In memoriam; Edward Orton ... addresses delivered at the Ohio State University Sunday, November 26, 1899

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In Memoriam

Edward Orton, Ph. D., LL D.

Addresses Delivered

AT THE

Ohio State University

Sunday, November 26, 1899

COLUMBUS
Printed by the University.

Biographical Sketch

Edward Orton, teacher and geologist, was born
in Deposk, N. Y., March 9, 1829. He was the
son of Rev. Samuel Gibbs Orton, D. D. and Clara
(Gregory) Orton. Both parents came of substan-
tial families of English stock long resident in this
country. The father was for half a century an
active and successful clergyman of the Presbyter-
ian denomination and spent the years of his
ministry in central and western N^w York. From
1837 to 1853 he was settled at Ripley, N. Y.
Here Edward Orton spent most of his youth, and
and was fitted for College under the tuition of
his father and by study in the neighboring
academies of Westfield and Fredonia. He entered
the Sophomore class of Hamilton College (his
father's alma mater) in 1845 and graduated with
very high standing in 1848. The year 1848-49
he spent as assistant in an academy at Erie, Pa.,
of which his classmate, John H. Black, was prin-
cipal. During 1849-50 he was a student in Lane
Theological Seminary at Cincinnati, O. Here he

came under the instruction of Dr. Lyman Beecher
(under whose ministry his father had been "con-
verted") and Prof. Calvin E. Stowe. It appears
that he supported himself by tutoring, and was
active in mission work. At the end of the year,
owing to temporary failing of eyesight and, per-
haps, because of incipient doubt as to the truth
of Calvinism, he withdrew, and spent some
months upon a farm, and in the out-door life of
which he was always fond. Later in the year he
made a voyage, perhaps as purser or super-cargo,
in a coasting vessel as far, at least, as Tampa,
Florida, and brought back a more pronounced
abhorrence of African slavery.

In the spring of 1851 Mr. Orton became a
teacher in the Delaware Literary Institute, a
flourishing academy at Franklin, N. Y. He
taught there many subjects with marked suc-
cess. His growing taste for the natural sciences
caused him to spend the year 1852-53 in the
Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University.
There his attention was chiefly directed to chem-
istry and botany, in which his instructors were
Gray, Horsford and Cooke. It does not appear
that Mr. Orton heard lectures from Agassiz, who
was absent from Cambridge during the years
1851-53. The year 1853-54 saw Mr. Orton again
a teacher at the Delaware Institute, but his inten-
tion of entering the ministry led him to spend the

following year in the Andover Theological Sem-
inary of which Dr. E. A. Park was then the central
fignre. Mr. Orton spent only one year at Andover
and did not graduate. He made there one life-
long friend, Dr. John Bascom, later Professor at
Williams and President of the University of Wis-
consin. During the year 1855-56 Mr. Orton was
pastor of the Presbyterian church at Downsville,
Delaware Co., N. Y., and was ordained January 1,
1856, at Delhi, by Delaware Presbytery.

In September 1856 he became Professor of the
natural sciences in the State Normal School at
Albany. This position he was constrained to
resign at the end of three years of successful
service. He was charged with holding heretical
opinions. From 1859 to 1865 Mr. Orton was
principal of an academy at Chester, Orange Co.,
N. Y., and his reputation was so enhanced by the
success of the school that in 1865 he was elected
Professor of Natural History in Antioch College,
Yellow Springs, O. This position he held until
he was chosen President of Antioch, June, 1872.
In 1869 Governor Hayes had appointed him one of
the Assistants upon the Geological Survey of Ohio.
In 1873 Mr. Orton was elected Professor of Geol-
ogy and President of the new Agricultural and
Mechanical College, located at Columbus. Of this
institution, which in 1878 became the Ohio State
University, he remained President until 1881

when he resigned the presidency, but retained the
chair of Geology until the end of his life.

In the summer of 1874 he went to Europe and
traveled in England and on the Continent. Upon
the reorganization of the State Geological Survey
in 1882 Dr. Orton became its chief and held the
office of State Geologist for the remainder of his
life. Volumes 5, 6, and 7 of the final Reports of
the Geological Survey, two Annual Reports and
other special ones were brought out under his
direction. During these later years his attention
was directed chiefly to Economic Geology. He
gave, also, much time and thought to the problems
of sewage disposal and public water supply as
affecting the public health of the community and
the state at large. Early in December, 1891, he
delivered a public lecture at Antioch College and
while returning to Columbus suffered a stroke of
paralysis which wholly deprived him of the use
of his left arm and caused a decided limp in his
gait, but left his mental powers unimpaired. Dur-
ing the early autumn of 1899 Dr. Orton' s health
failed perceptibly, yet he was spared a long illness
and retained his faculties to the end, which came
suddenly and almost painlessly, Oct. 16, 1899.
"He died, as he lived, with the simple dignity and
fortitude of a Christian gentleman."

Dr. Orton married, 1855, Mary M. Jennings, of
Franklin, N. Y., who died in 1873. Four children,

all of whom are living, were the fruit of this mar-
riage. In 1875 he married Anna Torrey, of Mil-
bury, Mass., who, with two children, survives him.

Dr. Orton was slightly below medium height,
but of robust and well-knit frame, active and vig-
orous in movement, and capable of intense and
long-continued mental exertion. His dignity of
manner and strong, intellectual face everywhere
gave him distinction. He was a member of many
scientific bodies, among these were the Ohio
Archaeological and Historical Society, Ohio Acad-
emy of Science, Geological Society of America, of
which he was President, 1897, and the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, of
which he was President, 1899.

His alma mater, Hamilton College, gave him,
in 1875, the degree of Ph. D., and the degree of
LL. D. was conferred upon him by the Ohio
State University at the close of his presidency in
1881. His writings comprise articles in scientific
and technical journals and a large portion of the
various volumes of the Reports of the Second and
Third Geological Surveys of Ohio (1869-1888,
1888-1894).

A few of the occasional addresses, in which he
was always singularly felicitous and effective,
have been published.

€dwar<J Orton, Educator

By Thomas C. MBndbnhaij,, President of the
Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

I respond this afternoon to a summons difficult
to obey but impossible to deny. I am reluctant
to undertake what could be done so much better
by others, but it is impossible for me to decline
to join in doing honor to the memory of one whom
I so much loved and admired, however feeble and
inadequate my words may be.

My association with Dr. Orton extended thro'
a period of nearly thirty years. Beginning as a
casual acquaintance, such as is common among
men engaged in the same occupation, it rapidly
ripened into a friendship which, happily for me,
grew in strength with the years as they passed.
My most intimate personal relations with him
existed during the earlier years of the Ohio State
University, the institution to which he gave so
large a share of his life's work and which today
makes fitting acknowledgment of the value of

that work and of the irreparable loss which it has
sustained in his death. Of Dr. Orton as one of
the most eminent geologists of his time, of the
splendid example which he set in the performance
of the duties of plain citizenship, and of the many
other striking characteristics of a career which is
rarely paralleled, others will speak, and I will
restrict myself, therefore, to remarks upon his
earlier work in this University and his influence
as an educator rather than as a specialist.

I firmly believe that no one can fully under-
stand and fairly evaluate Dr. Orton' s services to
the University during the first ten years of its
existence who was not himself in some way or
other a part of its official organization during
those years, and in close touch with methods and
motives by which its future career was deter-
mined, and I must ask your indulgence in a brief
statement of some of the conditions under which
the institution came into existence.

