Edward Livingston Youmans 67 



Among the men in America whose minds, be- 

 tween thirty and forty years ago, were feeling their 

 way toward some such unified conception of nature 

 as Mr. Spencer was about to set forth in all its 

 dazzling glory, among the men who were thus 

 prepared to grasp the doctrine of evolution at once 

 and expound it with fresh illustrations, the first 

 in the field was the man to whose memory we have 

 met here this evening to pay a brief word of trib- 

 ute. It is but a little while since that noble face 

 was here with us, and the tones of that kindly voice 

 were fraught with good cheer for us. To most of 

 you, I presume, the man Edward Livingston You- 

 mans is still a familiar presence. There must be 

 many here this evening who listened to the tidings 

 of his death three years ago with a sense of personal 

 bereavement. No one who knew him is likely ever 

 to forget him. But for those who remember dis- 

 tinctly the man it may not be superfluous to recount 

 the principal incidents of his life and work. It is 

 desirable that the story should be set forth con- 

 cisely, so as to be remembered ; for the work was 

 like the man, unselfish and unobtrusive, and in the 

 hurry and complication of modern life such work 

 is liable to be lost from sight, so that people profit 

 by it without knowing that it was ever done. 

 So genuinely modest, so utterly destitute of self- 



