622 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



address, is the great prominent feature of Christianity. Christianity- 

 was revealed in a life, and ever abides a life in the soul of man, to 

 purify, ennoble, and redeem humanity. 



" And so the Word had breath, and wrought, 

 With human hands, the creed of creeds, 

 In lovehness of perfect deeds. 

 More strong than all poetic thought — 



" Which he may read that hinds the sheaf. 

 Or builds the house, or digs the grave. 

 And those wUd eyes that watch the wave, 

 In roarings round the coral-reef." 



SKETCH OF DK. J. L. LE COXTE. 



THIS gentleman was elected, at the Portland meeting, last year, 

 President of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science for 1874, and will preside at the twenty-third session, to be 

 held at Hartford, Conn., commencing August 12th. He belongs to a 

 family that has made itself distinguished in American science, mainly 

 in the direction of natural history and geology, his own chosen field 

 of inquiry having been chiefly that of entomology. 



JoHX L. Le Conte was born in New York, on May 13, 1825. His 

 father. Major John Eatton Le Conte, formerly of the IT. S. Army, 

 possessed broad culture both in science and literature, and was well 

 known among the early botanists and zoologists of the country. 



The family is descended from a Huguenot of noble birth, who 

 emigrated to Kew York in consequence of the religious and political 

 persecutions which followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 

 Major Le Conte and his brother Louis were close students and accu- 

 rate observers, almost from the beginning of the century, though the 

 extreme diffidence of the latter, added to the want of proper channels 

 for publication, prevented him from contributing to the literature of 

 science. Two of the sons of Louis Le Conte, John and Joseph, for- 

 merly of Georgia and South Carolina, but now of the University 

 of California, have made many valuable additions to physics and 

 geology. 



The subject of the present sketch was inspired, at an early age, by 

 the example and teaching of his father, with a strong passion for science. 

 After an academic course at Mt. St. Mary's College in Maryland, where 

 he graduated in 1842, he studied medicine at the College of Physi- 

 cians and Surgeons, in New York, receiving his diploma in 1846. 

 The intervals between the courses, and other times later in life, were 



