The Scientific Lcctii< 79 



learned how often the stupidity of the average mind 

 will misapprehend and pervert the clearest statements. 



His lectures were never committed to memory, 

 but each time delivered with such variation of argu- 

 ment and illustration as to bring to the second or third 

 delivery in a city many of the auditors present at the 

 first. Of his absorption in his subject when he had 

 fairly warmed to his work some amusing stories are 

 told. At Faribault, Minnesota, one evening, such was 

 the amplitude of his excited gyrations that they ex- 

 ceeded the rather narrow bounds of the platform. 

 Twice he slipped off to the floor. Fortunately the 

 platform was a low one, and after each fall he resumed 

 the thread of his exposition without the slightest dis- 

 composure. On another occasion, in Brooklyn, his 

 emphasis came out in gesticulation so fierce as almost 

 to bring a heavy screen down on his head. To the 

 relief of his audience, and especially of his committee, 

 the screen stood proof against his thumping. 



Miss Youmans tells me that Edward's loud voice 

 and emphatic manner were family traits. When any 

 topic of moment came up in the family circle a stranger 

 might have supposed the talkers were quarrelling, so 

 vehement were their tones. Edward's most conspicu- 

 ous quality was the amount and intensity of energy 

 displayed in speech and action on all occasions. It 

 should be added, at the same time, that a man of more 

 perfect refinement never lived. We are apt to asso- 

 ciate loud tones with a certain kind of roughness ; 

 sometimes, too, with brusqueness. About Youmans 

 there was not the faintest trace of anything of the 

 sort. The combination of explosive animal spirits and 

 intense eagerness with perfect grace and gentleness 

 was such as I have never witnessed in any other man. 



