Page:Scientific Papers of Josiah Willard Gibbs - Volume 2.djvu/298

 in the investigation of the concrete phenomena of nature as they exist in space and time.

But these papers show more than the type of mind of the author; they give no uncertain testimony concerning the character of the man. In all these papers we see a love of honest work, an aversion to shams, a distrust of rash generalizations and speculations based on uncertain premises. He was never anxious to add one more guess on doubtful matters in the hope of hitting the truth, or what might pass as such for a time, but was always willing to take infinite pains in the most careful test of every theory. To these qualities was joined a modesty which forbade the pushing of his own claims, and desired no reputation except the unsought tribute of competent judges. At the close of his article on meteors in the Encyclopædia Britannica, which has not the least reference to himself as a contributor to the science, he remarks that "meteoric science is a structure built stone by stone by many builders." We may add that no one has done more than himself to establish the foundations of the science, and that the stones which he has laid are not likely to need relaying.

The value of Professor Newton's work has been recognized by learned societies and institutions both at home and abroad. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Michigan in 1868. He was president of the section of Mathematics and Astronomy in the American Association for the Advancement in Science in 1875, and president of the Association in 1885. On the first occasion he delivered an address entitled "A plea for the study of pure Mathematics"; on the second the address on Meteorites, etc., which we have already mentioned. Of the American Mathematical Society he was vice-president at the time of his death. In 1888 the J. Lawrence Smith gold medal was awarded to him by the National Academy for his investigations on the orbits of meteoroids. We may quote a sentence or two from his reply to the address of presentation, so characteristic are they of the man that uttered them: "To discover some new truth in nature," he said, "even though it concerns the small things in the world, gives one of the purest pleasures in human experience. It gives joy to tell others of the treasure found."

Besides the various learned societies in our own country of which he was a member, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1862, the National Academy of Sciences from its foundation in 1863, the American Philosophical Society from 1867, he was elected in 1872 Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society of London, in 1886 Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in 1892 Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London.