NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER '62

Dean Shaler was perhaps the most versatile member of the Faculty. He not only attained distinction as an administrator and scientist, but was also well known as a soldier, historian, philosopher, and poet. After graduating from the Scientific School as a Bachelor of Science in 1862, he served two years in the Union army, as captain of a Kentucky volunteer battery, known as "Shaler's Battery." Four years after leaving the army Dean Shaler became a member of the Faculty.

As a teacher and educator Dean Shaler combined the exacting standards of the old-fashioned school-master with a breadth of view and a progressive spirit which lead him to welcome and vigorously promote all improvements in educational methods. He was one of President Eliot's most active and useful so-workers in the many educational reforms accomplished in the University during the last 35 years.

Most conspicuous was his long and active service as Dean of the Scientific School, during which time he applied his energies unsparingly to bringing the School up to the highest standard of excellence.

Next to his service for the Scientific School, Dean Shaler's administrative work is perhaps chiefly distinguished by his successful development of the Summer School. Another feature of the College administration which had his active approval and support was the Student Reception Committee, a system by which every new comer should be assisted in adjusting himself to his new surroundings and made to feel from the first that his College was directly concerned in his comfort and success.

Dean Shaler was a strict disciplinarian, but his rule was always tempered with justice and sympathy. During his 15 years as Dean of the Scientific School he never failed to visit a sick student in his department. In cases of serious illness he called every day, sometimes even oftener. He went to the Stillman Infirmary almost daily.

To strangers he gave the impression of a certain abruptness of manner, but those who knew him well learned that this was in appearance only, and that his habit of blunt, direct speech was really the expression of a simple, earnest, democratic nature, scorning all pretense of super-refinement and anxious to meet all upon the terms of absolute equality. He combined the instinct of the true scholar with a wonderful breadth of sympathies and a fellow feeling for all.

As a student he was known primarily as a geologist, but he had investigated as well practically every other branch of science. In his scientific work he was essentially a pioneer and investigator: an enthusiastic explorer of volcanoes and caverns, and curious, unusual phenomena in geology. He placed himself repeatedly in danger, and was several times an eye-witness of avalanches and landslides.

He never cared very much for the closet study of exact sciences, and although he constantly applied mathematical computations in interpreting and generalizing from natural phenomena, he regarded such processes as a useful instrument of research rather than an end worth while in themselves. Tangible, physical facts were his chief interest.

The Dean's wide range of interests was shown in his writings. Three recent works, "The Individual", "The Citizen" and "The Neighbor", appear to have been written with one general purpose, that of answering many questions that arise in the minds of each intelligent member of society, concerning his relation to his surroundings. Not more than three years ago he published "Elizabeth of England", a drama in five acts, each in a separate volume, written in blank verse. He wrote this to disprove the statement so often made that prolonged scientific study unfits a man for literary activity. He also wrote the Phi Beta Kappa poem in 1902.

There was no man more widely known through the University among undergraduates, and those in the professional schools. Professor Shaler's lectures were popular, and numbers of men who were not taking the course came through sheer interest in what would be said, and in the manner in which it would be said. His use of the English language was notable for its forcible and original choice of words, and the apt expression of those turns of thought which will always be associated with his keen sense of humor.

Every afternoon, except in very stormy weather, he took a long walk. With his walking stick tucked under his arm, and his hands deep in his coat pockets, he came from University Hall and left the Yard with his long swinging stride. He never failed to attend morning prayers, and promptly at 8.45 he was to be seen walking across the lawn toward the Chapel, where he always occupied the same pew.

His kindly figure will always hover in the memory of numberless Harvard men.

By Theodore Roosevelt '80.

White House, Washington, D. C., April 11, 1906.

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I am greatly shocked at the death of Dean Shaler and mourn his loss. I not only feel for him the affectionate remembrance of scholar toward instructor, but the remembrance of the friendship and regard I grew to feel in constantly growing measure for him after I left College.   THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

By Thomas Wentworth Higginson '41.

When it became my good fortune, some thirty years ago, to become once more a dweller in my native town of Cambridge, I naturally looked about with interest for pleasant acquaintances among the College professors and was fortunate enough to find myself for a time at least, a near neighbor of Professor Shaler. We had some army experiences to recall in common; and I was soon struck with his peculiarly frank and cordial relations with the students, a thing the less surprising, however, as those who may be called out-door professors are apt to drift into easier relations with their pupils than the indoor men. There was, however, soon opportunity to go a little deeper and to find for his relation to the students a basis beyond this.

