2 GEORGE FERDINAND BECKER— MERRILL [MEMOIBS [vo A "xxt 



" Then (as ever since) the only society I cared for was such as I found mentally stimulating 

 and the only pleasures for me were those involving some mental exertion. Chess I liked, but 

 cards I found dull, the element of chance spoiling the fun. 



" When I could not be at the Museum or in the woods and marshes I liked best to spend my 

 time on the lounge in my mother's library with Audubon's text or Nuttall or Carpenter's animal 

 physiology in my hands. I found them very stimulating to the imagination, as much so as Scott's 

 novels, though these too I enjoyed." 



Concerning his boyhood he also wrote: 



It was a delight to me to roam alone about the woods especially those near Fresh Pond and the marshes not 

 far away. Not a pool or a grove lacked inhabitants I knew something about. In fact, I believe I could recognize 

 each New England bird and I was familiar with many of the reptiles. I knew not only the frogs and the toads 

 but the spawn of most of the species and having heard so much of embryology from Agassiz it was delightful to 

 follow the development of the translucent eggs from day to day, as well as to watch the fascinating transforma- 

 tion of the tadpoles. ' I had a small shot gun which I generally carried on these expeditions but I rarely fired 

 it excepting when some bird or rodent seemed to display characters to make him a candidate for admission to the 

 museum. Sometimes, however, I would practice a bit at a mark to keep my hand in. One such day I was on 

 the way home when a gentleman overtook me and seeing a museum alcoholic collecting case in my hands asked 

 me what I had. I was tired and I didn't recognize my interlocutor so I merely replied the Latin names of my 

 specimens, meaning to choke him off! But with these he was evidently familiar. He proceeded to ask me some 

 questions I could answer, others much beyond me and then launched out into a most delightful 15 minutes 

 disquisition suitable to my small capacity. I was ashamed, charmed and instructed as well I might be for it 

 was no less than Jeffries Wyman who had thus honoured a little boy. I never met him afterwards without 

 carrying away ideas and an improved sense of method. 



Becker was fitted for college in Latin and Greek under the tutelage of Prof. Wm. B. Atkinson 

 and was admitted to Harvard in 1864, only "with several partial conditions which did not trouble 

 me. I was glad to be an undergraduate and was confident I could keep up with my class. 

 I had no trouble in doing so excepting when colds and sore throats kept me out of the class 

 room as they sometimes did for weeks together. Indeed, I had plenty of time for desultory 

 study, looking up anything I did not understand and always finding that it led to something 

 else I did not comprehend, which needed new search." 



Concerning Agassiz and his teachings he wrote: 



Very clearly impressed upon my memory is a passage from one of his lectures delivered about this time 

 [probably 1859]. Substantially it is as follows though I cannot of course guarantee its literal accuracy. "As 

 investigators we are necessarily open to new ideas whether they arise in our own minds or those of our colleagues. 

 Yet it must not be supposed that this habit is sufficient to assure our receptivity without making a conscious 

 effort to take broad views. Fundamental discoveries occur only at comparatively long intervals and they 

 require a mental readjustment which is difficult, especially after youth is passed. Thus when Harvey made his 

 great discovery of the cellular structure of tissues, the scientific life of all the anatomists over forty years old was 

 arrested. Some accepted the truth but confessed themselves unable to revolutionize the conceptions which 

 had been the basis of their work, others vainly contended against the truth." 



Good precepts these but difficult to follow as the dear man himself soon exemplified. Not long afterwards 

 the Origin of Species appeared and I well remember his next lecture to his class. He was almost overcome with 

 pain, indignation and horror. This hypothesis, he told us, is a revival in a more insidious form of the thoroughly 

 exploded heresy of Lamark. He could not express to us the pain it gave him to see the great learning and ability 

 of Charles Darwin applied to sophistical and almost blasphemous reasoning. The book could not but do vast 

 harm and wrong though it is, let no one suppose it easy to refute, unsound. On the contrary the vast informa- 

 tion and acute though misdirected arguments make a reply most difficult. The safest way would be not to read 

 it at all. Fancy such an injunction addressed to that set of youths. After the lecture they adjourned to 

 Putnam's room and I think I must have been invited to go along too, at any rate I went without receiving any 

 rebuff. Of course it was an indignation meeting though nothing abusive was said of the master. It was a great 

 day, a critical epoch in the lives of most of the young men present. 



About the middle of his college course it would seem his interest in natural history had 

 become considerably cooled, and — 



I was somewhat adrift when a single lecture on mathematics opened my eyes to the fact that this is a science 

 of great principles and ideas, not a mere jumble of tiresome computations and unrelated Chinese puzzles. That 

 was a happy discovery to me. Chemistry too, attracted me though the instructions we received were distinctly 



1 Drawings, essays, and even poems on these various subjects, found among his papers and evidently prepared at about this time, are of quite 

 exceptional merit and show a trend of mind little dreamed of by those who knew him only in his later years. 



