66 PROCEEDINGS OF THE INDIANA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



His power came from his whole personality, therefore his words when reported 

 by another lose a part — rather lack a part of the whole message which they 

 originally carried. And yet it is worth while for ourselves and worth while 

 for others to recall some of his characteristic sayings. 



In recalling the different modes of travel now as compared with those 

 generally used in his boyhood, and noting especially the wonderful reduction 

 in the amount of time now required to travel from one place to another, he 

 once said: 



"The real question is not how soon we can arrive, but what we are worth 

 when we do arrive." 



From his recollections of his childhood, two incidents show how the child 

 was in his case "father to the man" in at least two particulars, that is, in his 

 love for the study of nature, and in the necessitj' he felt of thinking for 

 himself. Speaking of his winter experiences as a boy, he says, "I have passed 

 many a happy hour tracing .lack Frost's steps on the window panes and study- 

 ing out his landscape designs." And as having a double Itearing on the great 

 questions of liuman destiny, on the one hand, and on insight into human nature 

 on the other, note this record of im])ressions made upon him as a child; he 

 says : 



"Many sermons (of that day) landed most of tlic human race in a lake of 

 fire; but I did not believe it; for they (the speakers and others), talked and 

 laughed at the close of the service." 



Another incident in his childhood greatly impressed him, a time when 

 his sister wanted a feather for her hat, and being refused, wept for two days 

 and nights al)out it. Professor Dennis, looking back as a nuiture man ujjon 

 the incident, with fine loyaltj' for his home, and with discriminating judgment 

 concerning the issues which were at stake, commends his father and mother 

 for their refusal to change their decision which had been announced; but with 

 equally fine judgment and insight into the great problems which children 

 have to meet without at the time knowing that tliey are problems at all, he 

 saj's on behalf of his sister: 



"She ought to have had the feather. A normal racial desire ought not to be 

 suppressed any more than a tadpole's tail. The bigger the tail, the better it 

 can swim; it will be absorbed later, and turned into legs; tlie bigger the tail, 

 the bigger the legs." 



The secret of his power over his pupils cannot be stated in a single word, 

 or a single phrase, but the following sentence, which he penned throws in- 

 teresting light on the question. He says: 



"My boys and girls hang like a magnet over every page I read. I cannot 

 conceive of a jjleasure unshared or unsharable." 



As indicating how his logical faculty and his ambition worked together 

 to make him an efficient instrument in service, note this: 



"Soon after bicycles came into general use I heard a certain make recom- 

 mended as being "as good as a Columbia;' I did not rest satisfied until I had 