I happened to have indirectly under my care a young Freshman who while hither to blameless in character had the misfortune, after some public day in Boston, to be caught in some prank, not very serious, such as the throwing of a stolen sign off the end of a bridge into the Charles River, during which lamentable misdeed, he had been arrested by the police and spent the night with his two or three companions in the lock-up. When they were called before the judge on the next morning I was allowed to make a brief statement of the case, having very little to say, when I was reinforced, to my great surprise and satisfaction, by Professor Shaler who had strolled in and taken his place on a back seat and who, it seemed, had noticed the young men in Boston, just before the event happened, and testified that they were not intoxicated or turbulent, but simply boyish. The judge with evident relief accepted the Professor's view of the matter, imposed only a moderate fine, and the youths went out quite ashamed of the whole affair, as was fitting.

This was not, however, what struck me most in the occurrence. Seeking an opportunity to thank Professor Shaler afterwards, I found that he was out of town and when we met, after a week or two, it appeared that the whole affair had passed very much out of his mind, he saying frankly that he did so much of that sort of thing that he might easily have confused it with other events. He said that it was rather his habit, after public days in Boston, to take a look in at the Cambridge police-court next day, to see that his boys, if in any trouble, had justice done them; and that in most cases, as would doubtless happen in this, the mere fact of arrest would be sufficient punishment. All that I could see of his relations to the students proved the hold he had on them in this way and, when it came to sterner discipline, I knew one or two events which showed me that this mild authority had its distinct limitations. I remember one case, in particular, when one of the most popular and influential students in College had been charged with an insult to a woman and when all Shaler's Kentucky chivalry was roused, until it turned out that the whole affair had been greatly overstated.

I have left myself no time to dwell upon the literary side of Professor Shaler's life, but have found an especial interest in one or two of his books. One of his most agreeable works is certainly that on "Domesticated Animals." It is full of personal observation and I know of no book 'more sure to enlarge the mind of a thoughtful boy or girl. A later book, to be greatly prized, is one whose rather inadequate title is "The Neighbor", and whose chapter. "The Problem of the African", while liable to some criticism in detail--as is almost everything yet written on that difficult subject--yet lays down this manly conclusion, coming from a Kentuckian (p. 149) "A fair assessment of the situation leads to the conviction that morally he (the negro) is hopeful material for use in our society." If as some seem to think this whole vast question needs to be settled over again, it is a comfort to think that we have the strong testimony of Professor Shaler on the side of justice.  THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON '41.

By LcBaron Russell Briggs '75.

Professor Shaler's greatest charm was his eager interest in every created or uncreated thing; as one of his colleagues said, even

Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto

was not wide enough to compass him. This interest he expressed in language that was brilliantly his own. No man was quicker-witted; no man had thoughts more original or diction more picturesque. He was ardent, combative, filled with poetry and romance, instantaneously responsive in his feelings. "I hold it," he said, "a part of my business to do what I can for every wight that comes to this place"; and thousands of men bear witness that this was the truth. No teacher in Harvard University within my recollection has roused so many minds or touched so many hearts.  L. B. R. BRIGGS '75.

By John Henry Wright.

Dean Shaler touched life at so many points that it is difficult to say in what relation his death will be most felt. The government of the University loses in him a successful administrator, sagacious and resourceful, and a stimulating and inspiring teacher; his colleagues, a delightful associate and comrade, whose words and ways brightened many a tedious hour; the students, a warm-hearted, whole-souled friend. Those of us who live near the Yard will miss his picturesque figure, like that of a handsome Andrew Jackson, in long raincoat and soft hat, striding along with the familiar swing, and flinging across the way the brusque greeting, "How d'ye, neighbor?" The College Chapel will miss him, whither he used to repair daily to take what he liked to call his "moral bath, as needful, sir, as the other." He was the impersonation of health, vigor, and purity, moral as well as physical and intellectual. He was an Elizabethan man in his qualities and temperament: a poet, above all, of keen susceptibilities and sympathies; gifted, furthermore, with a remarkable creative power in English expression, especially in extempore speech, pungent, vivid, finding always--if sometimes he had to make it--the fit word; impetuous, generous, the soul of honor, scornful of meanness and falsehood, swift in thought and manner, too swift at times for sluggish wits.

"Tell thou the world......

"That once there was one whose veins ran lightning."  JOHN H. WRIGHT.

By Byron Satterlee Hurlbut '87.

