534 WILLIAM AUGUSTUS NORTON. 



to remembrance. That claim is best founded on his daily work as a 

 beloved teacher and on his personal character as a true and high- 

 minded man. 



As a teacher the writer can speak from personal experience of his 

 rare capacity, and any enthusiasm he might well be betrayed into 

 while on this topic would be heartily indorsed by every one of his 

 former pupils living to-day. And, as with the best teachers, the 

 greatest advantages were unconsciously imbibed by his pupils from 

 personal contact, — the unconscious nifluence of high ideals, of love 

 of truth and honor, of personal integrity, of scrupulous exactness, — 

 these were lessons daily enforced, and more valuable than any of those 

 he so well knew how to extract from the text-book or illustrate on 

 the blackboard. His patience and courtesy were unfailing. No stu- 

 dent, however trying or dull, ever heard from him an impatient or 

 sarcastic word. Throughout his long career as a teacher, he never 

 had the ill will of a single jiupil, or any of those collisions quite as 

 often due to the lack of sympathy of the teacher as to the wilfulness 

 of the scholar. "With perfect gentleness and courtesy, a thoroughness 

 which spared no pains, and a clearness of exposition which, in the 

 writer's experience, is very rare, he took every student with him in the 

 prescribed course, and sent him away at graduation not only a wiser 

 but a better man, as well as a personal and enthusiastic friend. 



Professor Norton was married, in 1839, to Miss Elizabeth Emery 

 Stevens, of Exeter, N. H., with whom, for more than forty years, he 

 enjoyed that household happiness and content for which his kind and 

 gentle nature so eminently fitted him. To that little household of 

 two every student of his was always welcome, and all know how good 

 it was to be there. There he dropped the professor, and his students 

 found always a hearty welcome, and a genial, sympathizing friend, — 

 young at heart as themselves, and interested in all their plans and 

 prospects. 



The record of this long and useful life, the lofty aims and high 

 character which lay back of it, the simple faith and sincere convictions 

 which guided it, the manly, genial qualities of mind and heart which 

 adorned it, combine to make it one which claims and holds a foremost 

 place in that long list of honored names — faithful teachers, sincere 

 investigators, and high-minded men — of which Yale College has 

 a right to be and is most justly proud. The inlluence of such lives 

 is the best heritage of universities, and their memories are a tower of 

 strength to the institution which claims them, as well as an inspiration 

 and example to the students and colleagues who cherish them. 



