202 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



lated " By George, what a confounded smell ! " Under the circum- 

 stances, from most men this would have seemed a very mild 

 exclamation; from Wyman's lips it fell upon his listeners like 

 lightning from a clear sky. 



To conclude the episode; as the seniors arrived each sniffed 

 and asked whether the laboratory always smelt like that. The 

 exhibition was never repeated. Yet Wyman did not reproach me 

 nor did he ever again refer to the incident. 



In those days listeners to anatomical lectures in some colleges 

 and medical schools were too often shocked by words or innuen- 

 does alike unworthy of the speaker and insulting to his hearers. 

 Wyman never uttered a word that might not have been published 

 abroad. 



By some, this purity of life, reaching as it did into things great 

 and small, will be regarded as of no avail, unless a satisfactory 

 account is given of his religious convictions. This is out of the 

 writer's power, and even further from his purpose. I do not recall 

 a remark of Wyman's upon any theological topic whatever. His 

 daughters, however, inform me that "in term time he regularly 

 attended the college services, in vacations the Unitarian church, 

 and joined in the Communion. He was a lover of hymns, was 

 fond of reading the Bible and was distinctly a religious man." To 

 me he seemed almost above the need of spiritual information or 

 correction. His life was blameless. The heaviest of all human 

 afflictions was endured by him with a resignation to which no set 

 forms of piety could have contributed aught of value. He worked 

 on for science and for his fellow-men, thinking always of others 

 rather than of himself, and always doing better than he could 

 hope to be done by. And is not this the essence of true religion ? 



Still we may gain some idea of his convictions respecting the 

 Creator, the relation of mind to matter, and the other life, from 

 passages in the notice of Dr. Burnett, already referred to: 



" He seems to have had a pervading perception of God in his 

 works, and often in eloquent words gave expression to his feel- 

 ings when some new manifestation of divine wisdom was un- 

 covered to his inquiring mind. ... He had religious faith and 



