408 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



But perhaps the most remarkable trait in Dr. Gray was the stead- 

 fastness of his religious convictions under a strain to which so many 

 other minds succumbed. Early captivated with the theory of Darwin, 

 which ended by making its author an Agnostic, and has driven into 

 the ranks of unbelief nearly every one of its most earnest disciples, 

 Dr. Gray preserved his religious faith, and strove to reconcile the truths 

 of nature to what he knew to be the truth of God. Unlike Darwin, he 

 could not be dazzled by his own processes of thought, nor could he suf- 

 fer the ingenuity of any human theory to undermine his convictions of 

 fundamental truth. We all know with what earnestness he argued to 

 reconcile the two, and even those of us who cannot quite follow him in 

 both directions bear witness to the nobleness of his aim, and to the 

 essential service he performed for each. 



Others better qualified than I will speak of his professional triumphs. 

 Mine is a simple tribute to the character of one whom I honored, rever- 

 enced, and loved. 



I ask leave, Mr. President, to second the resolutions you have 

 offered. 



After Mr. Lowell, President Eliot of Harvard University 

 addressed the Academy. 



The life of Asa Gray always seemed to me a singularly happy one. 

 His disposition was eminently cheerful, and his circumstances and 

 occupations gave fortunate play to his natural disposition and capacity 

 for enjoyment. From opening manhood he studied with keenest in- 

 terest in a department of natural history which abounds in beauty, 

 fragrance, and exquisite adaptation of means to ends, and opens in- 

 exhaustible opportunities for original observing, experimenting, and 

 philosophizing. For sixty years he enjoyed to the full this elevating 

 and rewarding pursuit. These years fell at a most fortunate period ; 

 for the continent was just being thoroughly explored, and its botani- 

 cal treasures brought to light. Dr. Gray's labors therefore cover 

 the principal period of discovery and of accurate classification in 

 American botany. Merely to have one's intellectual life-work 

 make part of a structure so fair and lasting, is in itself a substantial 

 happiness. 



His pursuit was one which took him out of doors, and made him 

 intimate with Nature in all her moods. It required him to travel 

 often, and so enabled him to see with delight different lands, skies, 

 and peoples ; it gave him intellectual contact with many scholars of 



