“Here is our enemy fairly entrapped at last. This little scum is consumption, the cause of more human suffering than anything else.”
The discoverer of “Treasure Island” turned pale with disgust and backed out of the laboratory with these words, “Yes, Doctor, I know you have a lantern at your belt, but I don’t like the smell of your oil!”
The brilliant imagination of the great writer failed to understand the steady light of the imagination that seeks patiently after scientific truth in spite of discouragements and years of fruitless work.
In the last public address which Trudeau made, in 1910, before a gathering of physicians and surgeons, he said these words which show that he had caught the gleam of Stevenson’s lantern:
Let us not quench our faith nor turn from the vision which, whether we own it or not, we carry, as Stevenson’s lantern-bearers, hidden from the outer world; and, thus inspired, many will reach the goal; and if for most of us our achievements must fall short of our ideals, if, when age and infirmity overtake us, we come not within sight of the castle of our dreams, nevertheless, all will be well with us; for, as Stevenson tells us rightly, “to travel hopefully is better than to arrive, and the true success is to labor.”
One of Trudeau’s most cherished possessions was a fine copy in bronze of Mercié’s statue “Gloria Victis,” given him by one of his patients. The sculptor created this statue in 1871, after the crushing blow inflicted on France by the German arms, to console and inspire the French people with the hope of triumph through defeat. It shows a young gladiator who has received his death-wound while facing the foe, lifted up and borne onward by a splendid Victory with outstretched wings. He has fought the fight and still holds his sword in his lifeless hand. In losing his life he wins his victory, that of one of the “faithful failures” who marched toward the new day whose dawn is not for them but for those who come after.