a characteristic. He be- 

 lieved in his students and gave them responsibilities that seemed 

 far beyond their powers, but almost always they "made good." 

 Scores of young men who bore every sign of mediocrity were 

 re-made and launched on successful careers by the sheer power 

 of his confidence. In his public life Sedgwick saw much of the 

 seamy side of American politics, yet he would approach a case- 

 hardened politician with the assumption that they shared the 

 same high ideals of social responsibility, and here too his opti- 

 mism often bore surprising fruit. 



Finally, Sedgwick loved not only mankind but he loved his 

 fellowmen, which is a rarer and more precious gift. He estab- 

 lished human relations with extraordinary facility. He knew 

 his choreman and his elevator boy and the janitors at the Insti- 

 tute as human beings. One of the most characteristic things 

 he ever did was the giving of a dinner, when his summer home 

 at Seal Harbor was completed, to all the carpenters and masons, 

 his friends and fellow townsmen of the Maine village who had 

 labored honestly to build it. Above all, it was to his students 

 that he gave of this power of warm personal sympathy and 

 comprehension. One thinks always of "Rugby Chapel" as the 

 ultimate tribute to a great teacher. About Sedgwick, however, 

 there was something so much closer and more intimate that the 

 quotation dies on one's lips. The master of Rugby was far off 

 on the snowy heights. Sedgwick was in the midst of the rush 

 of life and he held us by the hand. Arnold thought of his father 



