Page:Memoir of George B. Wood, M. D., LL.D.djvu/40

 educated mainly under its influences, his formal connection with it was severed by his marriage, his wife belonging to the Lutheran communion. He joined no other body. Often attending the meetings of Friends and also not unfrequently accompanying his wife to her chosen place of worship, his religion was altogether unsectarian; but, for that, none the less real. His Journals, as well as his unprofessional published writings, manifest this clearly and often; and it was well understood by those who had the privilege of confidential intercourse with him. On one occasion, he expressed to a near relative his opinion, that the doctrine of the Society of Friends, of the immediate and perceptible guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit (acknowledged, indeed, in some manner, by other denominations, but held most definitely and strongly by them) affords the only scientific basis for religious belief; since it gives to the historical revelation contained in the Scriptures a confirmation exactly corresponding to that verification by experiment which is the characteristic of modern science, since its improvement by means of the Baconian inductive philosophy.

But we must hasten towards our conclusion. To Dr. Wood, better than to most men, might be applied the poet's line: Justum et tenacem propositi virum.

If he had genius, it was a genius for work; a rare capacity for continued, indomitable, all-conquering labor. With this, he became an eminently successful man. As he wrote of Dr. Chapman, "His career