66 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1888. 



stated, that judged by the broadest standard, as a teacher, Asa Gray 

 stood perfectly rounded in his knowledge. If any one can doulit 

 this, let him but read the critical reviews which during the ])ast 

 twenty years Professor Gray has written for the American Journal 

 of Science, and be convinced. Indeed the wide range of his exact 

 knowledge was wonderful. But vast as were his attainments, and 

 vast as was the sum of all that he has written, his strongest claim to 

 a perpetual remembrance does not rest there. His was the task of 

 starting a generation of teachers in the right direction. True, the 

 times were ripe for the coming of Professor Gray; but how nuich 

 more meagre the harvest would have been if he had not come I 

 Certainly it could not have been what his care and culture have 

 made it! It is a great thing to write a good book. It is a greater 

 thing to write a clearer book for a country than had been produced 

 before. But it was greatest of all, to take the young, ambitious na- 

 turalists of this growing and educationally immature country and 

 teach them how to teach others, not only as to facts, but as to 

 methods. The value of this labor passes comprehension, for its 

 ultimate effects ever widening, reach far out into the future. Facts 

 may be lost sight of, theories disproven, hypotheses rejected as insuffi- 

 cient, but men will henceforth never lose a key Avhich unlocks 

 realms of knowledge. Asa Gray's whole life as teacher and as inves- 

 tigator has been the model of a master key. Those who have his 

 patience, his honesty, his genial fiiith in his associates will best un- 

 lock the secrets of our flora so long as any remain unrevealed. 



Tliink of him in what relation we may, he stands out in strong 

 light for inspection, the picture of a "manly man.'' Was he with- 

 out fear? It was because he was without reproach. If to the 

 last, his cheerfulness and mental buoyancy anuized even those wiio 

 knew him best, it was because the elasticity of his love of God and 

 man enabled him to reach beyond the limits which age usually im- 

 poses, clear into the sunlight of eternal youth. 



Asa Gray has gone to his rest. We mourn his removal from our 

 midst : but we are thankful for the honor he cast upon this land, 

 throughout the length and breadth of which his name is revered. 

 More than this, we his associates and puj)ils are especially grateful 

 for the example of kindness and conscientious devotion which he 

 has left us ; as well as for the methods of study which he inculcated 

 and so well illustrated in his own daily life and labor. 



