e e e e a n a t t f r r , w t x g - - e t h s , n ut ll e , -
Kansas University Weekly.
143
If death is a fortunate release then life is a waste of time. Unless there be men whom we can call happy before they are dead, the great Author of the universe has committed a crime in permitting our appearance here. But here and there are discovered lives which challenge this gratuitous assumption, reaffirm our confidence in the great Architect and preserve the self respect of mankind. So we come to commemorate the character and to mourn the departure of one who has so lived that he is equally prepared to face a larger future of immortality or to stand on the record he has made in that little span between the cradle and the grave, if he should
"Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking Morn of toil nor night or waking."
David Hamilton Robinson was born among those lakes where the first American nation, the ancient Iriquois Confederacy, made its home, in a region of unsurpassed natural beauty. Sprung from a race of farmers, his blood was clean, his step firm, his shoulders broad, his enthusiasm undimmed by any inherited taint of morose cynicism resulting from too familiar acquaintance with mankind. Raised on a farm he grew to young manhood with a modesty of demeanor, a confidence in human nature, a loftiness of ideal and a purity of character which he never lost. "His strength was as the strength of ten because his heart was pure," Graduating in 1859 from Rochester University, he sat at the feet of Dr. Anderson, one of those big brained, great hearted, white souled teachers, such as he himself became, who hold the young men of America to the high standard of the builders of the republic.
After a few years of probationary discipline, in 1866 he began his life work where Oread's gentle summit crests the silvered, sylvan, winding valley of the Kaw. From the wooded hills which overhang the Neckar Heidle berg's alumnus beholds a scene less fair. The state-ly towers of Oxford overlook a territory no more historic than the country of John Brown of Kansas, where began the great struggle for freedom So here in such an environment, to David H Robinson and his compeer and colleague Francis H. Snow par nobile fratum fell the duty of founding and developing an institution of learning which should stand for all time as the proudest ornament of a state, the source of the noblest inspiration of the young men and young women of the commonwealth of Kansas, herself no mean dowered daughter in the sisterhood of states.
Perhaps the distinguishing feature of Professor Robinson's character was that he never lost his personality in his profession, never sank the teacher in the mere instructor, was always a man and never a pedant The eager student found in his chair no pulseless machine,
yielding and requiring so many revolutions an hour, but a sympathetic individuality that appreciated the difficulties and comprehended the aspirations of the heart that hoped and the brain that powdered behind the dusty pages of a Livy, the sprightly leaves of a Horace, or the thoughtful covers of a Seneca. In that class room no regular army moved with measured tread and automatic precision from the camps of Ceasar to the comedies of Plautus. But young men and young women grew as the tree grows in the sun and rain, as his classic Rome grew from the ploughed furrow of Romulus to the marble palace of Augustus.
His was a hand that never lost its warmth, a heart that never lost its kindness and an eye that seldom lost its twinkle. The studied sentences of more pedantic professors, will be hidden in the dust of time when his quaint and kindly humor is handed down from generation unto generation of students. Somehow, somewhere, sometime, this man had learned that education is only a means to an end, study a fortification of character, scholarship a tool for an artisan, culture an ornament to intellectuality. Therefore, while he delighted in those whose talents shone most brilliantly in the study of classical literature, he kept quite in touch with those who reached his goal more laboriously. With him character secured as much consideration as talent.
His recitations were enlivened by a certain home-like and wholesome friendliness which was an expression of natural sweetness and soundness of his nature. He always kept track of college affairs and often recurred with friendly and complimentary jest to the exploits of some hero of a day of college life. He never failed to appear and encourage the University champions in their contests with schools from a distance. Carefully honest in his distribution of honors, position, wealth, influence, friendship never swayed him in the discharge of his duties or the assignment of the honors of his classes. Yet one sometimes thought that duller students received from his good will, by better grades than their attainments suggested, the encouragement which their industry deserved and their meager talents needed. He was by instinct, habit and acquirement a typical college professor of the best sort, thoroughly in accord with the spirit of college life. As his unstudied and charming personality won the good will of all his students, so his simple, unassuming dignity commanded and received their perfect respect.
Modest in his thinking, retiring in his habits, the general public seldom had opportunity to realize the scope of his attainments, and the high order of his talents. His careful and cosmopolitan scholarship not only gave him a thorough mastery of Latin language and Literature, but also an intimate and familiar acquaintance with all good literature and good thinking. Never intruding his information, only after a long and close acquaintance did one begin to appreciate the variety and extent of his learning. He had a playful manner of considering topics other men discussed solemnly, that misled those who failed to understand that his half humorous, half cynical methods sprang from a consciousness of sufficient strength and ample resource. His judgment of intellectual distances was always accurate, his conception of his own powers and possibilities always correct and clear.
Professor Robinson's extensive contributions to the prose and versified literature of college and club life would have been received with favor by a larger audience. With less talent men of more ambition have attained high place in literature. Essentially a modest man, never stung by ambition to excel, only actuated by a determination to do his duty, he ventured only into those fields where duty called him. He possessed an equable temperament, a perfect poise of character which made the battle of life for him almost a holiday parade. Others beat the wings of ambition against the gates of opportunity in vain endeavor. He took stock of his resources with judgment, selected his field with care, and achieved absolute success. He knew that the laurels fame bestows are crowns of thorns, that every dollar added to a competence is a care. So ambition never gave him a sleepless night. Avarice never clenched his open, generous hand. Envy never disturbed his serene and manly soul. The close of his life found him in full possession of all those things which Macbeth tells us should accompany old age, aa honor, love, obedience, troops of friends. He never courted applause and he never feared criticism. A man of fine scholarship, thorough culture and high character, he was equal to every responsibility of life. He so lived
"That when his summons came to join
The innumerable caravar, that moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall
take
His chamber in the silent halls of death.
He went, not like the quarry slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and
soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approached his
grave.
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him and lies down to pleasant
dreams."
Fortunate in every walk of life, his domestic relations were peculiarly happy, as those favored students who were admitted to his home circle well knew. There they learned the "true pathos and sublimity of human life." Twenty-six years ago he married in a kansas village as sweet and noble a woman as ever lived "on this bank and shoal of time."