The Act of Congress which created this and
many other noble institutions of learning, having
been passed in the most discouraging and gloomy
year of the great civil war, did not receive imme-
diate consideration and acceptance by many of the
States, and in Ohio there was a delay of nearly
ten years before those interested saw definite
promise of the actual realization of their hopes.
In the mean time and during the latter part of

this period there was much necessary and useful
discussion in regard to the character and scope of
the proposed school. Innumerable schemes for
utilizing the prospective income were thrust upon
the public, and there was much strength in sup-
port of a division of the fund among several
existing institutions. The first Board of Trustees
courageously resisted all attempts to destroy by
disintegration, and it was finally determined that
the institution should be located at Columbus and
known as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical
College.

The field of controversy was now greatly nar-
rowed but was, perhaps, correspondingly more
intense. The character of the work of the new
school, the scope of its courses and their relation
to the requirements of a liberal education were
yet to be determined. On the one hand were those
who urged a generous interpretation of the Act of
1862 and who believed that it was primarily in-
tended to furnish the foundation of an institution
which might in time become a great University
for all of the people ; that while in the provisions
of the Act the nation had determined to fortify
and invigorate the two great sources of the State's
material prosperity, Agriculture and Manufac-
tures, especial emphasis had also been placed upon
the importance of fostering the more purely
intellectual or culture components of a well-

10

rounded course of study, for it was specifically
directed that these must not be neglected. On
the other, was a considerable group of men equally
honest, conscientious and well meaning, who
wished to organize a school intensely practical in
tone and atmosphere, in which even science would
have found no place except as applied science,
and which would have offered little opportunity
to those, and fortunately there are many, who
seek to show their right to labor in the higher
regions of more purely intellectual activity. Both
sides of this most important controversy were
represented by strong men in the first Board of
Trustees, and it is but justice to all to say that
the conflict was waged in a manner worthy of the
dignity of the occasion and of the great trust for
which they had become responsible. I cannot here
even refer to the various phases of this discussion
or to those who were most active and influential in
shaping the organization of the school, nor can I
omit saying that to the first president of the Board
of Trustees, Valentine B. Horton, and to Joseph
Sullivant, then and long one of the leading citi-
zens of Columbus and of Ohio, the University
will ever be indebted for the exercise of a courage,
tact and unwearying effort that went far to put
the institution in the way of being what it has been,
is, and is sure to be in the future. Fortunately
they were supported by many others of the board

who in themselves represented liberal culture
combined with a genuine democracy of feeling
and a loyalty to the Commonwealth compelling
the belief that nothing was too good for the chil-
dren of the people.

The issue was made and met in the appointment
of the first faculty of instruction ; and in the selec-
tion of the first presiding officer Fortune was
singularly favorable to the new school. A Pro-
fessor in a New England College who had received
the highest political honors his State could confer
upon him had been invited to become the Presi-
dent of the College but circumstances arose which
made his acceptance impossible. Dr. Orton had
been in Ohio only a few years but he had become
widely and well known, not only on account of
his accomplishments as a geologist, but as well by
his charming personal qualities, and he had been
already chosen to fill the Chair of Geology. To him
the Trustees now turned and he reluctantly con-
sented to be the first President of the Ohio Agri-
cultural and Mechanical College. I say reluc-
tantly, for it was well known among his friends
and associates that he was loath to assume admin-
istrative duties which must necessarily interfere
with the continued pursuit of his specialty in
which he was already recognized as an authority.
Happily for the institution, he yielded his personal

12

preferences and for eight years he was at once
president and professor.

Among the several thousand young men who
crossed college thresholds in Ohio in the Autumn
of 1873, seventeen entered the building in which
we now are and enrolled themselves as students,
the first of the many thousands who have since
followed their example. I cannot describe and
few can appreciate the many trials and difficulties
of those earlier years. The institution was prac-
tically unknown, even among those from whom
its patronage was most likely to come. It stood for
a new departure in education which was just
entering upon its experimental stage and with
few exceptions it was looked upon with suspicion
by other Colleges in the State. The members of
its first Faculty, of whom only four are now living,
were mostly young men, full of ambition and
enthusiasm for their work and thoroughly in har-
mony with the spirit of the time, for even then
had come the dawn of the marvelous last quarter
of the wonderful Nineteenth Century, a period
during which, short as it is, the relation of man
to the material universe to which he belongs has
undergone a far greater change than in any other
period in history. It is often, indeed generally,
possible in looking backward upon things accom-
plished to see many mistakes that might have
been avoided and many opportunities not properly

18

utilized. As I review, however, the principal
events of Dr. Orton's presidency of this institution
I am at a loss to say, even with the better knowl-
edge that accompanies retrospection, how the
many emergencies that presented themselves
could have been met more wisely. To begin with,
his standard of educational work was of the high-
est type. He fully realized that the success of
the institution depended on the establishment and
maintenance of a standard of scholarship so high
as to compel the respect of the best educational
forces not only at home but abroad. Himself a
scholar in the broadest, best and most exacting
sense, he encouraged Faculty and students to
seek the best ideals, and no one of them who gave
the slightest indication of the possession of the
divine afflatus in learning ever failed of appreci-
ative recognition from him. He believed that the
character of an educational institution should be
judged by the quality of its work rather than by
the number of students enrolled in the annual
catalogue, a principle which everybody admits
and nearly everybody ignores. To stand up for
it and to it, especially during the early struggling
years of a college, demands a courage that few
possess. That Dr. Orton did this, even under the
most trying conditions, I set down as, on the
whole, the most notable characteristic of his ca-
reer as president. For I am thoroughly convinced

14

that if lie had chosen to do otherwise, if the doors
had been opened wide, at both ends of the curric-
ulum, the institution would have long since sunk
into a deserved oblivion.

Few college presidents have so continuously
received the loyal support and sympathy of their
colleagues in the faculty as did Dr. Orton. A
college faculty is not likely to shine as an example
of meek and amiable submissiveness, and this is
particularly true of one composed, as this was,
and many are today, of specialists. Twenty-five
years ago, and earlier, it was usually believed
that a college professor might fill any chair that
happened to be vacant, and indeed more or less
regular interchange of duties was often regarded
as highly desirable. The passing of this era is
to be attributed in a large measure to the example
and influence of institutions of which this is a
type. The specialist, however, is tolerably certain
to hold that his own particular department is of
far greater importance than any other and he may
be relied upon to desire and demand a large
share of available resources to aid in its develop-
ment. Upon the president falls the by no means
agreeable task of apportionment and restraint and
this duty was discharged by Dr. Orton with rare
discrimination, fairness and tact. No mere ad-
ministrator, however skilled in that capacity,
could have done as well. His scholarship was

15

thorough and yet broad enough to enable him to
know what was being well or indifferently done
in every department, and is there not a free-ma-
sonry among scholars which makes mutual recog-
nition easy even when there is no common lan-
guage? I am reluctant to refer to my own
personal experience on an occasion which is com-
pletely filled with one personality, but I can never
forget the many instances in which I received
from him encouragement in the way of sympa-
thetic acknowledgement and often praise, for work
which was doubtless trivial and unimportant, but
the recognized success of which served to keep
alive the fires of ambition, enthusiasm and in-
terest.

