Page:Scientific Papers of Josiah Willard Gibbs.djvu/34

xxvi to the accuracy of anything which he published, nor indeed did he underestimate its importance; but he seemed to regard it in an entirely impersonal way and never doubted, apparently, that what he had accomplished could have been done equally well by almost anyone who might have happened to give his attention to the same problems. Those nearest him for many years are constrained to believe that he never realized that he was endowed with most unusual powers of mind; there was never any tendency to make the importance of his work an excuse for neglecting even the most trivial of his duties as an officer of the college, and he was never too busy to devote, at once, as much time and energy as might be necessary to any of his students who privately sought his assistance.

Although long intervals sometimes elapsed between his publications his habits of work were steady and systematic; but he worked alone and, apparently, without need of stimulus of personal conversation upon the subject, or of criticism from others, which is often helpful even when the critic is intelectually an inferior. So far from publishing partial results, he seldom, if ever, spoke of what he was doing until it was practically in its final and complete form. This was his chief limitation as a teacher of advanced students; he did not take them into his confidence with regard to his current work, and even when he lectured upon a subject in advance of its publication (as was the case for a number of years before the appearance of Statistical Mechanics) the work was really complete except for a few finishing touches. Thus his students were deprived of the advantage of seeing his great structures in process of building, of helping him in the details, and of being in such ways encouraged to make for themselves attempts similar in character, however small their scale. But on the other hand, they owe to him a debt of gratitude for an introduction into the profounder regions of natural philosophy such as they could have obtained from few living teachers. Always carefully prepared, his lectures were marked by the same great qualities as his published papers and were, in addition, enriched by many apt and simple illustrations which can never be forgotten by thos who heard them. No necessary qualification to a statement was ever omitted, and, on the other hand, it seldom failed to receive the most general application of which it was capable; his students had ample opportunity to learn what may be regarded as known, what is guessed at, what a proof is, and how far it goes. Although he disregarded many of the shibboleths of the mathematical rigorists, his logical processes were really the most severe type; in power of deduction, of generalization, in insight into hidden relations, in critical acumen, utter lack of prejudice, and in the philosophical breadth of his view of the object and aim of physics, he has had few superiors in the