76 Edward Livingston Youmans. 



upon the grand scheme of thought as it was devel- 

 oped, made it his own, and brought to its interpreta- 

 tion and diffusion such a happy combination of quali- 

 ties as one seldom meets with. The ordinary popu- 

 larizer of great and novel truths is a man who com- 

 prehends them but partially and illustrates them in a 

 lame and fragmentary way. But it was the peculiar- 

 ity of Youmans that, while on the one hand he could 

 grasp the newest scientific thought so surely and firm- 

 ly that he seemed to have entered into the innermost 

 mind of its author, on the other hand he could speak 

 to the general public in a convincing and stimulating 

 way that had no parallel. This was the secret of his 

 power, and there can be no question that his influence 

 in educating the American people to receive the doc- 

 trine of evolution was great and widespread. 



The years when Youmans was travelling and lec- 

 turing were the years when the old lyceum system of 

 popular lectures was still in its vigour. The kind of 

 life led by the energetic lecturer in those days was 

 not that of a sybarite, as may be seen from a passage 

 in one of his letters : " I lectured in Sandusky, and 

 had to get up at five o'clock to reach Elyria ; I had 

 had but very little sleep. To get from Elyria to 

 Pittsburg I must take the five o'clock morning train, 

 and the hotel darky said he would try to awaken me. 

 I knew what that meant, and so did not get a single 

 wink of sleep that night. Rode all day to Pittsburg, 

 and had to lecture in the great Academy of Music 

 over footlights. . . . The train that left for Zanesville 

 departed at two in the morning. I had been assured 

 a hundred times (for I asked everybody I met) that I 

 would get a sleeping car to Zanesville, and when I 

 was all ready to start I was informed that this morn- 



