384 Edward Liv'nifjston Youmans . 



ABSTRACT OF THE DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Daniel Gkeenleaf Tuompson : 



It is my purpose only to supplement the address of the speaker 

 of the evening by a few desultory remarks, founded partly upon 

 personal acquaintance and partly upon facts given to me by 

 members of Prof. Youmans' own family and by friends. Prof. 

 Youmans was a well-known figure in our New York community, 

 a member of leading clubs, a social factor and an integral part of 

 the intellectual life of the city. He was an excellent conversation- 

 alist, and when he joined a group he speedily made himself heard 

 and attracted attention by his emphatic manner, his incisive 

 remarks and his droll, unique expressions. One was quite likely 

 to hear something about Evolution from him, and if anybody was 

 rash enough to dwell upon the importance of tlie Classics in 

 education he would be i)retty sure to draw in his head like a 

 turtle's into its shell after he had given Prof. Youmans a three- 

 minutes' chance. lie was full of anecdote, and had a store of 

 reminiscences of his acquaintance with many eminent men of 

 England and America, which, if they had been preserved, would 

 have been of great interest and value. 



The qualities that made him so good a conversationalist con- 

 tributed to secure his success as a lecturer. He pleased his 

 audiences, but did not always suit the fancy of the local clergy- 

 men, who in some jilaces not only assumed to represent the 

 Almighty in directing conduct, but also claimed to have delegated 

 to them His omniscient infallibility. In one case this earnest 

 disciple of science was brought into competition with a series of 

 revival meetings. Tliis was at Freeport, 111., in January, 1868. I 

 shall venture to read his own description of what occurred from 

 a letter here, which the kindness of Mrs. Youmans i)ermits me 

 to use : 



"Tliere was a 'Protracted Meeting' in full blast in every 

 church in town except the Episcopalian, and a general feeling of 

 ])i()us Christian rage at my ai)i)earance. The Prosl)yterian clergy- 

 man alone, a cold-blooded but highly intellectual man, who had 

 been driven into the spiritual movenu'ut sheerly against his will, 

 hy pure comi)etiti()n, appointed his religious meetings at half-past 

 six o'clock, to be out at eight, so as to atteiul the lecture. My 

 first lecture, therefore, was made to about a hundred stragglers 

 from prayer-meetings. I. of course, assumed the anti(juity of the 

 earth in that lecture, and that was enough. It got abroad the 

 next day and reverberated tlirough llie town that I was an oi)en 

 and avowed infidel. Tlu're was a deuce of a tinu'. I was calli-d 

 upon by individuals, and oiTensively catechised as to what I 

 believe(l, and questions were written by clergymen nnd sent in to 

 be promjitly answered. Tlui next night it was hardly a trifle 

 better. The gentlemen who had the thing in charge, seeing how 

 things were going, and dt'termiiUMl not to be baflled, crowded the 



