GROVE KARL GILBERT 



By William M. Davis 



CHAPTER I 

 GILBERT'S ANCESTRY AND YOUTH 



FOREWORD 



Gilbert gained an exceptional place in the esteem of his colleagues by his appeal alike to 

 their intellect and their affection. He was penetratingly successful in his search for external 

 facts as well as for their mental interpretation. He manifested an extraordinary capacity in 

 the critical analysis of many factors, with patience and impartiality in the just consideration 

 of every one. His published reports inspired confidence, for they were completely free from 

 special pleading, and they were, moreover, presented so clearly, so intelligently, as to satisfy 

 the reader that the observations on which they were based must be full and accurate, and 

 that the conclusions to which they led must be well grounded and trustworthy. He set forth 

 the truth as he found it, and once having had his say he refrained from entering into conten- 

 tious disputes to maintain his views. While he was always generous in accrediting the work 

 of others, he never demanded that his own work should be similarly recognized; indeed, his 

 silence in this respect reached self-sacrifice. It was from no urgency or insistence on his part 

 that his opinions were adopted, but from the persuasively convincing logic with which they 

 were set forth. It was his habit in presenting a conclusion to expose it as a ball might be placed 

 on the outstretched hand — not gripped as if to prevent its fall, not grasped as if to hurl it at an 

 objector, but poised on the open palm, free to roll off if any breath of disturbing evidence should 

 displace it; yet there it would rest in satisfied stability. Not he, but the facts that he mar- 

 shaled, clamored for the acceptance of the explanation that he had found for them. 



He was always ambitious to do good work, but he never strove for office or for position. 

 The nearer one lived to him and the longer one knew him the clearer it became that his personal 

 nature was as exceptional as his scientific capacity; for in his private life as in his geological 

 tasks he was fair-minded, self-controlled, serene; gentle in his manner, simple in his ways, 

 uncomplaining under trials and disappointments, loyal to his duties, steadfast in his friendships. 

 Little wonder that those already old when he was young should have recognized in him one 

 who would continue the work they had begun and carry it forward into regions of space and of 

 thought they had never entered ; or that those still young when he was old should have looked 

 upon him with respect akin to awe as one who, surviving from an heroic age when a western 

 frontier remained to be explored, had discovered there many of the facts and principles which 

 they, on entering geological science, had found embedded in its foundations; or that those 

 of his own generation should have watched and admired his scientific progress as he overcame 

 one problem after another, and have gratefully rejoiced in the ever-increasing recognition of 

 his merit as he advanced from excellence to eminence; or that those favored ones among his 

 contemporaries who lived near him and who had in their own tasks the guidance of his wise 

 counsel and the encouragement of his never-failing sympathy through a long unbroken com- 

 radeship, should have esteemed the man himself above his works. Unknown to the multitude, 

 he was the source of an ever-widening current of scientific thought that flowed out to earnest 

 men over all the breadth of our country and beyond. His career covers a remarkable epoch 

 in American science, and it is a great credit to American science that it should have given high 

 rank to a man of his gentle personality. 



