Page:Memoir of George B. Wood, M. D., LL.D.djvu/41

 throughout, from youth to manhood, from manhood to old age, has been in the highest degree prosperous and flattering; if the most kindly regards, general respect, a wide social and professional influence, a reputation limited only by the bounds of civilization, and the highest positions not political which an individual can attain in this country, may be considered as evincive of prosperity and honour."

In his own words, also, addressed, in 1853, to a class of medical students, we may set forth the noble motives which animated his life:

"Do not live solely for yourself. Do not seek wealth, station, influence, merely for your own personal gratification; but consider them as means for doing good, for spreading benefits around you, and for making an impression on the world, which, when you are gone to your rewards, will cause grateful recollections to cluster about your memory, and your example to be held up to the young for imitation in all future time."

So taught, and so lived, he whom, in the full ripening of his days, we have now lost. Truly he was a philosopher, in the old, first meaning of the word: a lover, acquirer and promoter of wisdom; and, with this, of goodness also. May his memory, and the influence of his example, never pass away from amongst us!