New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-04-15

q science fer the People sketch q II. LIE
WIN Selections from s rqesne Wb
FIske PIP. VI. 5s7. u. Appleton co.
Edward L. Youmans was man whose career
could not have been anticipated. Few other men
could have lived through such early years of toll
and suffering Other men, like Prescott and
Parkman. have struggled with blindness; but
they did not at the same time have an apparently
hopeless struggle with poverty-nor did they
have to guide their own efforts to obtain edu-
cation and to find a place in life. Youmans had
to do all this with the probability before him that
a downright failure at critical moment would
have destroyed his eysght altogether In fact.
his first real success restored him to a condition
wherein he could see: and he retained his sight
to the last so that Mr.. Fiske himself was long
in discovering that his case was worse than that
Of many other extremely myopic persons. 1t
must be remembered that this state Of almost
total blindness extended through the whole for
native period Of Youmans life.
But he came of stock that never yielded to
trihes. lis great great t grandfather. Samuel
Youmans' is supposed by the author of this
volume to have been not himself an immi-
grant from the mother country, but the
son or grandson Of one. But whether four or six
generations Of Americanzing be allowed. Samuel
Youmans and his descendants seem 10 have been
perfectly assimilated to the American type OF
character. They were tough. athletic men, in
dustrious self-reiant self-assering. apt to be on
the aggressive and unpopular side Of public
questions both in religion and politics. ultra
democratic, despsing people who boosted OF
their ancestry or claimed distinction any
ground but that Of personal merits.
Youmans found certain advantage growing
out Of the mental habit forced upon him by his
early defect of sight. His inner vision became
all the more acute for lack Of outward views OF
things The effort 10 realize whatever he learned
with the same vividness that he had felt while he
could stn see taught him the most minute care
in investigation. 1t stimulated his Imagination
also TO the effort Of reproducing all that he
learned in his own way, whether In words or In
mental pictures. The results Of this became
manifest in the lectures and the popular scientific
works Of later years. but 1T was also obvious at
the time His explanations gave interest to the
abstruse and painful reading which others did
for his sake. II IL had not been for his blind
ness 1t Is doubtful If he could have became the
Iucid vet far from shallow expounder OF Science.
Thus he was trained by unhappy conditions TO be
"a public tcacher enthusiastic and eloquent.
broad and tolerant. trained in the methods or
modern science and brimfu OF its blithe and
aggressive. but self-restrained and sober spirit"
He was the herald and precursor OF the era
which began with the publication Of the Origin
OF Species"
For the later work OF his life, his career as a
lecturer was important 1t made him known
not merely as a name as the author OF a
certain highly valued work in chemistry. but as
a living force. He indicated the Importance OF
his familiarity with lyceums and lecture COM
mittees when he offered through them to in
nuence the American public in behalf Of the
works of Herbert Spencer. The service he per-
termed for the author OF the theory Of evolution
was perhaps. the most important labor OF his
life As Professor Asa Gray was the friend and
.,n,orter Of Darwin. so Youmans was the close
sdherent of SPENCER But he took In Spencer .