44 



chance to display on the United States Geodetic Survey 

 unrivaled capacity for making accurate and difficult tri- 

 angulations and whom he was delighted, as we all are, to 

 see climbing up and up with his enormous load of seven 

 mathematical works, embracing two thousand eight hun- 

 dred pages of original profound thinking, works already 

 used in nearly ninety colleges in the United States and 

 Canada — climbing up and up until his head fairly touches 

 the stars and comets upon which he lectures with such 

 masterful eloquence. 



Doctor Cook had the art of making his students 

 believe themselves competent to do good work, and the 

 faith to commend them to the parties desiring such work. 

 Nor was he less generous of his sympathy and helpfulness 

 elsewhere. Farmers and plain folks flocked to him from 

 all quarters for counsel and on a vast variety of topics. 

 And from him no inquirer after knowledge ever went 

 empty away. 



HIS WISDOM. 



Doctor Cook was a wise man. As far back as Democ- 

 ritus the distinction has been made between learning 

 and wisdom. Learning embraces multifarious knowledge 

 in one department or several. Wisdom lies in choosing 

 the noblest ends and the application of the best means 

 for their attainment. A man may be an encyclopaedia of 

 the languages or the sciences, and yet may be bereft of 

 common sense — a fool. Buffon was fond of the paradox 

 that common sense was the most uncommon of endow- 

 ments. Now, Doctor Cook's mind was indeed an open 

 library of information. His acquaintance with facts and 

 corresponding theories was amazing ; but no one was 

 wiser. He knew when speech was silver and silence 

 golden. He took in a situation intuitively and with 



