2o8 The University of California Magazine. 



all there runs one straight, shining line of white, the path un- 

 swervingly trodden out by the blameless feet of Joseph Le 

 Conte. He had the power of inspiring reverence and aflfec- 

 tion even in those who scarcely knew him. Men had only to 

 enter into the sphere of his transmuting influence to love him, 

 and to be better for that love. His mere presence was peace. 

 The "good gray head which all men knew" was a luminary 

 with healing in its radiance, a radiance which transfigured 

 those upon whom it fell. Why there was such saving power 

 in the man, it is not hard to tell. His great knowledge was 

 added to the simplicity that is found in the heart of a child. 

 He was one of the pure in heart, who see God. He was a 

 great scientist, he was a great philosopher, but we know that 

 he was greater in another way, — he kept unsoiled, unstained, 

 that little part of the life of God which came to him at his 

 birth, and with the faith of a little child he walked, unspot- 

 ted, from the world. 



The apparent chasm between his traditional faith and the 

 discoveries of modern science interested him greatly, but 

 troubled him not at all. For the help of those who were 

 troubled thus, he sought to impart to others what was his 

 own clear vision of these things. What Longfellow said of 

 another great geologist might well have been spoken concern- 

 ing him: 



And Nature, the old nurse, took 



The child upou her kuee, 

 Saying, "Here is a story-book 



Thy father has written for thee." 



"Come, wander with me," she said, 



"Into regions yet untrod. 

 And read what is still unread 



In the manuscript of God." 



And he wandered away and away 



With Nature, the dear old nurse, 

 Who sang to him night and day 



The rhymes of the universe. 



