University of Virginia - Corks and Curls Yearbook (Charlottesville, VA)

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i3 ORTUNATE indeed was the man who could enter upon the pursuit of I physical science in the middle of the nineteenth century. It was the most opportune moment in the history of thought for a scientist to go into the laboratory. He then stood at the beginning of the mightiest revolution in the Mt spirit, method and results of investigation into natureis processes which man- ' kind has ever witnessed. ttThe Vestiges 0f Creationi'w-the first streak in the dawn of the new day-appeared in 1844, when Francis H, Smith was a student in , the Leesburg Academy. Herbert Spencefs iirst important work, 8Social Stat- j' icsf, was published in 1850, while Mr. Smith was studying under William B. Rogers, at the University of Virginia. Five years after he had succeeded his ' ' f Natural Philosophy in that institution, the twin b . ' Darwin and Alfred R. Wallace on the 8Origin 1858, before the Linnaean Society in London. Object a significance never the whole world in the f scientific men, trans- : of Species, was read July 1st, '5 The sun had burst upon the horizon giving to every discerned. before. A quenchless impulse to re-examine light of this new principle of growth took posession 0 ported with joy by the discovery of nature's creative secret. Yet was the mind of a scientist ever put to a severer test than in being re- quired to bridge the period from 1853 to, the present time? Think of the crucial readjustment in the conception as to the shape of the earth Of a man who was living at the time of Columbus, voyage to a world in the west! Imagine the mental shock which men must have felt who. read for the first time, in 1543, the state- ment of Copernicus that this planet is an atom and that the sun is the center of our system! In a moment those. men traversed milleniums of mental experience. It was to such a test that Professor Smith has been subjected. He has kept, i . steadily 0n the way, his strength proving equal to the beating heat of the noon- day. This feat is the highest proof of his mindis elasticity and sanity. Profese W sor Smithis career has attested the truth of the maxim: 8There is nothing so '. . . V . conservative as progress. When uThe Vestiges of Creation came from the press the critics of that time charged R obert Chambers with 8poisoning the

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,ny-g- 4 CORKS AND CURLS VOL.XIX ff fountains of science, and sapping the foundations of religion? More than sixty years after the perusal of that sentence, sixty years of marvelous advance, Professor Smith declares iithat theIBible not only permits the unlimited explora- tions of science, but requires them as a solemn duty of the Christian philosopher? In a valuable lecture upon Science and the Bible,delivered in 1888,Professor Smith pointed out in a. suggestive manner the identical moral qualities demanded 'both by science and religion. Here he found a new basis of reconciliation for the natural and spiritual realms. IiThe Christian scheme? 'he observes, iihas to do primarily with moral character and secondarily with doctrine. The scheme of natural science has to do first with doctrine and indirectly with moral character. Each has, therefore, relations direct or indirect with morals. It seems to me that a legitimate and valuable comparison between the two may be found in the answer to the questions: What are the moral qualities required of. the devotee in each system for advance to its highest mark? What are the moral traits of the perfect, or ideal, man in each scheme ?ii He finds them to be humility, faith in the unseen, love of truth, and simplicity. iiChristis words? he adds, iiare the only ones in the long ages which give to these qualities the same fun- damental value and the same relative importance which they enjoy in the scheme of science? To Professor Smitlfs friends that lecture is unintentionally auto- biographic, for no clearer analysis could be made of the four basaltqualities of character found in him. Their genesis, too, in his case is rightly ascribed jointly to science and religion. Professor Smith is a brilliant converser and eloquent lecturer. Dr. John A. Broadus said that in visiting the University he never failed to hear, if possible, the lecture before the class in physics, so charmed and stimulated was he by the style and substance of Professor Smithis instruction. In every discourse one feels the glow of his personality, rich in human interest, enkindling in enthusiasm, and mellowed by intense spirituality. When his powers are excited in speech, there appears Upon his face a light which is not accounted for by mere intelligence, however superior; it is the radiance of something higher, genius we may call it, though it is without the wayward element too often characteristic of men who share in this elusive quality. His eloquence as a lecturer is due not alone to a passionate earnestness in the pursuit of truth, not alone to a delicate sense of the soul in words, not alone to a contagious sympathy with youthful minds striving to enter the mysteries of nature and life, but also to a certain poetic faculty which makes itsehC felt in the spirit and structure of his teaching. In listening to Professor Smithis conversation I have ever been conscious I