Of Dr. Orton's relation to the students, whose
numbers multiplied many times during his pres-
idential period, it is hardly necessary to speak.
Too often the president of a college is unfortunate
in that he rarely comes in close relations with
students except to administer reproof or define
restraint. The discipline of this college in its
early years was nearly as great a departure from
accepted traditions as were its methods of instruc-
tion. A large degree of freedom was allowed
without the asking, but the line separating liberty
from license was sharply defined. It was in-
tended to cultivate a spirit of manly self reliance
together with a full knowledge of the responsibil-

16

ities of citizenship, and the administration of the
few simple regulations was always so just and
fair that no ground for complaint could be found.
In this as in all of his relations with others Dr.
Orton believed in the efficacy of reason and in the
doctrine that it is generally more important to
convince a young man that he has done wrong
than to punish him for so doing. He was slow
to condemn and reluctant to punish, but I have
known few men more inflexible and unflinching
when a vital principle was contested. He won the
confidence of all with whom he came in contact,
and young and old valued his judgment and ad-
vice. As a teacher he was most inspiring. His
literary and linguistic powers were unusual and
he easily made any topic attractive, even to the
dull. From hundreds of his pupils comes the
testimony that to him they owe the first quicken-
ing of their intellectual life, the earliest revelation
of their own moral obligations and responsibili-
ties. There can be no higher praise than this.

Complete as was Dr. Orton' s success in every-
thing concerning the internal management of the
college, his services as its representative in all of
its relations to the outside world were of far great-
er importance. The young institution was but
coldly received at first and this was especially true
among those who ought to have been its friends.
There were numerous harsh and unjust criticisms

17

of its courses of study, its Faculty, its Board of
Trustees, and it was even attempted by a few men
of influence to make it a football. of partisan poli-
tics, so that its organization might be completely
changed with every change in State administra-
tion. Against these and many other adverse
conditions its Board of Trustees, President and
Faculty had to contend. The confidence of the
people had to be won and was won, largely by the
strenuous but tactful efforts of the president. An
eloquent exponent of the progress of scientific
thought, in more departments than one, Dr. Orton
was everywhere welcome upon the lecture plat-
form. In cities, towns and villages, in Grange
and Farmer's Institute, in Teachers' Convention
and Literary Society, wherever men and women
met to foster intellectual growth, he was heard
with delight and approbation. His speech was
choice, yet simple, clear and dignified, often rising
to an eloquence, never of sound or mere words,
but of noble thought. Fortunate, indeed, was the
new college in having so splendid an exponent,
and it is not strange that gradually but surely
there came to its support a large and influential
constituency from among the best people of the
State.

Nor was there any lessening of his influence in
its behalf when, after several attempts and against
the wishes of the friends of the College, he in-

18

duced the Board of Trustees to relieve him of
administrative duties and allow him to devote his
entire time to his professorship. After that time
much of his most important scientific work was
done and as State Geologist he became, even more
than before, familiar with [every nook and corner
of the State. His broad democracy of spirit and
his generously helpful disposition combined to
put him in close touch with the great industrial
interests of Ohio, including man as well as mat-
ter. He knew the miner as well as the mine, and
it would be difficult to measure the value to the
University of his almost unique relations with the
productive forces of the Commonwealth. The
beautiful and noble building which bears his name
and which, from this time on, will stand as a
monument to his memory, bears witness, in the
very stones of which it is composed, of the readi-
ness with which these forces responded to his
touch.

But still more enduring will be the traditions
of his life and work in and about this institution,
his charming personality, his felicitous speech,
his lofty moral and intellectual ideals.

His title to high, perhaps highest, place among
the great benefactors of the University, those who
by wisdom and tact first made its existence possi-
ble and afterward its destruction forever impos-

sible, rests upon a foundation as solid as that of
the rocks he so much loved.

"Say not of me that I am dead," were the last
words of a great English poet ; "Say not of him
that he is dead" are our words, today; speaking
for the few who have been privileged to enjoy the
most intimate personal friendship, as well as for
the many, scattered over this broad land ; for all
of our lives have been better and will be better
because of their having intermingled with his.

Edward Orton, Geologist

By Grove K. Gilbert,
of the United States Geological Survey

It was in the autumn of 1869, just thirty years
ago, that I first met Dr. Orton. In that year the
Second Geological Survey of the State was inaug-
urated under the directorship of the late Professor
Newberry ; Governor Hayes named Dr. Orton as
one of the two principal assistants for which the
law made provision ; and it was my own privilege
to be accepted at the same time as a volunteer aid.
In the arrangement of duties Dr. Orton took
charge of work in the southwest quarter of the
State and Dr. Newberry gave chief attention to
the northeast quarter. Being assigned to New-
berry's corps I had no opportunity to meet Dr.
Orton until late in the season, when I had the
good fortune to be bidden to attend a conference
of the chiefs at Columbus. While on the journey
from Cleveland Newberry prepared me for the
meeting by sketching the quality and character
of his colleague— a man without guile, direct in
his conversation, and absolutely transparent as to

21

motive. The simplicity of manner which would
impress me at the start was not of manner merely
but was a fundamental trait coordinate with and
not contradicted by the wisdom which made him
a man of affairs. His sensitive conscience made
him peculiarly careful to adhere to the facts
of observation, and he was cautious and conserva-
tive in all his geologic work.

Newberry's description naturally made a strong
impression, and in the conferences that followed
it is probable that I gave as much attention to the
man as to the subjects of discussion. Certain it
is that the geologic "themes have vanisht from
my memory while the picture of the man remains.
In later years, as we met from time to time, as I
listened to his voice in public address or read the
papers that emanated from his pen, I was able to
add here and there a detail which Newberry's
sketch had failed to delineate, but no line of it
was ever erased, and Orton has remained, for me,
one of the safest and most open-minded of inves-
tigators and the simplest, kindliest, and most
lovable of men.

To what extent considerations of historical fit-
ness may have determined the arrangement of
today's exercises I do not know, but certainly
there was peculiar propriety in giving first place
to Orton' s work as an educator. During the first
half of his period of intellectual activity education

was the primary theme, and it was only in later
years that geology assumed prominence. We are
told that his first geologic observation was under-
taken with the distinct purpose of increasing his
efficiency as a teacher of geology, and in his early
acquaintance with rocks and fossils his point of
view was educational. Interest in geologic studies
for their own sake was a matter of development,
and many years elapst before it assumed control
in the determination of his fields of activity.
This peculiarity of his introduction to the science
in which he finally achieved distinction had much
to do with the quality of his scientific work and
scientific writings.

It determined, in the first place, that he should
not specialize at the beginning of his career. In
geology, as in medicine, there are general prac-
titioners, broadly verst in the principles and par-
ticulars of the science, who are prepared to under-
take and conduct investigations of great variety ;
and there are specialists, each devoted to some
minor branch of the general subject, in which he
works intensely and exhaustively. The specialist,
restricting his attention thus to a narrow field, is
almost necessarily a somewhat narrow man, and
while his concentration of effort may lead to im-
portant results altogether unattainable by the
general student, he is subject to great danger
from lack of balance. The teacher of geology is

compelled, by his vocation, to acquaint himself
with all branches of the subject, so that his view
is necessarily broad; and if he is also an investi-
gator in a special field he is comparatively exempt
from the recognized dangers of specialization.
Orton's early work as teacher and observer gave
him the broad view. When he first became known
to the scientific world as an investigator he was
recognized at once as a general practitioner or
all-round geologist, and when, in later years, his
field was somewhat restricted and he became an
expert in a special department, there was no dan-
ger that his narrow view would blind him to the
recognition of the broader relations.

In somewhat similar way the method and
phraseology of his scientific writings were deter-
mined by the compound character of his career.
As a teacher he was called upon to present the
principles of his science to beginners in scientific
study ; as a lecturer to popular audiences he was
accustomed to the communication of scientific
ideas in untechnical language; and as executive
officer of academy, college, and university he had
constantly to deal with men of affairs untrained
in the technicalities of science. Thus ever in
touch with the lay mind he was in no danger from
the literary pitfalls which beset the recluse and the
specialist. He wrote for the people in language
which they could understand, and even when

24

presenting his scientific conclusions to brother
geologists he found little need for those technical
terms which are so apt to render science unintel-
ligible to the general reader.

