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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 828 



Professor James's greatest enjoyment and in- 

 fluence came from his writings. For ten years 

 before his death he taught either not at all or 

 but a single course, and in 1907 he resigned 

 his professorship in order to devote to writing 

 whatever strength his ever weakening heart 

 allowed. Throughout his academic career, 

 with characteristic courage, he put out a 

 series of papers filled with large learning, ag- 

 gressive originality, popular sympathy and 

 delightful language. Through continual 

 practise he had made himself the master of a 

 style which so fascinated the reader by its 

 clearness and pungency that he was able by 

 its aid to break down the distinction between 

 technical and popular appeal, and render ab- 

 stract subjects intelligible to the common man. 

 Whatever he wrote, said, or did, was instinct 

 with abounding life. Whether readers agreed 

 with his books or dissented, all perceived that 

 they vitalized their subjects. Several obliged 

 a kind of new departure of human thought in 

 their respective fields, the most notable being 

 " The Principles of Psychology," 1890; " Talks 

 to Teachers on Psychology," 1899 ; " The 

 Varieties of Religious Experience," 1902, and 

 " Pragmatism," 1907. Perhaps four short 

 papers should also be mentioned : " The Feel- 

 ing of Effort," 1880; "The Dilemma of De- 

 terminism," 1884; "Is Life Worth Living?" 

 1895 ; " The WiU to Believe," 1896. 



The honors received by Professor James 

 were many and great. He was a member of 

 national academies in America. France, Italy, 

 Prussia and Denmark; was a doctor of letters 

 at Padua and Durham, of laws at Harvard, 

 Princeton and Edinburgh, of science at Gen- 

 eva and Oxford. He delivered a course of 

 Lowell Lectures in Boston, of Gifford Lectures 

 in Edinburgh, of Hilbert Lectures in Oxford. 

 He was one of the founders, and always a chief 

 supporter, of the Society for Physical Re- 

 search, a subject which profoundly interested 

 him. More than once he was president of the 

 Am erican Psychological Association and of 

 the Boston Natural History Society. 



Tet all who knew William James thought 

 less of his learning and renown than of his 

 massive and inspiring personality. The uni- 



versal admiration given him was ever mixed 

 with love. From him men drew their ideals 

 of human character and were grateful to him 

 for being what he was. They found him the 

 best of comrades — simple, engaging, generous 

 in his estimates of others, tender as a woman, 

 fair-minded, playful, reverent and unconven- 

 tional, with a natural elevation of thought 

 and manner which made all excellence easy in 

 his presence. As we now recall that erect 

 form, alert bearing, kind eye and masterful 

 voice, we perceive how, in spite of his aver- 

 sion to anything like intentional consistency, 

 " his words and works and fashion too " were 

 " all of a piece, and all were clear and 

 straight." 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The nineteenth annual meeting of the 

 American Psychological Association will be 

 held in Minneapolis during convocation week 

 in conjunction with the Western Philosophical 

 Association, the North Central Association of 

 Teachers of Psychology, and the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 The sessions are scheduled for Wednesday, 

 Thursday and Friday, December 28, 29 and 

 30. 



The tenth annual meeting of the American 

 Philosophical Association will be held at 

 Princeton, from December 27 to 29. 



The American Physiological Society wiU 

 hold its twenty-third annual meeting in New 

 Haven, Conn., December 27-29. The place of 

 meeting will be the Shefiield Scientific School, 

 Yale University. The society will hold joint 

 sessions with the American Society of Biolog- 

 ical Chemists and the American Society for 

 Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeu- 

 tics. Professor W. H. Howell, of Baltimore, 

 is the president and Professor A. J. Carlson, 

 of Chicago, is the secretary of the society. 



The Society of American Bacteriologists 

 will meet in Ithaca, N. T., December 28, 29, 

 30, 1910. 



We learn from Nature that the Hungarian 

 Academy of Science has this year awarded the 

 Bolyai prize, of the value of 10,000 crowns, to 



