670 Grove Karl Gilbert, 



be submitted to impartial tests, the tests being pro- 

 vided by comparing the "deduced consequents' ' of the 

 hypotheses with the appropriate facts; and how the 

 hypotheses which are found to be unsuccessful by 

 the inability of their " consequents " to match the facts 

 must be set aside as failures. There was truly nothing 

 new in the mental processes of this analytical method, 

 for its abstract equivalent is to be found in various 

 treatises on logic; the merit of the address lay in the 

 presentation of the logical processes as the successive 

 steps of an actual and by no means elementary problem ; 

 and on this account it should still be studied by every 

 young geologist, for in the thirty years since its pub- 

 lication no better illustration of scientific method has 

 appeared. 



But for our present purpose the address is of value as 

 a revelation of its author's calm and unprejudiced way of 

 thinking. The problems of the Great Basin. and all other 

 problems that Gilbert attacked were treated in the impar- 

 tial manner that this address sets forth; and that fine 

 quality of impartiality was not so generally to be found 

 in geological discussions thirty or forty years ago as it is 

 to-day. It may be well believed that Gilbert's influence, 

 not only through this address but still more through his 

 personal contact with the then rising generation of geol- 

 ogists, counted for much in bringing about the improving 

 change. 



It would be profitable, were it possible, to trace out the 

 beginning and the development of the scientific habit of 

 thought in Gilbert's mind. The beginning can hardly 

 have been a paternal inheritance, nor can the develop- 

 ment have been opened through paternal influence, for 

 his father was an artist of moderate ability and limited 

 means in Rochester, N. Y., where Gilbert was born on 

 May 6, 1843. He finished his high school course there in 

 1858, and was graduated in 1862 from the University of 

 Rochester, where he had taken the classical course. He 

 is remembered by his companions, to whom he was known 

 as "Karl," as a quiet and modest boy, with a gentle dis- 

 position, a lively sense of fun, pleasant manners, and a 

 very even temper ; he was a good student but indifferent 

 to college honors.* The boy thus foreshadowed the man. 



The thirty-five study units of his college course in- 

 cluded eight of mathematics, six of Latin and seven of 



* Prof. H. L. Fairchild of Bochester has kindly communicated these details 

 regarding Gilbert 's early years. 



