DAVID WORTH DENNIS AN APPRECIATION. 63 



"There is no man in Indiana who has had more influence upon the teachers 

 of the state, upon the schools of the state; there is no man who has been 

 closer to the hearts of his pupils. There is no man Avho has had more to do 

 with the development of science in Indiana than has Professor David W. 

 Dennis." 



It will be difficult for us here today to pay a higher tribute than is con- 

 tained in these words which we rejoice to know were said in the presence of 

 him who so well deserved the praise they express. Professor Dennis had 

 the qualities which might have made of him a leader in scientific research; 

 he enjoys, indeed, a reputation as a scientist of which anyone might well be 

 proud; but the main part of the extraordinary energy with which he was 

 endowed went into the work of inspiring young men and women; in speaking 

 "in the right voice" to those whom he met, and so securing "that unconscious 

 following" from among his students, because, like Agassiz he "elicited from 

 them of the 'What Is.' " 



Great is he who disco ve7-s a new truth and gives it to the world; but 

 greater is he who discovers a young man to himself and sends this enkindled 

 sou! into the world of personalities which are groping almost blindly for, they 

 know not what. 



At a time like this, when Ave are facing a future bristling with problems 

 which cause us to feel that we must summon to our aid all the best minds 

 of the world, and yet in the face of so great needs we are reminded afresh 

 that we must go forward without the leadership and the inspiration of one 

 and another upon whom we have learned to look as being able to show the 

 way to victorj' against even the most desperate odds, the sense of loss 

 sustained may perhaps unfit us for making a true estimate of the character 

 and abilities of those who have left us. As a corrective to our vision it may 

 therefore be well to apply some principles of judgment which have been 

 thought through in times of less emotional stress; if with such guidance we 

 find out instinctive feelings supported we may be assured that we can both 

 freely express Avhat we feel and also mark out a true path of life for those 

 who are seeking for guidance in the experiences of the past. 



Such well considered principles are, fortunately for us in this instance, 

 ready in the work of another distinguished member of the Indiana Academy 

 of Science who responded to a toast at the banquet to which reference has 

 already been made. Dr. David Starr Jordan, introduced by Professor 

 Dennis and with Darwin as a text, developed for his hearers in his own clear 

 and forcible way the foUo-wang outline of the conditions necessary to the 

 malting of a great man of science; briefly stated the conditioTis are these: 



1. Heredity. 



2. Being "brought right up against nature." 



3. "Walking Avith a Henslow"; that is, with "a man with enthusiasm." 

 1 sui)pose that if a corrective is to be applied to our judgment of our 



fi'ieiids, no better standard can be ftnind than this suggested by Dr. Jordan. 



