JEFFRIES WYMAN. 397 



though never hurried, was never idle, and that his great re- 

 pose of manner covered a sustained energy ; but I suspect 

 that none of us, without searching out and collecting his pub- 

 lished papers, had adequately estimated their number and 

 their value. There is nothing forth-putting about them, 

 nothing adventitious, never even a phrase to herald a matter 

 which he deemed important. 



His work as a teacher was of the same quality. He was 

 one of the best lecturers I ever heard, although, and partly 

 because, he was most unpretending. You never thought of the 

 speaker, nor of the gifts and acquisitions which such clear 

 exposition were calling forth, — only of what he was simply 

 telling and showing you. Then to those who, like his pupils 

 and friends, were in personal contact with him, there was the 

 added charm of a most serene and sweet temper. He was 

 truthful and conscientious to the very core. His perfect free- 

 dom, in lectures as well as in writing, and no less so in daily 

 conversation, from all exaggeration, false perspective, and 

 factitious adornment, was the natural expression of his innate 

 modesty and refined taste, and also of his reverence for the 

 exact truth. 



It has been a pleasure to learn, from former college students, 

 who hardly ever saw him except in the lecture room, that he 

 gave to them much the same impression of his gifts and 

 graces and sterling worth, that he gave us who knew him 

 intimately — so transparent was he and natural. 



With all his quick sense of justice, and no lack of occasion 

 for controversy, it seemed to cost him no effort to avoid it 

 altogether. He made no enemies, and was surrounded by 

 troops of life-long friends. When he first went abroad, in 

 1841, he was told by some near friends, who recognized his 

 promise, that a chair of natural history in his alma mater 

 would soon have to be filled, and that he should be presented 

 as a candidate. In the winter following, the present incum- 

 bent, responding to an invitation to visit Boston, which he 

 had never seen, and to consider if he would be a candidate, 

 then first heard of Wyman's name and his friends' expecta- 

 tions or hopes ; whereupon he dismissed the subject from his 