The manner of his introduction to the work of
scientific investigation had its influence also on
the quality of his work. As most of my audience
are well aware, scientific investigation, or the
endeavor to understand Nature, consists of two
parts, observation and theory. We open our eyes
to the facts, or phenomena as they are called, of
Nature, and make record of what we see, and then
we endeavor to explain the phenomena by discov-
ering how they have come to be. We observe
and we theorize. But while observation and
theory may logically be distinguisht, in practice
they must be intimately combined or the best
results are not secured. There are, indeed, ob-
servers who take little cognizance of theory ; but
the best observers have theory constantly in mind,
and through consideration of the relation of their
facts to theory have their vision sharpened and
their attention guided to those things which are
most important. And there are theorists, too,
who are indifferent to facts, soaring untrammeled
in the realms of imagination and speculation.
But the successful theorist tests every hypothesis
by scrupulously comparing it with the phenomena
to I which it pertains, and modifies or rejects it

25

when he discovers a discordance. It is by the
observer who is also a theorist, and the theorist
who is also an observer, that real progress is
achieved.

As a teacher Orton derived from the literature
of geology a body of theory which he comple-
mented so far as practicable by personal observa-
tion of the rocks, minerals, and fossils that lay
within his reach. Thus he trained himself early
to habits of observation, and in all his later work
kept in close touch with the phenomena of Nature.
As an investigator he generalized freely, and did
not shrink from the propounding of theories, but
all of his theories were so broadly founded upon,
and so faithfully verified by, the phenomena of
observation that they came to the world as de-
monstrations which could not be gainsaid.

This far we have considered only Orton' s work
in pure science, but his work in applied science
was of equal or greater importance, and it was in
this field that his personality was most markt.
I trust that you will bear with me in another
digression at this point, for his life serves to
illustrate certain peculiarities of the relation of
man to science which are not always kept clearly
in view.

It is a matter of common understanding that
scientific knowledge, or knowledge of Nature, is
the foundation of the material progress of the

race, but the method through which it serves this
purpose is perhaps less broadly understood.
Through research the body of "natural knowl-
edge" has been created and is constantly in-
creased. This body of knowledge is a storehouse
from which mankind may draw that which they
find useful, and from which they do, in fact, make
drafts at every stage of progress. But the store
of knowledge grows quite independently of the
drafts which are made upon it. The utility of the
individual grains of knowledge is not foreseen,
and their accumulation is always much faster
than their utilization. So far as we may judge
the future by the past, only a small portion of the
garnered knowledge will ever find practical appli-
cation, and thus, from the purely utilitarian
standpoint, there is an immense waste of energy
in the prosecution of research. This only illus-
trates the general fact that mankind is a part of
Natuf e, for in Nature the ways of progress are
ever wasteful. The acorn is Nature's device to
prevent the extermination of the oak, and an oak
tree in its long life-time produces a myriad of
fertile acorns, but only one of these, on the aver-
age, escapes all the dangers of immaturity so as
to develop a perfect tree; the others fail for lack of
opportunity, and so far as the continuance of the
species concerned are wasted.

27

The gathering of this great store of natural
knowledge, only part of which can serve the pur-
poses of mankind, is called pure science. The
utilization of such portion as may be found avail-
able constitutes applied science. If the practical
ends of applied science constituted the only motive
for labor in pure science, mankind would be
appalled and discouraged by the enormity of the
waste; but, fortunately for human progress, an-
other motive exists in the love of knowledge for
its own sake.

Every activity which is so often repeated as to
become habitual affects mental constitution and
may result in a corresponding sentiment, appetite,
or instinct, which in turn becomes a motive for
the activity. Take, for example, the fundamental
act of eating, which is essential to preservation of
life and is common to all animals. There has
been developt in connection with it a desire to eat,
or appetite, which for most sentient beings is the
actual motive, there being no perception of the
relation of food to life. Men associated in com-
munities find advantage in the classification and
division of labor so that each shall perform some
one function for others as well as himself, being
repaid through equivalent service by others. In
order to exchange labor, or the products of labor,
good faith is necessary, and cooperative living has
accordingly developt the sentiment of honesty.

28

Moreover, as industrial organization makes each
individual continually work for others more than
for himself, there is developt in him a sentiment
impelling him to do for others, the sentiment of
altruism. Again, the importance of social aggre-
gation in the evolution of all phases of human
culture has led to the creation of great nations,
and national existence has engendered national
sentiment, the sentiment of patriotism, but the
masses actuated by patriotism as a motive have
little conception of the value of aggregation as a
factor in human development.

In similar way scientific research as an essential
to material progress has developt its own senti-
ment, the scientific sentiment, or the sentiment
of acquiring knowledge for its own sake, and this
is the motive of pure science. As honesty, altru-
ism, and patriotism are sometimes carried to
absurd limits, so as even to oppose the ends they
normally tend to promote, so the scientific senti-
ment is liable to perversion; and there are not
wanting scientists so devoted to the acquisition of
knowledge that they are impatient of its applica-
tion, and look with disdain on other scientists who
strive to discover its uses.

In the application of natural knowledge to
human uses material gain is usually in sight,
and this supplies a motive so distinct from the
altruistic sentiment of science that the same indi-

29

viduals are rarely votaries of both pure and applied
science. Taking an illustration from the branch
with which I am most familiar, the mining engi-
neers, occupied with the application of geologic
knowledge and actuated primarily by the motive
of material gain, are a distinct body of men from
the geologists proper, occupied with the acquisi-
tion of geologic knowledge and actuated primarily
by the scientific sentiment. There are, indeed,
individuals who perform both functions, but as
compared to the general body they are rare ex-
ceptions. Such an exception was Edward Orton,
and he stands prominent among geologists as one
actuated by altruistic motives not only in the
acquisition of knowledge but in its application.
Selecting, by preference, the geologic problems
connected with the useful minerals stored in the
strata of his State, he carried his work not merely
to the inductions and theories of pure science but
to practical utilitarian applications, and these
were freely given to the community he served.
Through official reports, through the columns of
newspapers, and through personal conversation
he imparted not only statistical information and
general principles concerning the occurrence of
ores and mineral fuels, but practical and timely
advice as to their exploitation and conservation.
Employed by the people, he labored for the people,
and he gave them the bread for which they askt.

30

Orton's work in geology so far as it is a matter
of record, is largely connected with the survey of
this State. For thirty years he was an officer of
the State, and though not continuously engaged
in its service nor always compensated in money
for the work which he performed, it is believed
that he devoted more time to its exploration and
survey than any other geologist, and that his
knowledge of the distribution, qualities, and
structures of its rocks was correspondingly inti-
mate and comprehensive. His reports are so
numerous and extensive and pertain to so wide a
range of topics that I shall leave their enumera-
tion to the biographer and bibliographer and con-
tent myself with a simple outline.

As assistant geologist under the directorship of
Professor Newberry he began work in 1869 in the
southwest quarter of the State, called the Third
District, and his labors were confined to this field
for a number of years. Gradually, however, they
were extended to coal fields farther east, and after
the year 1882, when he practically assumed the
functions of geologist in chief, the entire State
was within his purview. He was also engaged
for shorter periods in the investigation of oil and
gas fields of Kentucky, Indiana, and New York,
and he made reports to the United States Geolog-
ical Survey and to the Eleventh Census of the
United States on various economic resources of

Ohio and Indiana. His contributions to pure
science were in part publisht by the Geological
Society of America and by various scientific jour-
nals.

