A MAN AND A PRINCIPLE

The eulogies bestowed on the late President Rogers, whose funeral occurs today, can hardly fail to present in all its lights the life of an exceptionally noble and useful man. But there is a possibility that the hurrying majority of newspaper readers, who have not had time to look into the real spirit of the life just ended, may identify it solely with the institution at whose head he stood. The institution loses a man, but the community, if it will, may gain a principle. It is hard to find language in which to state the controlling inspiration which burned like an altar lamp in the mind of President Rogers, and illuminated his every thought and deed. But it is an idea so precious and so indispensable to normal intellectual advance that it must have power, however inadequately stated. As a representative of the pure scientific spirit , President Rogers stands out more strongly than any other man in the community, perhaps more strongly than any other man in the United States. Those who know what an intellectual turning-point in modern civilization this spirit illustrates are as profoundly moved by the example and work of a man like President Rogers as by the memory of Emerson or of Darwin. If we will, we may all become his legatees by the acceptance of this same principle.

The hundreds of men, young and old, on whom his influence bore, think of him gratefully and affectionately. All testimony is alike as to the power of his personality. He was the creator of the Institute of Technology, the inspirer of its teachers and pupils. His direct influence through contact has been very great. But fortunately the value of men to their fellows is not limited by personal acquaintance. This limitation, however, is the fate of almost every instructor. The work of teaching swallows up energy so completely that most who follow it are limited to personal influence. As one of these hard-working men, President Rogers had no time to become the public apostle of his immortal idea. But whenever he did appear as the representative of his beloved school, his voice used to ring with the utterance of it like the voice of a prophet, and his face to glow with a light which no one who saw it could ever forget. He stood for loyalty to absolute truth. He gave himself to this thought with an intensity and consecration which made it like a religion. To hear him speak of his great idea was to realize something of the divine right of science.

To thousands of careless minds the word “science” is but a name covering a body of accumulated knowledge, and the scientific spirit means the love and pursuit of such knowledge. But to men such as he these things were but preliminary. The great issue was as much moral as intellectual. By the scientific spirit he understood what all thorough thinkers mean by it, the openness to conviction, the sincerity and intellectual receptiveness which make men dread false evidence and false reasoning as they dread sin. Living as he did in a state of society wherein the dogmatic spirit was still the rule, he lived so wisely that he did not offend the metaphysical thinkers around him. He was too busy to antagonize, yet he never was false to his own severe method of attaining truth. Is it true? was the question which he rigorously put to everything which presented itself. When the philosophical development of American thought shall have reached the stage of retrospect he will be canonized as one of the pioneers of the scientific method. At present probably less than ten per cent. of the intellectual leaders of the United States have reached the moral turning-point which President Rogers long ago passed; nor is it easy for those who have never experienced this new philosophic birth to realize the vigor and freedom which it confers. Most men go through life trammeled by ideas acquired by heredity or accepted without examination. Diseases of the intellect are as common and as hindering as diseases of the body; nor shall we ever come into our rightful inheritance until we have sloughed the metaphysical skin with which most of us are born.

The Late Professor Rogers

Memorial services were held over the remains of Professor William B. Rogers in Huntington Hall, Technology Building, this afternoon. The following-named bodies were represented in the audience: National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Society of Arts, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Boston Society of Natural History, Appalachian Mountain Club, University of Virginia, Yale College, Harvard University, Boston University, members of the corporation, professors and instructors, students and alumni of the Institute of Technology in a body. Among the distinguished persons present were George William Bond, George C. Richardson, W.W. Greenough, E.P. Whipple, Stephen G. Deblois, Mrs. Kate Gannet Wells, Miss Abby W. May, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, President C.W. Eliot, Professor Peirce, Hon. E.R. Hoar, Hon. T.C. Amory, Rev. R. Edes, D.D., Charles C. Perkins, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Professor Agassiz, Thomas Appleton, Captain Nathan Appleton and others. By especial request of the family no floral decorations were in the hall, the only hangings being of smilax and laurel.

Previous to the service a telegram from the University of Virginia was read, expressing a desire to unite with the institute in its testimony of sorrow in the loss of Professor Rogers. Rev. Dr. George E. Ellis then read the first part of the King's Chapel burial service, adding at its close his tribute to the lofty character and useful services of the deceased. Rev. Dr. S.K. Lothrop followed in an eloquent summing up of the character of President Rogers, and Colonel Theodore Lyman made the closing address, his remarks being principally devoted to a review of the scientific progress and achievements of deceased. Dr. Ellis then read the latter portion of the burial service. At the close of the service, the remains were conveyed to Mt. Auburn for burial (accompanied by the officers of the institute), the following named gentlemen acting…