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A memorial painting which completes the furnishing of the Farnsworth room of the Library has been put in place during the vacation. The room, which to the gift of Mr. and Mrs. William Farnsworth of Boston as a memorial to their son, Henry Weston Farnsworth '12, who, as a member of the Foreign Legion, was killed in action at Bois Sabot, September 28, 1915, during the battle of Champagne, was dedicated and opened on December 5, 1916, but has waited until now for this painting to be placed in the panel designed for it in the carved Georgian mantel.
The painting, which is a decorative design rather than a formal picture, is by Pierre Laurens of Paris. In a laurel enclosed circle, the idealized figure of youth--standing against a background of dim hills--holds a flaming lamp which, through the sacrifices made to keep it lighted, still burns brightly. Symbols of what youth gave up to do its part in the world war are depicted in the lower left corner outside the circle. At the lower right are various war emblems, while in the upper corners doves bearing olive branches are faintly suggested in the center, at the bottom, is an open book on whose pages a quotation from Plato's "Mexexenus" is inscribed. Jowett translated this passage:
"For our life will have the noblest and which is vouchsafed to man and should be glorified rather than lamented."
Mr. and Mrs. Farnsworth have just returned from France where they attended the consecration ceremony of the memorial cemetery which they have established at Souain. This shrine is dedicated to the memory of Henry Farnsworth and stands in honor of the first American soldiers killed in the war.
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