Among his writings are many discussions of
the character, sequence, extent, and arrangement
of the geologic formations underlying the State,
and also of the deposits of drift which mantle the
surface. He described in detail the geologic
features of many counties, and he workt out and
publisht the structure of most of the coal fields of
the State, discussing not only the relations and
extent of the seams but their practical qualities.
During the last two decades he gave great atten-
tion to the development of petroleum and natural
gas, treating the scientific and practical aspects
of the Ohio fields with a thoroughness which I
believe to be without parallel. At various times
he studied and wrote upon the building stones,
limestones, iron ores, rock water, gypsum, and
clays of Ohio and other States, elucidating the
geologic relations and usually pointing out also
their economic bearings.

From the mass of material thus accessible I
select for special mention a single contribution to
pure and applied science, choosing the one with
which his name is most frequently associated by
brethren of the hammer at home and abroad. I
refer to his study of the relations of gas, oil, and

32

brine in subterranean reservoirs. It was well
known that the flow of oil from a well is often
preceded or accompanied by the escape of gas; it
was known that the life of an oil well was often
terminated by the influx of water, and that this
water, when derived from the same reservoir as
the oil, was highly charged with mineral matter;
it was known that the static pressure of natural
gas in a well was usually the same for all wells
of a group or district, and independent of the alti-
tude of the opening; and partial explanations of
these facts had been suggested by various students:
but it remained for Orton to formulate a compre-
hensive theory explaining all the phenomena, and
then, testing it by comparison with a series of
measurements and other observations in the gas
and oil fields of northern Ohio and Indiana, to
place it on a sure and enduring basis. Like many
another result of elaborate and successful investi-
gation, his theory, when stated, appears so simple
as to be almost axiomatic, and one is tempted to
wonder why the common sense not only of geolo-
gists but of all concerned in the development of
petroleum and natural gas had previously failed
of its attainment; and yet nearly every part of it
has been at one time or other the subject of attack
and controversy.

Each stratum of porous rock containing a prof-
itable store of oil and gas is sealed above by some

impervious layer, so that fluids can not escape
upward, though it may communicate freely with
the surface of the ground at a distant point, if
only the communication involves an inverted
siphon equivalent to the plumber's trap. Under
these conditions the stratum constitutes a reser-
voir in which three fluids arrange themselves
according to gravity; gas occupies the pores of
the upper part, and is succeeded downward by oil,
which in turn rests upon water. If the stratum
reaches the surface of the ground at a place lying
higher than the reservoir, the water supplied to
it by rains exerts a pressure, in accordance with
the familiar hydrostatic law, on the water in the
reservoir, and this is communicated to the oil and
gas. The gas is comprest until its elasticity
counterpoises the weight of the column of water.
If, now, a well is drilled so as to tap the reservoir
at its highest point, gas rushes forth, being forced
out by the pressure of the water. If a well reaches
the reservoir in the zone occupied by oil, the oil
is similarly forced upward, and may be discharged
at the surface in case the pressure from the water
is sufficient. If a boring taps the reservoir still
lower, it reaches water, which is similarly forced
upward and may flow at the surface. The water
is always a brine, because, occupying a closed
reservoir, it has no circulation and has been dis-
solving for ages the soluble minerals contained

31

within the rocks; and it is thus contrasted with
the potable waters of artesian wells, which contain
comparatively little mineral matter, because they
are parts of an underground circulation and their
sojourn within the rocks is comparatively brief.
An ordinary artesian water does not rise in wells
everywhere to the same height, the pressure, or
head, diminishing as distance increases from the
source of supply; but the stagnant brine under-
lying a body of petroleum is everywhere subject
to the same pressure, and will rise to the same
height in any well to which it has access. This
principle is intimately related to the pressure
under which gas escapes from a well, and its
knowledge has been found of great practical value
to the natural gas industry.

It follows from the theory, and it is also a mat-
ter of observation, that as the gas in a reservoir
is drawn off through wells, the underlying oil
and brine rise to take its place, and when the
local store of gas has been exhausted the wells
either produce oil or are flooded by brine.

With the demonstration of this theory the
earlier idea, that gas was forced outward merely
by its own elasticity and that it was generated in
subterranean laboratories from fossil organic mat-
ter as rapidly as it escaped, was completely dis-
proved. It became evident that the supply of gas
in each reservoir was definitely limited; that if

35

once exhausted it could never be restored; that
economy was required in the use of natural gas,
as with any other resource; and that the folly
which permitted it to escape freely to the atmos-
phere was also a crime. That such criminal and
disastrous folly was actually perpetrated in most
of the gas fields of northern Ohio and central
Indiana was not the fault of Dr. Orton, who early
sounded the note of warning and strenuously
combated the infatuation of the well owners.

Of the high esteem in which Orton was held
by his colleagues in scientific labor you are al-
ready aware. The Geological Society of America,
an organization including the leading geologists
of the continent, chose him as its president, to
serve for the year 1897; the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, foremost in im-
portance among American scientific bodies, called
him to the chair of its geologic section in 1885,
and bestowed its highest office in the last year of
his life. Even in his own country he was "not
without honor."

Edward Orion, Administrator

By the Hon. Thomas J. Godfrey, of the Board of Trustees,
Ohio State University

During the life of the late Professor Edward
Orton, and since his death, so much, biographical
and eulogistic, has been said and written of him
that it remains for a trustee but to speak of a few
of his many noble deeds while connected with this
institution.

As the first President of the Agricultural and
Mechanical College, he had greater responsibility
in planning and shaping its destiny, than any
other man. All the time he was President, he
was also the head of a department and did work
in the class room. To deal successfully with
faculty, students and trustees in his two-fold ca-
pacity, required administrative ability of the high-
est order.

When the conflict was on to settle whether the
College was to be Agricultural and Mechanical
merely or be a University, President Orton em-

37

phatically advocated the latter. When that was
adopted irritating opposition lasted for years and
is not wholly eradicated yet.

President Orton, in his logical and philosophical
way, smiled at opposition and pressed his prefer-
ence ; with what success is known to all. Had a
man of opposite views or of less tact been Presi-
dent, we to-day would likely have an institution
of but few departments.

In June 1878, when President Orton was deliv-
ering his address to the first class, an ex-trustee
who had vigorously opposed the University idea,
said to a trustee, "Do you hear what Orton is
saying? He is taking the College as far as pos-
sible from God and the Farm." That man's
devotion, mistaken as it was, was chiefly directed
to the farm. He is dead and his idea of what a
Land Grant College should be, virtually died be-
fore he did, while, as is verified by all these build-
ings, all this equipment, all these instructors, and
these twelve hundred students, the ideas of Dr.
Orton will live forever.

Dr. Orton ardently favored the change of name
to State University, but did not claim to be a prime
mover in the change. Few if any did more than
he to secure the passage of the bill by the general
assembly and to maintain and popularize it after-
ward. In May 1878, the old name and the old
Board were legislated out and a new Board, com-
as

posed of seven inexperienced trustees, assumed
control. All, at once saw, that President Orton,
with his executive and professorial experience,
was equal to the emergency.

Had the executive been less kind and less help-
ful, graver and more numerous mistakes would
have been made. A month after the new Board
came into office and when the College, by the
fluctuations of legislation, had had four Boards in
five years, Dr. Orton, in his commencement ad-
dress said, meaning trustees, " Men do come and
men do go" and, meaning the Professors: "but
we are here forever," and then jocularly added,
"I might not say this had we not all been reelect-
ed last night." His recommendations to the Board
were systematic and condensed. He realized that
the income was so meager that but a tithe of
departmental appropriations needed could be
granted. F° placed the necessities of the Univer-
sity before the Board on paper in the order of their
preference. He seldom remained long at a Board
meeting. His paper alone was information suffi-
cient as to which few of the many needs were
most pressing. His suggestions and recommen-
dations were so wise and conservative that, as a
rule, they were adopted without debate.

