Arthur Ayer Law / [Richard Olding Beard].

  • Beard, Richard Olding, 1856-1936.
Date:
[1934]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Arthur Ayer Law / [Richard Olding Beard]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprint f rom SURGERY, GYNECOLOGY AND OBSTETRICS August, 1934, Vol. LIX, 242-243 ARTHUR AYER LAW RICHARD OLDING BEARD, M.D., Minneapolis, Minnesota OVER the last resting place of one of nature’s truest gentlemen, one of her brightest, happiest spirits, one among the most brilliant, the most helpful saviors of suffering men and women, stands a headstone which bears the following inscription: ARTHUR AYER LAW Soldier—Surgeon Born April 16, 1872—Died, July 9, 1930 It may be aptly said of Dr. Law that “Whom the gods love, die young.” For he was surely one whom the high gods loved. And he was one of whom it was true that his days were foreshortened by the strenuous pressure under which he lived them. Handsome of feature and of form; consciously upstanding among his fellows; favored of birth, of family and of fortune; he went through life admired of his friends, beautifully devoted to his nearest and dearest lovers; blessing and blessed in his home companionships; keenly alive to the beauties of art, music, and lit¬ erature; faithful to his professional associates; appreciative of their personal friendship and giving them freely of his own; taking his forward place among them as of right, and according to them theirs, on equal terms. Had he lived less intensely, he might have lived longer, but he would not have lived in the full enjoyment of life as he did; he would not have been the Arthur Ayer Law that he was. His creed was written in the glorious lines of William Cullen Bryant, which he loved: A mighty hand, from an exhaustless urn, Pours forth the never-ending flood of years Among the nations, Its rushing waves bear all before them, On its foremost edge, And there alone is Life. He drained that flowing cup of life, forever at the brim. It filled his soul with that elixir of joy—the incomparable joy of living that made his native atmosphere.