LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



to be well acquainted with the rocks of the region, having 

 been with Professor Hitchcock a good deal while he was 

 working up the geology of western Massachusetts many 

 years before. I still have the piece of limestone in my 

 collection, which Professor Dana, the author of the great- 

 est work on scientific mineralogy in our language or any 

 other, had identified for him by this countryman of Lee." 



Professor O. C. Farrington, who received the degree of 

 Doctor of Philosophy at Yale in 1891, gives his reminis- 

 cences in these words : 



" Glancing over the notes of his talks which I made 

 during the two years that I was privileged to study under 

 his instruction, I find many aphorisms which he let fall 

 indicating the methods by which his own success in 

 scientific work was attained. Thus, when stating the 

 different theories which had been proposed regarding the 

 mode of formation of coral islands, he expressed a wish 

 that borings might be made so as to learn on what founda- 

 tions the islands rest, remarking, ' When I get at a thing 

 I want to go to the bottom of it, and then I am willing to 

 leave it/ The remark reminds one much of the answer 

 given by Lincoln to a question as to how he gained so 

 clear a knowledge of the subjects with which he dealt, 

 when he said, ' I cannot rest easy when I am handling a 

 thought till I have it bounded upon the north, upon the 

 south, upon the east, and upon the west.' 



" Another maxim which it would be well to keep in 

 mind in these days of easy publication Professor Dana 

 gave utterance to when, in referring to some of the theories 

 which were being advanced at the time to account for the 

 subsidences of the earth's crust, he said : ' I think it bet- 

 ter to doubt until you know. Too many people assert 

 and then let others doubt.' 



" The same judicial poise was exhibited in his readiness 

 to change his former opinions when he became convinced 

 that the evidence was sufficient to warrant it. Absolute 

 candor and desire to support only the truth as he saw the 

 truth were among his principal characteristics, and he 

 sought constantly to impress upon his students their im- 

 portance as factors of success in the pursuit of know- 

 ledge. 



172 