After years of executive service "equaled by
few and excelled by none," as he so aptly put it,
he wished to "lay down the laboring oar" of the

3!»

presidency and devote his entire time to his
specialty. From time to time he tendered his
resignation and as often the document was re-
ferred back to the President. Finally the trustees
saw that he was chafing and that unless relieved
of the presidency he would likely go to fields more
congenial. This could not be tolerated. His
resignation was accepted and he was continued
Professor of Geology until his death.

In his dealings with the Board as in his public
lectures, he depended largely on his manuscript,
and I never saw one who could use manuscript to
better advantage. Once when he was addressing
a graduating class in the old chapel, a violent
blast of wind scattered his manuscript. For the
moment things looked as if the speech was gone
and that the speaker was in peril. He deliberately
gathered his sheets together as well as could be
and pleasantly said that the wind had taken away
his thirteenthly.

Once in my house an hour before he was to
begin a lecture on a subject of which he had for-
gotten more than his auditors knew, he was
adjusting his manuscript to time, place and cir-
cumstances, I said to him that I feared his lecture
would be too profound : that our people were not
accustomed to deep lectures and that they pre-
ferred a rough and ready talk. He replied, that
while I wished him to throw the manuscript away,

40

lie know that lie could tell the people more in an
hour with it than without it.

He did not retire from the presidency with a
mental reservation. After his retirement he was
seldom seen by the trustees in session or individ-
ually. When his counsel was solicited, if given
at all, it was in the most cautious and modest
terms. His requests for his department were few
and conservative. His mastery of the English
enabled him to express his wishes and opinions
in most fitting terms.

In the early days of the institution there were
many lines of policy advocated — many opinions
expressed and much said by those having no
opinion. Few Professors, few trustees and fewer
students of to-day realize the difficulty there was
in handling that diversified "laboring oar" in the
days of President Orton.

It is said that no man should be president until
he has been professor ; it is almost as true that
no man should be professor until he has been
president. Would that every professor had been
president. Trustees could recline on flowery beds
of ease.

While I am aware that extreme caution is some-
times mistaken for timidity, I feel safe in saying
that, notwithstanding Doctor Orton' s great learn-
ing, long experience and rare influence among
men, he was a timid man ; and this no one realized

a

more than he. He frequently expressed greater
confidence in others than he had in himself. More
than once he said that he was not assertive or
aggressive enough to be the executive of a great
or growing University. In this he came nearer
standing alone than on any other proposition. It
is said of one of whom we all have heard and read,
that he would mount his saddle in New York and
ride nineteen days to talk with a man in Pitts-
burgh rather than write a letter. I will not say
that Dr. Orton would do this, but I do know that
less than a year ago he traveled more than one
hundred miles from his home to consult rather
than write.

He was several times my guest and I, more
than once, partook of his hospitality. We had
many talks and every time I was the beneficiary.
He was ever willing to communicate his learning
to others — was in his best element when contrib-
uting something to the world's store house of
learning. He took as much interest in commun-
icating information to those outside of his class
room as to the students within. Dr. Orton' s
master characteristic was his complete equipoise.
Great as was his scholarship, his nobility of char-
acter exceeded his learning. He gave more suc-
cessful attention to character making than any
other person with whom I was ever associated.

42

Dr. Orton maintained confidential relations with
the trustees till he peacefully fell into the arms
of Him who said, "Come unto me all ye who are
weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Cdwarfl Orton, Citizen

By William H. Scott, Professor of Philosophy
in the Ohio State University

In that masterpiece of literary art and political
idealism, the Republic of Plato, philosophers are
made the rulers of the state. "Until philosophers
are kings," said Plato, "or the kings and princes of
the world have the spirit and power of philosphy,
* * * cities will never escape from evil — no,
nor, I should say, the human race ; and then only
will this ideal State of ours have a chance to
exist."

"That is an absurd notion," you say. But wait
till you hear what kind of a being it is that Plato
calls a philosopher. Plato's philosopher is the
man of wisdom, the man who is guided by reason,
who can see reality, who can see, and does see,
things as they are. This is the man that knows
what justice is ; and justice is the essential virtue
and the glory of a state.

Few men are so well entitled by Plato's defini-
tion to be accounted philosophers as Edward Orton
was. He was a wise man, a man guided by reason.

44

Think of him in a seat of political authority — the
mayor of a city or the governor of a state. Would
he not have justified Plato, and have proved to
the minds of all that it is the philosophers, the
wise men, who should be made rulersi? As a col-
lege executive he showed his quality; but tho
many generations have passed and several repub-
lics have come and gone since Plato's time, politics
has not reached such a point of either wisdom or
purity that the wise man is ;often chosen to the
head of cities or states.

Yet there are avenues thru which such a man
can make himself felt and can bring wisdom to
bear on matters of public concern. Some of these
Doctor Orton found and used. He realized that
to be a citizen, tho but a private citizen, is to be
charged with grave responsibilities ; and as a citi-
zen he strove to do, so far as in him lay, the wise
man's part.

He made it a duty to cast his vote for the public
good. To him the ballot was a moral force, to be
held as a trust and to be used as an instrument
of service to the public. He did not use it there-
fore to advance himself or to help in the triumph
of a party, but to promote the best interests of the
city, the state, and the nation. He was one of
that heroic and growing body of citizens to whom
party fealty is a far lighter obligation than fealty
to honor, to character, to good government, and

46

who decide for themselves for what and for whom
they will vote.

It was his custom to attend the primary elections
in order to do what he could toward the nomination
of good candidates. On one occasion of this kind
a man in whom he had confidence as a champion
of honest elections was arrested for challenging
men who were trying to vote. Doctor Orton de-
manded his release ; and on the officer's refusal
he himself went with officer and prisoner, declaring
that he would go all the way to the prison. The
officer held out for a few squares, but he soon felt
the pressure too strong for him and let his man
go. Then Doctor Orton and his friend at once
returned to resume their work at the polls.

But he was not content to use his influence
merely to secure the choice of good oflicers. He
felt it no less a duty to help officers, good or bad,
in the performance of their functions. By private
letters he would at opportune times commend
them for some act of fidelity or courage, or would
call their attention to something needing to be
done, or would point out the best way of attaining
some important end, or would give the weight of
his counsel to prevent adoption of some unwise
measure.

But his activity as a citizen extended to many
things besides political elections and administra-
tion. He took a deep interest in the economic

46

welfare of the public, especially in the wise care
of the public health and the public mineral re-
sources.

His attention was directed many years ago to
the dependence of health on water supply. His
geological reports frequently mention thelquantity
and quality of the water in various sections of the
state, sometimes giving an extended description
of the existing conditions. The topic often found
a place in his public addresses. One of the latest
instances of his work in this field is the report of
the committee on Water, of which he was chair-
man, read before the Columbus Board of Trade,
March 1, 1898. In an address which accompanied
the report he discussed the question of a water
supply for the city in his own terse but compre-
hensive way. The subject of sewage disposal also,
so closely connected with water supply, received
intelligent and careful discussion at his hands.

It was in dealing with these subjects that he
performed his chief service as a member of the
Columbus Board of Trade. He became a member
of that body in 1885. He served on the committee
on Health and Sanitary Affairs continuously till
1891, and again in 1894; and from 1898 to the
time of his death he was chairman of the commit-
tee on Water. In recognition of his eminence as
a citizen the board of directors elected him as an
honorary member of the organization in 1891.

