218 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



become a captain of artillery; and had chosen his wife. 1 This 

 fervor of a particular period which he shared with others, 

 eventually crystallized into a permanent personal quality, for 

 without fervor he could never have gone out as he did to meet 

 life on all sides. Rich experiences came to him in military and 

 civil affairs, in his work as field geologist, mining expert, di- 

 rector of a state survey, member of various state commissions 

 and of two bureaus of the national government; as traveller, 

 prose writer on many subjects, and poet. At twenty-three he 

 became lecturer, at twenty-seven professor, and dean at fifty. 

 This brief summary indicates the large lines on which Mr. 

 Shaler might have continued his autobiography. What follows 

 in this memoir is necessarily meagre compared with what he 

 had in his power to communicate had it been given him to con- 

 tinue the narrative of his life ; for, with truth, he may be likened 

 to a ship that has gone down deep-laden with treasure. 



i He was married in the autumn of 1862 to Sophia Penn Page, the daughter of the Rev. 

 Charles H. Page, of Virginia. The young people had known each other from childhood. 



