QG-^ JOSEPH HENRY THAYER. 



toward the Hebrew and Greek requirements without a word of emphatic 

 distrust and condemnation. 



His thinking was notably clear-cut — he could not abide haziness. This 

 trait, which is prominent in his scholarly work, appears also in his theo- 

 logical views. He was not intolerant of other men's opinions ; he only 

 held tenaciously to his own opinions, and claimed the right to define 

 his position precisely. When he found, in 1882, that he could not sub- 

 scribe the Andover Creed as it was then interpreted by the governing 

 boards, he resigned his professorship in the Seminary — a sundering of 

 old ties that gave him great pain. His own creed was distinct, yet cath- 

 olic; he held firmly to certain principles and facts that he believed to be 

 fundamental, and among these he gave a prominent place to scientific 

 truth and personal experience. 



Born and brought up in Boston, his traditions and training were those 

 of New England, modified, however, by travel in foreign countries, and 

 by a wide knowledge of men and things. He was a scholar and a man 

 of affairs, a Puritan and a man of the world. In personal intercourse he 

 showed an engaging frankness and friendliness, and the same devotion 

 that appears in his scholarly undertakings manifested itself in his rela- 

 tions with his friends, for whom he was always ready to do the uttermost. 

 He was fortunate in retaining his physical soundness and vigor up to a 

 few months before his death. His erect carriage, alert step, and cheeiy 

 manner gave him, even in his last years, a remarkably youthful appear- 

 ance, and his bodily alertness was in keepirfg with his mental activity. 

 His literary career extended over forty years, apparently without dimi- 

 nution of interest. He had the great happmess of seeing his main under- 

 takings brought to a successful completion — the Greek lexicon, the 

 revision of the English New Testament, and the establishment of the 

 Jerusalem School. 



At the close of the year 1900-01 he resigned his position in Harvard, 

 and was made Professor Emeritus. The following summer he spent in 

 Europe, and, returning to America, died in Cambridge after a short 

 illness, November 26, having not long before passed his seventy-third 

 birthday. 



C. H. Toy. 



