380 JOSEPH LOVERING. 



Philadelphia, of the California Academy of Sciences and of the Buffalo 

 Historical Society. In 1879 he received from his Alma Mater the 

 degree of Doctor of Laws. 



Professor Lovering was pre-eminently a social man, and any notice 

 of him would he incomplete that did not allude to this genial phase 

 of his character. He was one of the few men who could hold his 

 opinions and maintain his position without personal animosity or 

 unfriendly feeling, could favor without partisanship, could oppose 

 without bitterness. He never would quarrel, and, as he once said to 

 the writer, it takes two to make a quarrel and the other man only 

 counts one. Besides a frank cordiality and kindliness of greeting 

 which made him very accessible, he had a fund of dry humor, which 

 not only enlivened intercourse, but often gave force to an argument. 

 Not unfrequently in meetings of the College Faculty he would turn 

 a stupid debate, and exhibit a question in its real absurdity, by a 

 witty remark. There was also a straightforwardness, integrity, and 

 truthfulness about his intercourse which inspired confidence and 

 warmly attached him to his friends. He was perfectly just and 

 singularly free from bias, and in any question involving rectitude 

 or faithfulness you could always count on him. He was faithful to 

 every duty, and conscientiously discharged every obligation. He 

 rarely, if ever, missed an appointment, and whatever he undertook, 

 however unimportant, he did with all his might. 



Besides attending and keeping up the spirit of the Cambridge 

 Scientific Club above referred to, of which he was one of the original 

 members, he was uniformly present at the meetings of the Thursday 

 Evening Club in Boston, and often contributed to its proceedings. 

 He very greatly enjoyed those meetings, and his communications 

 were always esteemed by the members. He had the happy faculty 

 of popularizing a subject without degrading it. He could present a 

 problem so that his audience could follow as far as he led, and under- 

 stand why he did not attempt to lead them further. His discourse 

 was always free from trivialities or redundances, and his hearers could 

 appreciate the grandeur of the mountain all the better because they 

 had not made a fruitless attempt to climb it. 



It was a very fitting tribute to Professor Lovering's warm social 

 nature, that at the close of his active duties, in 1888, a banquet 

 should be held in honor of his fifty years' service. It was the spon- 

 taneous offering of classmates, associates, pupils, and friends, and it 

 afforded him the highest satisfaction. Besides the social pleasures 

 and warm eulogiums of the time, the occasion led to two enduring 



