42 
EMERSON LOVING CUP 
of miracles. With every mystery of nature that opens to his sight there 
comes into view a longer vista of the still unknown. The paths of science 
are without end, though not without their reward in truth and virtue by 
the wa3^ 
“The teacher of Science is the personification of immortality, of the 
continuity of the intellectual germplasm. We honor tonight a great 
teacher of geological science and there sit about this table men who drew 
their love for this science and their exhilarant impulse to their life work 
from him; men who stand on different rungs in the ladder of the years, 
but who have spread the versions of truth as they learned it here, to 
unknown hundreds of students who, themselves turned teachers, have sent 
these echoes flying along in ever widening rings of time. 
“The story of Science is the endless story; and another industrious ant 
brings another grain of fact, and another ant brings another grain, until 
the facts have piled up mountain high and any single branch of orderly 
knowledge calls for a gargantuan digestion. There were fewer facts set 
before us in the days of the Emersonian period. The array of the elemen¬ 
tary data of the science was not so appalling as now and, served with all 
the spice of reminiscent incident and irrelevant story, it became so inviting 
a repast that we are still feasting at that table, 
“The beauty and effectiveness of Professor Emerson’s teaching lay in 
this; His hand had actually grasped the horns of the altar of American 
geology. He had drawn his inspiration from a learned expositor and 
intrepid pioneer in the science—a veritable Baptist crying in the wilder¬ 
ness, ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord’ — the Reverend Doctor Edward 
Hitchcock, President of Amherst College and Professor of Natural The¬ 
ology and Geology. Of Edward Hitchcock’s achievements in his science 
the evidences are here and all about us. Over the entire domain of Massa¬ 
chusetts, throughout the whole length of this historic Connecticut Valley, 
he opened up the treasure house of knowledge, awakening an eager res¬ 
ponse and earnest craving for such knowledge from States and Colleges 
throughout the land. Nearly a century ago the atmosphere of Amherst 
was impregnated into the fragrance of the budding science and eighty-five 
years ago Hitchcock was appointed the first State Geologist of New York 
and entered upon his field, though soon to give it up because it was too 
far away from old Amherst — reason enough! He stayed here to strength¬ 
en that atmosphere, to inspire students with his extraordinary fidelity, and 
with perfectly open mind to bring the facts of his observation into the 
harmony of his philosophy. 
“Out of this atmosphere came Emerson to his students, his draft of 
Hitchcockian teachings somewhat bespangled by new lights brought back 
to this safe nesting place from sojourn and commerce with the savors 
of Germany; piquant, fresh, beckoning to those who would go further 
with him. Through him, I think, came inspirations to those who did 
follow that were really, if unconsciously, echoes of Hitchcock’s heroic 
