EDITOR'S TABLE. 



845 



to tliis type ? No, but this is the type 

 to which, in so far as they are true to 

 the spirit of philosophy and science, 

 they will all, gradually, more and more 

 conform. 



DEATH OF PROFESSOR GRAY. 



The death of Asa Gray removed a 

 student who was looked up to in all 

 the world of knowledge. In many as- 

 pects he had no master, and there were 

 few who could be regarded as his peers. 

 In his special field his leadership was 

 recognized — in all nations. The help 

 and sympathetic co-operation he gave 

 to Darwin in building up the doc- 

 trine of variation and natural selec- 

 tion show him to have been a pioneer 

 in the advance of science as a whole. 

 His success in presenting the details of 

 what was considered one of the driest 

 of scientific subjects in such a way as 

 to make his treatises as readable as a 

 book of travels entitles him to a high 

 position in literature. The company of 

 American botanists who, having drunk 

 tlieir inspiration from his books, are car- 

 rying on their w'ork in a like spirit, are 

 a testimony to his powers as a teacher. 

 And the Church, when it has purged 

 itself from the heresy that every dis- 

 covery in science overthrowing some 

 old notion is an attack on religion, will 

 be able to point to him as a man con- 

 sistent and diligent in both spheres of 

 life, to whom it never occurred that 

 there was any conflict to be adjusted. 



The history of learning is full of ex- 

 amples of men who have risen to emi- 

 nence from the most incongruous sur- 

 roundings, without adventitious aids, 

 but solely by the force of their own 

 impulses. Professor Gray afifords an- 

 other. His advantages were of the 

 most limited character. His working 

 life began with tending his father's tan- 

 bark mill, while he was distinguished 

 as being the champion speller of his 

 school district. Two years at a gram- 

 mar-school, one year at the academy, 

 and a medical course, constituted his 



entire formal education. He had no 

 classical training, no scientific instruc- 

 tion further than was subsidiary to 

 the medical studies of which he made 

 no use. But he became one of the lead- 

 ing scientific men of his age, and, as 

 Professor Dana remarks, " eminent for 

 his graceful and vigorous English, the 

 breadth of his knowledge, his classical 

 taste, and the acuteness of his logical 

 perceptions." An article in the "Ed- 

 inburgh Encyclopaedia" directed his at- 

 tention to botany. He procured Pro- 

 fessor Eaton's text-book, which was 

 perhaps one of the best on the old sys- 

 tem — but how difi'erent from the works 

 of the series with which he made the 

 science luminous I — and began his brill- 

 iant scientific career with the analysis 

 of Claytonia Caroliniana. He must 

 have been proficient in his studies, for 

 we find him before the close of his 

 medical course taking the place of the 

 professors in lectures at Albany and 

 Hamilton College. Then he became a 

 regular teacher himself; was associated 

 with Dr. Torrey in his researches ; pub- 

 lished his own investigations of the 

 sedges and of the plants of northern 

 and western New York ; and prepared 

 his first text-book, " The Elements," in 

 1836, a book in which, according to Pro- 

 fessor Dana, the subjects of vegetable 

 structure, physiology, and classification 

 were presented in a masterly manner, 

 and which "showed his customary in- 

 dependence of judgment and clear head 

 in various criticisms and suggestions." 

 The name of Professor Gray is inti- 

 mately associated with Darwin's in the 

 history of the theory of the origin of 

 species. The series of letters from 

 Darwin to Gray, contained in the re- 

 cently published "Life and Letters" of 

 Darwin and beginning on page 420 of 

 the first volume, attest the respect Dar- 

 win had for his knowledge, the confi- 

 dence which he reposed in his opin- 

 ions, and the hearty fellowship that ex- 

 isted between them. Gray, Lyell, and 

 Hooker were the three whose approval 



