OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 3-i3 



the form in which the idea was to be presented should not break down 

 through that spirit of total depravity which sometimes seems to preside 

 over physical experimentation. Professor Lovering, imbued with a 

 philosophy of life which I am inclined to believe was one of his most 

 remarkable attributes, knew full well that this depravity of inanimate 

 objects was the expression of want of patience and thought in the ex- 

 perimenter, and he never hesitated to try an experiment scores of 

 times before its presentation at the lecture table. 



All who enjoyed intimate friendship with him must have felt the 

 strength of this fine deliberation and careful conduct toward the forces 

 which shape our physical life. Acting with him on the Rumford 

 Committee, and sometimes on other committees, I have felt that in 

 voting with him I should be safely conservative, and the wisdom 

 which only a long life of great thought can give was apparent in 

 every deliberation. 



Professor Lovering belonged to a school of Professors of Physics 

 which is very different from that which is now prevailing in our univer- 

 sities and technical schools ; for the laboratory method of instruction is 

 taking the place of the lecture method. It was hinted that he hesitated 

 to chancre the method which had been a life one with him. I doubt, 

 moreover, whether any one who had reached the age even of fifty, and 

 had never accustomed himself to laboratory work, would be willing to 

 enter upon the arduous and trying work of physical research. This work 

 must be undertaken chiefly by younger men. One could always take 

 one's results to Professor Lovering and have them illuminated by the 

 stores of his knowledge of the history of the subject. Professor Eustis 

 once remarked to me, that I should find Professor Lovering a very 

 sound man in his subject, and I verified this remark frequently. I 

 have spoken of the humor with which he often threw the light of phi- 

 losophy upon things animate and inanimate. A very egotistical stu- 

 dent was once giving his views to us at a seaside resort, and after his 

 departure Professor Lovering remarked that he was " all-sufficient, 

 self-sufficient, and insufficient." 



In the course of a lecture he was contrasting the undulatory 

 theory of light with the corpuscular theory, and after stating with a 

 certain judicial manner the objections to the latter theory and leaving 

 it no ground to stand on, he finished it thus, in his slow, deliberative 

 tones : " The reason that the corpuscular theory is no longer advo- 

 cated is that all its advocates are dead." 



Some men are compelled to assert themselves through the whole 

 course of their lives, for the world is not vividly conscious of their 



