428 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



advanced volumes. He, however, postponed doing so, meaning 

 in the end to give to it his ripest knowledge and experience. 

 Mentally he was entirely prepared indeed he had written out 

 a large part of one of the higher text-books to finish the 

 undertaking at the first leisure period, that is, when his life 

 should be disengaged from the cares of administration and the 

 actual work of teaching, to which he, in thought at least, had 

 already set the limit. In addition to a geological series he also 

 considered the writing of some science readers. " The Story of 

 Our Continent" is, strictly speaking, the only book of the kind 

 he finished ; nor was the scheme of a family library, upon which 

 he pondered a great deal, brought to fulfilment. Like most of 

 his conceptions, it was outlined on a large scale. Publishers 

 dwelt upon the subject with fascinated interest, only in the end 

 to abandon it because of the amount of labor and energy it 

 would have required. 



Of Mr. Shaler's exclusively scientific writings there are others 

 more competent to write than I. One of these, who knows 

 whereof he speaks, has said, " He was always a thoughtful ob- 

 server, an independent inquirer, and a most ingenious specula- 

 tive theorizer." It may also be affirmed that in almost every 

 instance his scientific investigations were associated with the 

 literary charm which made them attractive to the lay reader. 

 There are at hand a dozen or more letters relating to a single 

 monograph on the "Origin and Nature of Soils" which bear 

 witness to this quality. A teacher writes from Trenton, New 

 Jersey : " I have read ' The Origin and Nature of the Soil ' in the 

 United States Government Report. For felicity of expression, 

 beauty of style, and rhythmic movement, as well as the insight 

 it gives into the operations of divine law, it stands unequalled. 

 It deserves an honored place among the classics." 



The best evidence as to the interest of his scientific writings 

 is the following line from that fastidious author, T. B. Aldrich, 

 who perhaps exceeded even James T. Fields in his detestation 

 of "a damned instructive lecture" or article either: 



