Page:Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (ser 03 vol 05).djvu/88

 lxxviii STILLE,

Even now the examples are not numerous of men from whose characters the grosser elements have heen eliminated, and who seek happiness, first of all, in the culture of the intellect, the moral sense, and the affections. But whenever they do arise, their action is not confined to the development of their own intellectual and moral natures; its heneficent influence is apt to be felt over a wide sphere. Virtue has its contagion no less than vice; it vivifies and beautifies society as much as vice deforms and corrupts it, and its influence is none the less powerful because it is silent and unobtrusive. The world does not always nor readily recognize its greatest benefactors. They are not apt to be those whose names are most conspic- uously associated with public acts, or with the great changes that stir the political, social, scientific, or literary spheres. They are oftener modest and silent thinkers who, in the seclusion of their closets, lay plans or evolve ideas that become the inspiration and the law of more enterprising men who apply them to their purpose and render them practically efficient. Teaching by example rather than by precept, they illustrate the beauty and the power of a life steadily devoted to beneficent ends.

A man of such qualities and of such exceptional virtues was our late Fellow, Dr. Isaac Hays. While yet only a student of medicine I learned to know him, and from that time until his death, I never had occasion to reverse my judgment of his character, or abate anything of my esteem and respect for his person.

Isaac Hays, born July 5, 1796, was the son of Samuel and Richea Gratz Hays, of Philadelphia. His father was a wealthy merchant, and brought up his family with all the culture and luxury which his means enabled him to com- mand ; nor was it until mature manhood that the subject of