JOSIAH WILLARD GIBBS 203 



student to see physical phenomena with the " clarity of vision " which 

 Tait himself thought characteristic of the truly mathematical mind, and 

 of which a good criterion is afforded in Helmholtz's unforgetable state- 

 ment about Michael Faraday : " With wonderful sagacity and intel- 

 lectual precision, Faraday performed on his brain the work of a great 

 mathematician without using a single mathematical formula." 157 



At Yale Gibbs was esteemed an ideal teacher of physics, cordial, 

 quick, helpful, willing to devote unlimited time to assist plodders and 

 giving his students ample opportunity to learn " what may be regarded 

 as known, what is guessed at, what a proof is and how far it goes." 

 Of the qualities that make for distinction of mind and character he 

 had the impersonal gift, " le don d'etre ne essentiellement imper- 

 sonnel," which Eenan thought highest of all, and which, fortunately 

 for the advance of real knowledge, has been characteristic of most of 

 the great leaders of science. He could build no wall of personal ego- 

 tism between himself and the external facts, and " few could come in 

 contact with this serene and impartial mind without feeling profoundly 

 its influence in all his future studies of nature." 158 We know little of 

 his life beyond the fact that he was a man of stoic fiber, who lived and 

 worked alone. The countenance in the portraits expresses the Puritan 

 austerity with lines that tell of mental stress and struggles with illness, 

 but the man himself was " unassuming in manner, genial and kindly 

 in his intercourse with his fellow men." " In the minds of those who 

 knew him," concludes his biographer, " the greatness of his intellectual 

 achievements will never overshadow the beauty and dignity of his 

 life." 159 



American contributions to physics, from Franklin to Michelson, 

 have been characterized by originality of invention and experiment. 

 The work of Gibbs has a place apart as that of a mathematical theorist 

 whose ideas have found wide application in the main current of modern 

 thought, and his true position is best described in his own often-quoted 

 estimate of his great predecessor, Clausius. " Such work as that of 

 Clausius," he says, " is not measured by counting titles or pages. His 

 true monument lies not on the shelves of libraries, but in the thoughts 

 of men and the history of more than one science." 160 The general 

 scientific reputation of Gibbs is of this kind, while in his chosen field 

 of activity, the austere region of physics in which Newton and La- 

 grange, Hamilton and Jacobi are the leaders, his is assuredly the most 

 distinguished American name. 



157 Helmfooltz, Faraday Lecture, 1881. 



158 Bumstead, Am. J. 8c, 1903, 4. s., XLL, 201. 



159 Bumstead, loc. cit. 



160 Gibbs, Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and 8c, 1889, N. S., XVI., 465. 



