June 8, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



871 



osity which outlasted many a sharp differ- 

 ence, for he wished to be fair-minded even 

 when most a partisan. He was displeased 

 with unspoken opposition, and affronted 

 by circuitous methods, denouncing in un- 

 measured terms what seemed to him the 

 unfair indirection of certain legal and 

 political devices. 



How warm was his greeting to old 

 friends, on meeting them again ; how hearty 

 his welcome to the newcomer, whether col- 

 league, student or passing stranger. No 

 one here had more numerous or more 

 beneficent personal relations with all sorts 

 of persons, within and without the univer- 

 sity. He had an intense fondness for 

 young men, and took every opportunity of 

 aiding them to idealize their lives, for he 

 was genuinely solicitous for their welfare. 

 He gave his time freely to consider the case 

 of each student who applied to him for 

 counsel, always preferring to act on the 

 basis of individual judgment rather than 

 under the guidance of rule or precedent. 

 He was deeply sympathetic towards all suf- 

 ferers, and made it his own affair to succor 

 and relieve them. Yet he was unsparing, 

 even scathing, in his condemnation of those 

 whose conduct seemed to him dishonorable. 



One might have thought, in view of his 

 plans and committees for the reception of 

 new students at the beginning of the year, 

 and in view of his welcome for them at his 

 house all the year round, that to make 

 Harvard more hospitable was his chief aim, 

 were it not remembered at once that he had 

 many chief aims; for besides his extraor- 

 dinary power of engaging effectively in an 

 uncommon variety of practical tasks which 

 drew largely on his day's work, he had an 

 eager and watchful interest in the scientific 

 study of the facts and processes of nature, 

 regarding which he was always a thoiight- 

 ful observer, an independent inquirer and 

 a most ingeniously speculative theorizer. 

 Thus at once naturalist and humanist, he 



exemplified the wider interests of an earlier 

 time, before specialization had been forced 

 upon us. Yet with all the diversity of his 

 activities, he loved the unity of science as 

 he loved the unification of university work. 

 It was largely from the point of unity and 

 continuity that he revealed the order of 

 nature to the thousands of students who 

 attended his lectures these many years ; the 

 interaction of the sun, winds, oceans, lands 

 and life being the main theme in his pres- 

 entation of geology, while his treatment 

 of paleontology was directed to describing 

 the ancient forms of life, not merely for 

 themselves, but as the ancestors of the pres- 

 ent inhabitants of the earth. He never 

 limited his attention closely to one line of 

 inquiry, but was always keenly interested 

 in a wide variety of natural and human 

 phenomena; and one sign of this was the 

 manner in which he would consult his col- 

 leagues on unexpected topics. He was es- 

 pecially fond of tracing the connections 

 which bind together the various regions of 

 knowledge, showing at once the naturalist's 

 love of detail and the philosopher's fond- 

 ness for large problems. 



Truth in matters of science attracted 

 him for much the same reason that made 

 him love fidelity of conduct; for through 

 both the individual human life is kept in 

 closer touch with the life of the universe. 

 He loved to dwell on whatever showed that 

 human nature is deep-rooted in universal 

 nature, the outcome of a long process of 

 evolution. Those who gained the great 

 privilege of close acquaintance with him 

 found, beneath a thousand other things, a 

 deep reverence for humanity, and learned 

 that a gTeat zeal for the dignity and eleva- 

 tion of his fellow men was the center of his 

 life. It seems strange that a man so 

 strongly imbued with a feeling for others 

 as to have been the center of a warm affec- 

 tion in his wide circle of friends, so effect- 

 ive in reaching others as to have impressed 



