The Life of Sir William Hartley

It remains to give a connected description of his personal characteristics and some estimate of his achievement.

Nature had been liberal in her gifts. The distinction of his personal appearance was very striking, people turned to look at him as he passed along the street, and he commanded attention in whatever company he might be. In his prime he was a handsome man, and age touched his face with a new beauty. He was endowed with fine sensibilities, in particular with great delicacy of touch. But it is constantly borne in upon us how large a part health plays in our career. It is true that much of the world's best work has been done by delicate people. But it is also true that for the great worker health is an invaluable asset. We sometimes speak of tireless energy, and when we watch the vast and steady output year after year we imagine that behind it there must lie a physical constitution, tough, wiry, elastic, with an iron strength and nerves of steel. But often it is not so. Of the cost to brain and nerve only the man himself can tell; and much is achieved simply because the spirit resolutely insists on maintaining the upper hand of the body. Presumably Nature equipped Mr. Hartley with a constitution both tough and flexible. But to have laboured at the full stretch of his power for long hours every day--for though Sunday brought with it its change of occupation, it was nevertheless a full day--was enough to damage seriously a constitution even more robust. Before he had passed into middle age he had to pay heavily for his excessive toil, and the state of his health was a constant anxiety to his friends. It was inevitable that in later life some of the old vigour should have gone. Yet considering all that he put into his life--his long hours, his innumerable anxieties, his refusal, while he was making his position secure, to give himself any holidays,