WILLARD GIBBS 359 



tions. One of his pupils, Prof. H. A. Bumstead, in a sketch of 

 Willard Gibbs, published in the American Journal of Science, 

 speaks of his lectures as follows: 



"No necessary qualification to a statement was ever omitted, 

 and on the other hand it seldom failed to receive the most general 

 application of which it was capable. His students had ample 

 opportunity to learn what may be regarded as known, what is 

 guessed at, what a proof is and how far it goes. Though he 

 disregarded many of the shibboleths of the mathematical rigorists, 

 his logical processes were really of the most severe type; in power 

 of deduction, of generalization, in insight into hidden relations, 

 in critical acumen and in utter lack of prejudice, and in the philo- 

 sophical breadth of his view of the object and aim of physics, he 

 has had few superiors in the history of the science, and no student 

 could come in contact with this severe and impartial mind without 

 feeling profoundly its influence in all his future studies of nature. 

 In personal character the same great qualities were apparent, 

 unassuming in manner, genial and kindly in his intercourse with 

 his fellow men, never showing impatience or irritation, devoid of 

 personal ambition of the baser sort or of the slightest desire to 

 exalt himself, he went far toward realizing the ideal of the unselfish 

 Christian gentleman. In the minds of those who knew him, the 

 greatness of his intellectual achievements will never overshadow 

 the beauty and dignity of his life." 



Perhaps Professor Gibbs would have been more successful as 

 a teacher if he had followed the custom of university professors in 

 making use of the labors of his students and working with them, 

 but he never took them into his confidence, and he rarely let any- 

 one know what he was engaged upon until his work was complete 

 and ready for publication. His work was solitary; he had no need 

 of the stimulus of conversation or correspondence with men 

 interested in the same subjects. He left comparatively few notes, 

 and these are brief and elliptical, for he carried his work in his 

 head until well thought out. Even then he was reluctant to give 

 it publicity. 



One of his students captivated by his system of Vector Analysis, 

 told him that he thought it could be thrown into a form that could 

 be more widely useful and even introduced into sophomore mathe- 



