Professor J. W. McLaughlin, M. D. 
77 
death, McLaughlin penciled with his own hand, as he lay on his bed 
of suffering, fourteen closely written pages, which he gave me to mail 
to our friend. (The Doctor’s letter I have already read to you.) 
I take the liberty of quoting the concluding paragraph of the let- 
ter to Dr. McLaughlin, sent in response to that paper. After highly 
appreciative remarks upon the Doctor’s statements from a scientific 
point of view, the writer said: 
“But, dear Dr. McLaughlin, it is the fact that you should have 
taken the trouble to write and send the exposition to me which moves 
me to an admiration of your generosity, and to a warmth of response 
to the friendship with which you honor me that could not be de- 
scribed in words. It is with especially poignant sorrow, therefore, 
that I have heard of the severity of your sickness. I hope it is only 
a passing attack; but in any case there is naught to say to a man 
of your magnanimity except the unvoiced meaning of a hand-clasp 
offered by one who loves and honors you. Our intercourse has been 
limited, but I have always had the sense to recognize a great mind 
and noble heart whenever the commanding vision of that rare ex- 
istence has been vouchsafed me. You are one of a very few men 
whom to have known in the noble mystery of friendship’s election 
I count the best element in my own being, and the ground for an 
otherwise dubious hope of some worthiness in myself.” 
As through those long days of sickness, I had no way of ex- 
pressing my sorrow for our approaching separation and my admira- 
tion for his great mind and noble heart, except by the “unvoiced 
meaning of a hand clasp,” so now it seems to me that for those who 
knew him words are superfluous, and for those who knew him not, 
it is too late. 
On the other hand, there is a truth in the poet ’s exclamation : 
• “The living do not rule this world. Ah, no! 
It is the dead — the dead.” 
For the good and great do leave an abiding influence, if those who 
saw and knew pass the vision onward. 
So I have stood here before you, not to stammer an eulogy in 
empty words, but to pay my tribute of loyalty to a great man and 
to his ideals, for 
“There are deeds that should not pass away, 
And names that must not wither. ’ ’ 
