Interest in making money seems never to have touched him. Not once did he venture on an investment. The material prosperity of men gratified him. He knew that most men ought to make money, but he had no time for it. "This one thing I do." On one thing, the gifts, plans and powers of his long life were literally and undividedly centered. He loathed the feeling of jealousy. He would have despised himself if he had been unable to hear the praise of other college presidents and of their institutions without inward pangs. Eulogize his brethren, and you smote on no chord of envy. He was a large man. He bore no grudges and carried no enmities, the common luggage of proud and envious minds. What a good and generous neighbor this man was! The successes and sorrows of the countryside round about Hollins touched him sensibly. He was their counsellor in times of perplexity; their comforter in seasons of grief. Frequent were the times when a minister not being accessible, he conducted funerals and buried the dead. He loved the people as do all who really love God. The religion that attempts to terminate on God, ignoring human beings, is as sounding brass and a clanging cymbal. Of such worship this man knew nothing. He expressed love to the divine in even-handed justice and in benevolent sympathy among men. Perhaps the finest tribute paid at his funeral was spoken by the Lutheran minister, Dr. F. V. N. Painter, a part of which is as follows: "Dr. Cocke was a great educator. He was great both in theory and practice. He had not made, I think, an elaborate study of the science and history of education, as they are presented in text-books. His knowledge was deeper than the knowledge acquired in that way. In the educational work of more than fifty years, his strong intellect worked out independent views of educational principles and methods. In no small degree he helped to make the educational history of Virginia and of the South. "Dr. Cocke always impressed me as a large man. His stalwart frame was but the counterpart of a vigorous intellect. There was nothing petty, narrow, cynical, in his views or aims or methods. He loved to deal with fundamental principles and great facts; and in his discussion of any subject, there was always a breadth of view and a vigor of utterance that commanded attention. In his great, absorbing concern for truth, he cared but little for that delicacy of diction and that refinement of phrasing which so often, in the hands of smaller men, become an end in themselves. He was a strong earnest man, wrapped about with invincible integrity, reminding us of Carlyle's words on Luther, 'Great, not as a hewn obelisk, but as an Alpine mountain, yet in the clefts of it beautiful valleys with flowers'.