BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



THE arc of Helen Abbott Michael's life swept through several 

 fields of human activity, in each of which she showed remark- 

 able ability and achieved unusual success. Versatility, how- 

 ever brilliant, is often a dangerous gift, leading to a scattering 

 of energies and to practical failure; but she had great power 

 of concentration, and realized, as few have, the necessity of 

 systematic application. She was not led by her manifold tal- 

 ents into desultory or spasmodic expenditure of energy, but 

 having deliberately chosen a path which seemed to offer her 

 opportunities of usefulness, she was not content to abandon 

 it until she had followed it to a profitable ending. Nor, even 

 after she had proceeded to another department of work, did 

 she lose her interest in that from which she had passed. She 

 "assimilated all that was best in every branch of knowledge 

 that she took up, and her symmetrically developed character 

 proved that her attainments were not made for selfish ends. 

 Her altruism was ever apparent. 



Certain marked qualities of hers deserve commemoration. 

 Lovely in person, graceful in figure, she preserved a charming 

 simplicity and modesty. She was wholly lacking in self-con- 

 sciousness. Her association with men of science and her own 

 keen zest in subjects of scientific import gave to her conversa- 

 tion a note of deep seriousness ; but she had a natural play of 

 wit, and she was quick to see the ludicrous aspect of any ques- 

 tion. Broad and liberal in her ideas, she displayed a genuine 

 sympathy with all phases of thought, scientific and religious. 

 She had made a special study of the plastic arts, and her diaries 

 are full of brief and always pointed criticisms and appreciations 

 of the paintings, sculptures, and beautiful buildings that she 

 studied, even while making her specialty of chemical or medical 

 investigations. 