Another subject which he felt to be of great
public concern was the conservation of what he
aptly termed 'the stored power of the world.' He
pointed out that the supply of coal, of oil, and of
natural gas is in the nature of the case limited
and must some day be exhausted. We have fallen
heirs to accumulated mineral wealth which re-
quired centuries for its production and which can
never be replaced except by similar agencies work-
ing thru similar periods of time. We have therefore
no moral right to use it wastefully and thus de-
prive those who come after us of that portion of it
which they would otherwise inherit. "Waste,"
said he, "is immorality."

To those in control of the coal fields of the state
he addressed argument and appeal, laboring to
impress on them the folly and the wickedness of
leaving as they do, great quantities of fuel to be
lost beyond all chance of recovery. He tried also
to secure legislation which would compel the use
of more economical methods of mining.

When natural gas was discovered in north-
western Ohio, many wells were allowed to burn
day and night, consuming in a few weeks quanti-
ties of gas sufficient to meet all legitimate demands
for many years. The most prodigal use was also
made of it for manufacturing purposes, and many
new enterprises were invited into the gas region
with the promise of free fuel. Doctor Orton pro-

48

tested against this thoughtless waste, and tried
to prevent it. Some ridiculed ; others took offence.
I quote a few sentences from his preface to volume
VII, of the Geological Survey of Ohio: 'These
warnings were disregarded; in one or two in-
stances they were even resented. * * * The
event has proved, however, that the facts that
were then apparent were correctly interpreted.
The decline went on steadily. Most of the glass
factories, for example, that were brought into the
district on the promise of free fuel have been
abandoned or removed. The few that remain are
eking out the feeble supply of gas with coal, wood
and oil.'

In respect both to sanitary welfare and to nat-
ural resources he held that it is the duty of those
who know to inform and protect those who do not
know. These questions, and all questions, were for
him moral questions. But there are some subjects
which he regarded as eminently moral; because
they concern primarily, not man's material, but
his moral, well-being. He regarded moral inter-
ests as incomparably more important than mater-
ial interests. That missionary spirit which put
him in the ministry when he was a young man
never died out of him. It was forever stirring
within him and forever seeking a way to express
itself. Sometimes it found a regular outlet, as in
the instruction of a Bible class. At other times

it would smoulder awhile, and then, waxing and
rising and getting possession of him, it would at
last find a definite and inspired form for itself in
a lecture.

After he came to Columbus to assume the
Presidency of this institution he became the
teacher of a large class of convicts in the pen-
itentiary. He kept up this work for several years,
and his active interest in some members of the
class and his relations with them continued after
their release. In the early years of the University
he formed a Sunday class of students. The
churches were at that time remote and difficult to
reach, and he felt it incumbent on him to provide
those students whose homes were not in Columbus
with religious instruction. From time to time
also in later years he taught on Sunday in a pub-
lic or semi-public way.

It seems to me that the most adequate and sat-
isfactory form of expression which he found for
himself was the public lecture. In my eyes he
never rose to so great a mental and moral height
and took on so great mental and moral proportions
as he did in some of the Sunday afternoon lectures
which he delivered here in the University. There
was in them a breadth and elevation of thought,
a spirituality and earnestness of tone, and a force
and fitness of utterance, which, if I judge aright,
revealed him at his best. I need but recall the

50

last and perhaps the best remembered, the one
spoken from this platform some three years ago
on "Man's Place in Nature."

In all these and many minor ways he endeav-
ored to fulfill his own large conception of what it
is to be a citizen. Do you not agree with me that
as a citizen he acted well the part of a wise man?
Here was a man to whom civic duty was sacred ;
and in trying to perform it, what a citizen he
showed himself to be — many-sided, large-sighted,
vigilant, strenuous, self-sacrificing, courageous!
To help the community at all times and in all
ways — to secure for it better water, better streets,
better schools, better government; to extricate its
poor from their poverty and its vicious from their
vice; to raise its standard of intelligence; to purify
its morals; to encourage those who were trying to
promote these ends; — all these and more found
place in his busy life; and they were done with
his might, and with his mind, and with his heart,
and with his conscience.

What I have said, if left uncorrected by another
view, might leave the impression that his thoughts
and activities were lacking in breadth. He was
indeed a man of the present. He found his task
now and here. But he also walked and worked
with far horizons of thought and hope in his eye.
The political affairs of the state and the nation
concerned him no less than those of the city. He

51

was a citizen of the whole country, — nay, of the
world. While he was a man of the present, his
mind also swept the ages on ages not only of his-
toric, but of geologic, time. Tho it seemed to him
needful to think and speak of the sewer and the
cesspool, his thoughts often towered to the sum-
mits of the rational, the spiritual, the ideal. Tho
he saw and felt the wants of his community and
was alive to the good or ill fortune of those im-
mediately about him, he considered also the gen-
erations to come and dwelt upon the destinies of
mankind.

In behalf of humanity he was an optimist. He
was not blind or indifferent to the perils which
threaten the progress of the race; but he believed
that they would be met and overcome. In a pas-
sage of his noble address on the seventieth anni-
versary of his birth — his ' Morituri Salutamus' to
his brethren of the University faculty — he uttered
his hope for the world: " 'What is the outlook,'
do you ask, 'at the end of your three score years
and ten, as to the conditions of society? How do
the prospects of humanity appear?' I am glad
to testify that the outlook with me is, on the
whole, hopeful and inspiring. I feel sure that the
pathway of man is still ascending. He is certainly
coming to wider vision and wider control of na-
ture." He was himself wide-visioned and far-
visioned. His thoughts were at home anywhere

52

on the globe. They penetrated the centuries of
the future. They ascended on high. Man, God,
Eternity were in his heart.

Do you ask why he was so wise, so strong, so
earnest, so brave, so philanthropic, so cosmopol-
itan, so every way admirable as a citizen? The
answer is not far to seek : It was because he was
so wise, so strong, so earnest, so brave, so philan-
thropic, so cosmopolitan, so every way admirable
as a man.

May the spirit of Edward Orton, lover of good
and lover of man, fall like the mantle of an as-
cending Elijah, on every teacher and every student
of the University! May his influence continue
to pervade this place — these buildings, this room,
the minds and consciences of those who work
here, now and hereafter! May it remind them
while here to perform their work in a large and
noble way, and when they go forth into a wider
sphere, may it inspire and guide them to the wise
and unwearied performance of the duties of a
pure and patriotic citizenship!

€dward Orion, tbe Associate

By SamuEi, C. Derby,
Professor of Latin in the Ohio State University

It is no easy thing to appreciate properly the
qualities of the humblest friend, how inadequate
then, any attempt to estimate the personality of
one who had unusual endowments of mind and
heart! And today, even if such a task were not
too difficult, our loss is too recent, our grief too
keen, for us to be able to measure with cold pre-
cision the worth of this friend and co-worker.
Our vision is still dim, our touch tremulous. In
the attempt to appreciate the influence of such a
man in relations, so close and so long continued,
one can hope at most to do no more than sketch
in faint outline a few of the salient features of
that character, strong and sweet, which it was our
high privilege here long to enjoy. Words may
serve, perhaps, to set memory at work in the
hearts of you who were close to him, and she with
her vivid touch, shall fill in the outline with many
a well-remembered trait and feature of that stren-
uous nature; to be satisfying, to be true to life

54

the portrait cannot be the work of another, it must
embody your conception, and be in large measure
your own creation and of your drawing, distinct
and individual for each of you.

