Note 33 — Chapter IX · THEORY AND OBSERVATION.

The reader will permit the author to gratify his own feelings of regard for Dr. Hale as a man, as well as a physician, by inserting here the following extract from the memoir of him, from the pen of Dr. Channing. “Dr. Hale was an honest man. He was honest in sentiment and in purpose. He had little or no tolerance for what he thought unfair; and any believed misuse or abuse of trusts he resolutely opposed, however active or however strong was the agency by which the wrong was attempted to be consummated. These were not the elements of popularity. You could hardly make a very popular man out of such. But for the honor and exceeding praise of humanity, there are men who have found something better worth living for than the present fame—men who are happy and satisfied to do that which may live after them, and the memory and the use of which can only be for good. Dr. Hale enjoyed life—the best thank-offering for living. He was social and hospitable, for he would contribute to the pleasure of others, as well as his own. He was always cheerful, because he was truly hopeful. He looked on the bright side of disease in himself and in others; and if he labored so well for their recovery, he never questioned his own.

Dr. Hale was a religious man. In the development of the religious sentiment was his power. It was kept active by habitual, daily devotion. It influenced his whole life, making him an earnest student and a faithful practitioner—giving him strong interest in all wise effort to extend Christianity in distant lands, and by his example recommending to others the religious life. In his religion was his benevolence, which with very narrow fortune led him to attempt and to accomplish most important objects. In this was his cheerfulness in suffering and all trial; and out of his religion came the peace and the hope of his death hour.”