A71 Estimate of the Life Work of Dr. Joseph Lc Conte. 233 



with his previous conclusions. He considered the cultivation 

 of the spirit of truthfulness, candor, and readiness to revise 

 one's opinions and conclusions, as constituting one of the 

 strongest claims of natural science as an educational factor; 

 in contradistinction to the acceptance of mere opinions and 

 precedents that is so common a result of exclusive literary and 

 philosophical study. The personal gentleness for which he 

 was so well known and beloved, was deeply grounded in the 

 absence of any claim to infallibility for himself. 



It is not easy to overestimate the influence he has exerted 

 in rectifying the popular idea that the doctrine of evolution 

 necessarily tends to materialism, if not atheism; a misconcep- 

 tion of its true import which is unfortunately still shared in 

 by the extremists both on the scientific and religious side. 

 L,e Conte held that so far from this, it inculcates the highest 

 ideal of an intelligent world-plan; and he staunchly maintained 

 not only its compatibility with Christian religious belief, but 

 that by elevating nature into the realm of teleologic thought 

 and aspiration, it ofifers a much higher point of view than 

 could be derived from any of the "orthodox" views of the 

 method of Creation. This part of his influence will, perhaps, 

 be most missed in the present state and tendency of scientific 

 thought; particularly among the younger men of science, 

 whose eagerness to specialize prematurely almost inevitably 

 tends to prevent such catholicity of views and encyclopedic 

 knowledge as characterized Dr. L,e Conte. Among the means 

 by which he was enabled to maintain a working acquaintance 

 with the rapid progress in all the sciences, was his habit of 

 conscientiously keeping up a compact but comprehensive 

 ^Hndex rerum'' in which he noted all the new or otherwise im- 

 portant scientific and philosophic papers that came under his 

 notice; and his ready reference to the latest investigations and 

 discussions of almost 2,wy of the subjects in which he was inter- 

 ested — and there were few in which he was not — was a con- 

 stant surprise to those who consulted him. He thus avoided 

 overloading his mind with a multitude of details not necessary 



