In Memoriam. 815 



While Dot an omniverous student, the bounds of his special investigations 

 did not constitute for him the horizon of truth. He believed in the rotundity 

 of the intellectual world ; that, to whatever eminence, as an explorer of truth, 

 he might climb, and however much his vision might thereby be amplified, 

 there was yet beyond a wider circumference, and, liowever antipodal sc»me 

 phenomena might seem, they were still embraced in the sphericity of truth. 

 How often in our judgment of truth do we forget that the completeness and 

 perfection of the whole involves contrast and antagonism of the parts. 



These enlarged views found expression in the opinions and efibrts of Prof. 

 Eaton as &n educator. While an enthusiastic devotee of science, thoroughly 

 impressed with its value as an educational agency, he at the same time fully 

 recognized the importance of co-ordinate literary, ethical, and aesthetical cul- 

 ture. He extended neither sympathy nor fellowship toward the educational, 

 one-ideaism that finds expression in the average scientific course. It was 

 largely due to his influence that the so-called Scientific course of Beloit Col- 

 lege was abolished, while he gave a hearty support to the broader and more 

 symmetrical Philosophical course, which is producing so much richer fruit. 

 As an educator he despised narrowness, whether it were vertical or horizontal 

 whether it arose from building upon a constricted foundation or from the 

 tenuity of superficial diffuseness, and so he stood opposed alike to eftbrts to 

 confine education to a single or a few lines of thought, on the one hand, and 

 attempts, on the other hand, to spread the curriculum over the whole surface 

 of knowledge without giving thorough or adequate instruction in any 

 department of it. 



One of the most prominent characteristics of Prof. Eaton, as a scientist 

 and as a man, was his perfect sincerity and scrupulous conscientiousness. 

 A worshiper of the truth, he spurned hypocrisy. A firm believer in the 

 potency and permanence of truth, he scorned to erect a fabric of fallacy for 

 personal or politic purposes. If error marked his views, it was the error of 

 mistake, and not the aberration of guile. If, as all original investigators do, 

 he gathered misconceptions, mingled with his gathering of facts, they were 

 no sooner discovered than cast aside, however much they may have been 

 interwoven with the fabric of his thought, and however much his personal 

 feelings may have been involved by their publication. It requires courage 

 and a conscience to do this. 



His mental vision was marked by clearness and accuracy, the outgrowth in 

 part of native endowments, and in no small part, we judge, of that consci 

 entiousness we so much admired. How easy it is to deflect our intellectual 

 sight and warp the native integrity of our judgment. The raj'S of truth 

 have come to few through purer and clearer lens or one kept more perfect by 

 conscientious care. 



Patient industry marked all his endeavors and secured for him honors as a 

 student, respect and confidence as a teacher, and esteem as a scientist. 

 Painstaking preparation for every undertaking was a conspicuous trait. The 

 summation of his life is but a type of his daily habit — twenty-five years of 

 preparation, nine years of work. 



