(JEORGE GABRIEL STOKES, 777 



and formed an essential part of liis cliaraeter. and partly becanse dur- 

 ing* the last twenty years of his life there were published addresses and 

 papers on the question by him. On several occasions he si)oke before 

 the Church Congress, the Victoria Institute, and other l)odies on the 

 relation between science and faith. What value is to be set on these, 

 this is not the place to discuss; it is sufficient to mention that he took 

 a prominent part in the efforts made in England in educating the 

 public to higher views of the ivlations of science to theology, and in 

 rescuing the study of the former from the doubtful position which it 

 had. even among some of the more advanced students of religious 

 ([uestions. His own personality and the methods of treatment which 

 he adopted were always on the side of promoting good feeling and 

 tending toward the })revention of acrimonious discussion amongst 

 those whose opinions differed most widely. He avoided, as a rule 

 dogmatic statements and treated the questions in his usual scientific 

 numner, allowing his own opinions to be inferred rather than ex- 

 pressly stated. 



The published portraits of Stokes, representing him with a some- 

 what severe type of countenance, fail to bring out a characteristic 

 expression. Ordinarily silent in society, he would freely talk on any 

 subject that interested him. While telling of some remarkable fact 

 or observation, the broad high forehead would puclvcr into a thousand 

 Avriidvles and a smile would light up his face with a brilliancy which 

 seemed to show a concentrated picture of the whol(> man. Those who 

 luid the privilege of listening to his highly finished and carefully 

 worded lectures on the wave theory of light delivered without a note, 

 or of watching the simple experiments and diagrams with which he 

 illustrated them, will i-emember how eagerly they looked for the first 

 symptoms of this change. The lectures, too, were characteristic. 

 Toward the end of the course, evidently wishing to give more than 

 Avas possible in the limited time, he would continue further and 

 further over the allotted hour until the last day when, on one occa- 

 sion, amid the gradual disappearance of the class to fulfill other 

 engagements, he kept those wlio remaiued interested for nearly three 

 hours. 



There Avas but little apparent failure of Stokes's j)hysical and 

 intellectual powei's until within a few days of his death at the age of 

 8:5. He died as he liatl lived, in haiMiess, and a great figure passed 

 away from the scene at the close of a well I'oimdcMl and successful 

 cai'eer. His work, mainly on wave motion and the transformations 

 which, in its diU'erent forms, it undergoes inider various circum- 

 stances, has already taken a permanent plaee in the histoi-y of science. 

 And he has left behind with those who kn(>w him a memorial of him- 

 self which will not be easilv effaced. 



