Sir George Gabriel Stokes. 215 



Although this is not the place to dilate upon it, no sketch of Stokes 

 can omit to allude to the earnestness of his religious life. In -early 

 years he seems to have been oppressed by certain theological difficulties, 

 and was not exactly what was then considered orthodox. Afterwards 

 he saw his way more clearly. In later life he took part in the work 

 of the Victoria Institute : the spirit which actuated him may be 

 judged from the concluding words of an Address on Science and 

 Revelation. "But whether we agree or cannot agree with the 

 conclusions at which a scientific investigator may have arrived, let us, 

 above all things, beware of imputing evil motives to him, of charging 

 him with adopting his conclusions for the purpose of opposing what is 

 revealed. Scientific investigation is eminently truthful. The investi- 

 gator may be wrong, but it does not follow he is other than truth- 

 loving. If on some subjects which we deem of the highest importance 

 he does not agree with us and yet he may agree with us more nearly 

 than we suppose let us, remembering our own imperfections, both of 

 understanding and of practice, bear in mind that caution of the Apostle : 

 ' Who art thou that judgest another man's servant 1 To his own 

 master he standeth or falleth.' " 



Scientific honours were showered upon him. He was Foreign 

 Associate of the French Institute, and Knight of the Prussian Order 

 Pour le Merite. He was awarded the Gauss Medal in 1877, the 

 Arago on the occasion of the Jubilee Celebration in 1899, and the 

 Helmholte in 1901. In 1889 he was made a Baronet on the recom- 

 mendation of Lord Salisbury. From 1887 to 1891 he represented the 

 University of Cambridge in Parliament, in this, as in the Presidency of 

 the Society, following the example of his illustrious predecessor in the 

 Lucasian Chair. He was Secretary of the Society from 1854 to 1885, 

 President from 1885 to 1890, received the Rumford medal in 1852, 

 and the Copley in 1893. 



But the most remarkable testimony by far to the estimation in 

 which he was held by his scientific contemporaries was the gathering at 

 Cambridge in 1899, in celebration of the Jubilee of his Professorship. 

 Men of renown nocked from all parts of the world to do him homage, 

 and were as much struck by the modesty and simplicity of his 

 demeanour as they had previously been by the brilliancy of his scientific 

 achievements. The beautiful lines by his colleague, Sir R. Jebb, cited 

 below, were written upon this occasion. 



There is little more to tell. In 1902 he was chosen Master of 

 Pembroke. But he did not long survive. At the annual dinner of 

 the Cambridge Philosophical Society, held in the College about a 

 month before his death, he managed to attend though very ill, 

 and made an admirable speech, recalling with charming simplicity and 

 courtesy his lifelong intimate connection with the College, to the 



