682 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
of other men’s thoughts', but an original force in the Republic 
of Letters. 
But it was as a man tbat Dr. Steele was greatest. Rectitude 
won with him a perpetual victory. “To be and not to seem” 
was his controlling thought. His rugged honesty hated every 
thing that savored of pretense or sham. He was the embodi¬ 
ment of moral and intellectual integrity. Gentle and kindly 
in disposition, he became rigid as granite when asked to com¬ 
promise a principle. His moral earnestness, however, never 
led him to dogmatism, depreciation, or censoriousness. He was 
saved from these by “his uncommon common sense and his keen 
humor.” He had a fine balance of judgment, got hold of the 
gist of things as by intuition, and rendered decisions from the 
standpoint of comprehensive consideration. His wit was an 
ever-flowing fountain. He had almost as much facility with 
stories as Lincoln. He made each day bright and sunny by 
the spirit with which he entered it. He was above all a man 
of sympathy and heart. His office door was always swinging 
open to those who wanted a word of encouragement and they 
never went away empty. Even his severity was hearted with 
kindness. He belonged not to that inferior rank which 
“vaunteth itself,” but rather counted his life not dear unto 
himself if he could by any means render a helpful service. He 
attached men to him by bands of steel. His students loved and 
revered him. Says one of them, “Natural, simple, the great 
soul made one ashamed of littleness, meanness or deceit. To be 
even a trifle like him was the noblest longing of all our hearts 
as we watched That best portion of a good man’s life, his little,, 
nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.’ ” One 
who knew him well has thus summed up his character: “Large¬ 
ness, courage, kindness, piety, radicalness in principles, mag¬ 
nanimity, tremendous moral earnestness 1 , hostility to shams, 
hopefulness, good nature, tolerance, intellectual honesty, humor, 
unfaltering Christian faith, power to enrich other lives than 
his own.” Dr. Steele certainly belonged to the number of the 
true and noble if not to the great. 
Samuel Plantz. 
