\ 



86 



formed for the purpose of making- the world hetter, or wiser, or 

 happier. 



Although he had Hved weU hey.ond the traditional three score 



1 



years and ten/'' his passing' was premature. Barring accident, 

 he apparently had years still to his credit. Only a short time 

 l)efore his death he stated to one of his friends tliat he had five 



i 



years of work mapped. out for liimself and then, five years more. 

 But, 



"That low man seeks a little tiling- to do, 

 Sees it and docs it : 

 This high man, with a great thing to pursue, 

 Dies ere he knows it." 



He was a man who instinctively associated with himself that 



4 



which is choicest — whether in nature, in art, or in character. 

 On this hasis he chose alike his hooks, his pictures, his friends. 

 For a husiness man he liad an unusual knowledge of flowers, 

 l)ut the flowers that gave him most pleasure were the earliest 



I 



hloomers of spring, and those that are rarest and less commonly 



r 



known. The pleasure of climbing alpine summits — which he 

 continued into his seventy-fifth year — was never quite complete 

 uidess he could find a specimen of the rare Diapcnsia, Fre- 



r 



quently, after a wild flower hunt, friends would be asked, '* Did 

 you find Atraycncf This species of Virgin's Bower {A. auicrl- 

 cana) is described in some of the manuals as '' one of our rarest 

 wild flowers/' 



In a recent beautiful tribute to Mr. White, Dr. Francis G. 



I 



Peabody drew the foUowiny- striking- contrast: "The l)ad citizen 

 uses the city for himself; the good citi/en uses himself for the 



city. 



»» 



The entire life of the ^rreat citizen we niotuni was com- 



posed chiefly of deeds which were only details in a plan, defi- 



■ 



nitely conceived and consistently and persistently followed, of 

 using himself for his city and, in a broader sense, for the good / 

 of his fellow men. It is only since his death that those who knew 

 of some of his good deeds in Brooklyn have learned of his good 

 deeds in other cities and states; that those who knew of his 



* TTe once, with pleasantry, expressed his contempt for Psalm XC: x. 



