LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



his mother, often revealed in his scientific writings, and 

 perpetually shown in his daily walk and conversation 

 the transcendent purpose of his soul is the service of his 

 Master. " Lord, I thank Thee that I think Thy thoughts 

 after Thee " might have been his utterance. The astron- 

 omers and mathematicians of two or three centuries ago 

 Kepler, Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Leibnitz were 

 men of strong religious convictions. So was Linnaeus. 

 So in recent days was Clerk Maxwell. So were many of 

 Dana's most distinguished scientific co-workers, Ag- 

 assiz, Henry, Gray, Pierce, Torrey, Hitchcock. All of 

 them may have been as deeply religious as he ; but few 

 of them, if any, have left on record so many expressions 

 of religious devotion. In the changing environment of 

 life at sea, as well as in the seclusion of an academic call- 

 ing, Dana was constantly mindful of his supreme obliga- 

 tions. Like the keeper of a lighthouse, he kept his lamp 

 trimmed and burning ; like a gallant knight, he was loyal 

 to the banner that he bore. This was more apparent in 

 the words that came from his pen than in those that fell 

 from his lips. A selection might be made from his letters 

 which would apparently indicate that he was wholly ab- 

 sorbed by his religious duties, like one of the brotherhood 

 in a consecrated order, a Benedictine or Franciscan ; and 

 yet one might live near him and meet him day after day, 

 and year after year, without ever being annoyed by words 

 not fitly spoken, indeed without ever hearing any but the 

 most simple and natural allusions to his Christian faith. 

 The reserve so common among New Englanders was one 

 of his characteristics. 



If it is borne in mind that during the last generation- 

 after the writings of Darwin and Huxley were widely read 

 the study of biology came to be regarded by many re- 

 ligious people as of positively dangerous tendency, the 

 example of Dana in boldly upholding it will appear the 

 more impressive. He was never afraid of the truth, never 



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