It is nearly thirty years since my acquaintance
with Dr. Orton began — at Antioch College where
he was then the most influential, and I the young-
est member of its faculty. As an inmate of the
President's household, during the earlier months
of my life there, I had unusual opportunity to
know how much that oflicer trusted to the practi-
cal wisdom of the alert and untiring professor of
Natural History, who was also the head of the
Preparatory Department in which a majority
of the student body was enrolled. This man in
distinction from the other professors, the President
habitually designated as "Mr. Orton," just as he
would have said "Mr. Emerson," or "Mr. Web-
ster." Then as always Dr. Orton toiled terribly;
much of the discipline of an unusually hetero-
geneous body of students rested upon him; his
instruction was not confined to the natural sci-
ences which gave name to his chair, but regularfy
included Latin, with History or English or a
Normal class in Higher Arithmetic. His pupils
there, as everywhere, were inspired with a good
measure of his enthusiasm and carried forward
by the forcefulness of his teaching: they thought
his classes most attractive: they did not under-

05

stand then as clearly as in after years, that this
was due less to the subject than to a great teacher,
whose scientific attainments, unusual power of lu-
cid exposition, and remarkable industry, all com-
mended by an engaging personality, were begin-
ning to be generally recognized throughout Ohio.
"The day of small things," — a phrase Dr. Orton
often used, was for him drawing to a close. In
1869 Governor Hayes had appointed him upon
the Geological Stirvey of the state; four years
later he was called from Antioch to do a larger
and more attractive work, as President of the new
Agricultural and Mechanical College at Colum-
bus. Of his service in that position another has
spoken with intimate knowledge. I may be per-
mitted to say that when I met him from time to
time during the eight years of his presidency
here, I was always impressed by the growing
power, readiness of resource, and gracious dignity
which, as if held in reserve, — the more urgent
demands of the new field had called forth. This
ability to meet the new and larger requirements
of a higher position is one of the most conclusive
tests of power, — that test Dr. Orton stood, no
emergency found him wanting.

In 1881 I came again into close relations with
Dr. Orton. His request to be relieved of the
burden of the Presidency of the University, first
made three years before, had been granted, and

w

tie had taken up with undisguised satisfaction the
less impeded pursuit of Geology and the work of
the Geological Survey of which he was soon ap-
pointed the chief. From this time Dr. Orton
avoided taking a conspicuous part in the ordinary
deliberations of the Faculty, and it was only after
urgent solicitation on the part of his colleagues
and then, rarely and at critical moments, that the
Ex-President could* be induced to contribute his
weighty and often decisive opinion. This reserve
was due to no lack of interest in the important
educational questions that arose, for that remained
unabated — but, was owing partly to the feeling
that his other pursuits demanded his whole
strength, partly to an almost morbid sense of
propriety which forbade him to influence College
policy from a position of vantage. His associates
appreciated this delicacy of feeling, but were not
quite convinced that it was for the best interest
of the University, to be regularly deprived of aid
so potent and so wise.

In many ways during the years which followed,
Dr. Orton did more for the University than ever
before, and a service which no other could do so
well. As was said of Emerson, "His friends were
all who knew him." His ability to recall names
and faces, to remember the occasions when he
had met persons, and to hold in memory other
facts personal to them and their households was

57

extraordinary. Every journey, every geological
excursion renewed or extended his acquaint-
ance among the most open-minded and intelligent
citizens of Ohio. From the favorable impression
thus made on so vast a number of influential
persons the University has already reaped an
abundant harvest, and the end is not yet. In the
lecture room and museum his labors were greater
and more effective than in earlier years, for he
spoke as one having authority, and through his
unceasing labors in gathering specimens from
every quarter, and in arranging them to the best
advantage, collections grew apace. Every student
had towards him a feeling of pride and respect
touched with reverence. His influence did not
stop there. It is hardly credible that there was a
teacher here who did not find help and incentive
in his strenuous example.

In conversation Dr. Orton disliked to descend
to trivialities and gossip : he paid you habitually
the exquisite compliment of assuming that you
were interested in high thinking and noble action,
that you were reading the best books and knew,
or at least wished to know, the most recent dis-
coveries in travel and exploration, the latest
scientific hypothesis, the most fruitful criticism
or theory in historical research, in ethics, in prob-
lems touching the public health; — he was wont
to enquire what you had read that was of moment,

that had afforded you recreation or stimulus.
You were fortunate indeed if his kindly but
searching questions did not make it evident that
even in your own field he had anticipated you.

Upon his table you would see the latest note-
worthy treatises upon his favorite sciences, a
famous novel by Mrs. Humphrey Ward, books
on philosophy, and probably a manual of devotion.
His interest in the progress of religious thought
never ceased and he saw with much satisfaction
modern theology grow in breadth and freedom
from restrictive creeds. If you sympathized with
this movement, he was likely to allude to its
gains and latest phases. He was a strong cham-
pion of both science and religion: his spirit was
devout, his thought free. The few glimpses we
can catch of his early years of service all reveal
the same earnest temper, the same intense devo-
tion to a high ideal in life, the same determination
to promote every good cause.

In the full tide of this fruitful and active life
came the sudden blow by which, as he wrote to a
friend, he "became an old man in a day." How
valiantly he strove against partial helplessness,
and unavoidable dependence upon his friends.
With what patience, almost resignation he bore
the resulting burden of disability, — few saw more
clearly than his colleagues. During the years
which passed before his final release, the pathos

of his fate did not grow less. He did his utmost
without repining, but no one saw the inevitable
result more clearly than he. More than ever he
lived and wrought "as in the great Taskmaster's
eye." Latterly I think he took a more hopeful
view of the progress of human affairs towards the
"One far-off, divine event
To which the whole creation moves."
Last year upon the occasion of the 50th anni-
versary of his graduation at Hamilton College,
Dr. Orton prepared a brief biography of each of
his forty class-mates. His labor was amply repaid
by the evidence thus gathered that even those
members of the class who had apparently profited
least by their College training, had yet come to
be persons of note in their several communities
and had led useful lives. This was to him pecu-
liarly welcome testimony to the inherent worth
of human nature and, incidentally, to the whole :
some tendency of that liberal education to which
most of his life had been devoted. And so with
"honour, love, obedience, troops of friends," our
colleague came to the allotted limit of "three score
years and ten." His firm, wise guidance through
the initial years of this University, had largely
shaped its trend and scope; in its lecture rooms
his unusual ability as a teacher had left deep
impress upon his pupils; his large attainments
and scientific labors had given it renown; the

60

high standard of work to which he rigidly held
himself and others was a continual incentive to
all its members. In wider relations his unfailing
tact and considerateness towards all with whom
he had to do, his lively interest in all movements
for the good of his fellowmen, his fine and noble
personality — all these elements and many more
which were blended so perfectly in his character
made Edward Orton peculiarly dear to his asso-
ciates while he was spared to them, and will make
his memory precious, now that they see him here
no more.

"The shape erect is prone; forever stilled
The winning tongue ; the forehead's high-piled

heap, —
A cairn which every science helped to build, —
Unvalued will its golden secrets keep;
He knows at last if life or death be best:
Wherever he be flown, whatever vest
The being hath put on which lately here
So many-friended was, so full of cheer
To make men feel the Seeker's noble zest,
We have not lost him all: — he is not gone
To the dumb herd of them that wholly die;
The beauty of his better self lives on
In minds he touched with fire, in many an eye
He trained to Truth's exact severity;

et

He was"a|Teacher; wliy be grieved for him
Whose living word still stimulates the air?
In endless file shall loving scholars come
The glow of his transmitted touch to share,
And trace his features with an eye less dim
Than ours whose sense, — familiar wont makes
numb."

i