760 A MHMOIU OF ELIAS LOOMIS. 



cinij^raiit, and lie liopcd in the near liituic to jmblisli an additional vol- 

 unic. For this lie has h'ft in manuscript nniny corrections and hirge 

 achlitions that \vill be of use to the future Looinis genealogist. 



Am 1 tarrying too long upon the vacation work of Professor Looinis? 

 If so, I plead on this occasion that among these direct descendants of 

 Joseph Loomis there were enrolled more than two liuiidred graduates 

 of Yale College, and nearly one hundred more of our graduates have 

 nnirried members of this numerous famib". 



Professor Loomis was doubtless more widely known as the author of 

 mathematical text-books than as a worker iu new lields in science. 

 Shortly after coming to Xew York, lie pre[)areil a text-book in algebra. 

 The market was ready for a good book of this kind, and the work pre- 

 ])ared for it was a good one. It was followed the next year by a Geom- 

 etry. This was an attempt, and if judged by its reception and sale it 

 was a successful attempt, to combine in a school book the rigid demou- 

 stralions of Euclid with the courses of thought in Legendre and iu 

 modern science. The task is one of peculiar ditiiculty, as the existence 

 and activities of the English Society for the Improvement of Geometric 

 Teaching now for near twenty years illustrates. Other books followed the 

 Geometry from year to year, the whole forming a connected series from 

 arithmetic upward, so that the list of his works finally numbered near 

 twenty volumes, His experience in teaching, ins rare skill in language, 

 his clear conception of what was important, and his unwearied pains- 

 taking, combined to produce text-books which met the wants of teach- 

 ers. About (;00,000 volumes have been sold, benefiting the schools and 

 colleges, and bringing to the author a liberal and well-merited pecuniary 

 return. 



We ought not to omit — on this academic occasion — to speak of the 

 teacher. College graduates who have been under his instruction will 

 ])robably retain a more positive impn^ssion of the personal traits and 

 the character of Professor Loomis than of most of their other teachers. 

 His crisp sentences, lucid thought, exactness of language, aud steadi- 

 ness of requirement, more than made up for any apparent coldness and 

 real reserve. These characteristics of his riper years were ])eculiar to 

 him from the beginning of his life as a teacher. During his tutorship 

 he was thought to be strict as a discii)linarian, and this may have un- 

 favorably alfected his influence with some members of the class of 

 1837, of which he was tutor. It was not so with all of theui. Some of 

 you will recall what was said by a member of that class as he came to 

 comnuMicement a few years since, occupying at the time the highest 

 oilice which a lawyer in the line of his profession can iu this country 

 secure: "If I have beeij successful iu life," said Chief-Justice White, 

 '• 1 owe that success to the intluence of Tutor Loomis more than to any 

 other cause whatever." 



There was in Professor Looinis so much of reserve, that to many per- 

 sous ho seemed cold and witiiout interest in the lives of others. But 



