WILLARD GIBBS 361 



friends who had read the announcement, with the remark: "Better 

 not say anything about it. Very likely it is an error." To a friend 

 who spoke of seeing one of his letters on electromagnetic theory 

 in Nature he said, "Oh, did they really publish it?" Professor 

 Ostwald of Berlin tried to get him to come to Europe to be lionized, 

 but he persistently refused. 



Although the recognition of his achievements was so long 

 delayed, yet before his death he had received honors from many 

 parts of the world. Besides the Copley Medal of the Royal 

 Society, he received the Rumford Medal of the American 

 Academy of Science and Arts; he was awarded honorary 

 doctorates from the universities of Erlangen, Princeton, 

 Christiania and Williams College; he was elected to honorary or 

 corresponding membership in the American Academy of Boston, 

 the National Academy of Washington and the Royal Society of 

 London, the Berlin Academy and the French Institute, as well 

 as learned societies in Haarlem, Gottingen, London, Cambridge, 

 Manchester, Amsterdam and Bavaria. 



As an estimate of the character of Prof. Willard Gibbs, no 

 more appropriate words can be used than those in which he has 

 unconsciously revealed his own personality and ideals in pay- 

 ing a tribute to the character of a colleague. In his obituary 

 sketch of Prof. Hubert Anson Newton, he concludes a discussion 

 of his mathematical and astronomical work with these sentences: 



"These papers show more than the type of mind of the author; 

 they give no uncertain testimony concerning the character of the 

 man. In all these papers we see a love of honest work ; an aversion 

 to shams, a distrust of rash generalizations and speculations based 

 on uncertain premises. He was never anxious to add one more 

 guess on doubtful matter in the hope of hitting the truths, or what 

 pass as such for a time, but was always willing to take infinite 

 pains in the most careful test of every theory. To these qualities 

 was joined a modesty which forbade the pushing of his own claims; 

 and he desired no reputation except the unsought tribute of 

 competent judges." 



In an exceedingly interesting series of articles on "Josiah 

 Willard Gibbs and his Relation to Modern Science," published 