To Harvard men throughout the country the death of Dean Shaler brings again that keen sense of personal loss we felt thirteen years ago when Phillips Brooks died. To a high degree both possessed rare power of winning the affection of men--making their loyal friends not only those with whom they daily associated, but also those whom they chanced to meet and who to them frequently remained almost unknown. The source of Dean Shaler's power of thus winning and holding men lay, I have always felt, in his bluff, great-hearted manliness, his humor, and his sympathy. He loved men and was in turn beloved. Like other men remarkably fertile in plans and suggestions, he found his judgments and conclusions often questioned--no man has been oftener disagreed with; but however much one might differ with him in opinion, one found that the bond of affection grew steadily stronger. No subject that involved the sons of men or their concerns was foreign to his interest; if there was one he had not thought about, he was ready to think about it, and to say what he thought. He was willing to put himself in the other man's place; and all he undertook he performed with zeal. In his office, his class-room, and his home he was the soul of hospitality. Only the hearts of the many he has encouraged can tell how great has been his help.

He had the good fortune to live until the purposes he had labored for through many years had been accomplished or were in good promise of rapid fulfilment; and although he did not see the full fruition of his work, the time had come when he could say that his great task for Harvard was practically done: the development of what he has accomplished can now be safely left to other hands. The place that he leaves empty in the hearts of his friends no one can fill.  B. S. HURLBUT '87.

By John Trowbridge L.S.S. '65.

The most striking characteristic of Professor Shaler's mind was its alertness. He resembled a photographer who takes you into his dark room saying, "I have instantaneous photographs on all those subjects"; which he proceeds to develop; and you go away with new impressions. The range of his scientific thoughts extended from the depths of the earth to the mountains of the moon.

The last time I met him he was anxious to know whether the researches of Bjerknes on the attractions of pulsating bodies might not throw light upon the mysterious force of gravitation; and in the discussion of these researches he showed that he had absorbed to a remarkable degree the knowledge of our time in regard to what was once called the Correlation of Forces, and which is now termed Transformation of Energy. I never left him without a mental stimulus which led me either to differ or reflect. His mind was like an electrical discharge in a tube of rarified gas, a flash light, enormously suggestive. He was seen at his best in some meeting of earnest men, unlearned, but men of affairs, capable of grasping fundamental ideas. There he was the scientific protagonist bringing the truths and sublimity of science down to the comprehension of humanity; and a journey in his company from Boston to New York realized all our ideas of rapid transit. To see him thus the centre of rapt listeners led one to recall Lowell's "Incident in a Railway Car", in which is portrayed the effect of Burns' humanity on humanity; and we will substitute science for Burns:

"All thoughts that mould the age begin

Deep down within the primitive Soul,

And from the many slowly upward win

To one who grasps the Whole."

He was a man of great heart; a scientific humanitarian, and shall we not say of him:

"Qui nullum fere scribendi genus non tetigit

Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit"?  JOHN TROWBRIDGE L.S.S. '65.

By William Morris Davis L.S.S. '69.

During the last forty years Professor Shaler has lectured on geology to about 7000 students at Harvard, a greater number, I believe, than have attended the lectures of any other man on that subject; but this does not mean so much that the legion of young men were deeply interested in the science of the earth as that they were attracted by the man who told them about it. His extraordinary individuality was felt there as it was everywhere else. Most professors are known chiefly through the subject that they study and teach: strip them of that and, like kings without their robes, they look just like plain men; but with Shaler it was his subject that was known through him; leave off his geology and he was still a marked man, a striking figure, the centre of every group he joined. He was so many other things besides being a geologist and a professor; he served on the Massachusetts topographical survey commission, on the state highway commission, on the gypsy moth commission; he was actively interested in mining enterprises in the South and West; he wrote books and magazine articles on many subjects; he was a practical, influential, honest politician. His originality showed in his frequent use of words rarely heard from the mouths of others, yet well fitted in his effective and picturesque speech; and in his peculiar handwriting which almost constituted a new alphabet, yet which was consisitently a law unto itself and as legible as other current script when its letters were once learned; and in his vivid perception of the rich variety of the world about him, in which like an impressionist he saw bright colors unseen by duller eyes. He was the friend and advocate of the students in his charge rather than a prosecuting officer of the University, and it was always more his wish to get young fellows out of scrapes than to punish them for getting in. He was the inventor and developer of the three double-named departments that are embraced in our Division of Geology, and nearly all the teachers of these departments are his former pupils or the pupils of his pupils; and he was more instrumental than any other man in rehabilitating the Scientific School, of which he was an early graduate, and the most successful Dean. He would have been, we all feel, the Dean of the Graduate School of Applied Science, soon to be established; it is hard to realize that he has gone from us before seeing the approaching consummation of his years of vigilant and persistent work.  W. M. DAVIS L.S.S. '69.