"
I got well acquainted with Professor Peirce after I left
College. He used to come to Washington after I came into
public life. I found him one of the most delightful of men.
His treatise "Ideality in the Physical Sciences," and one
or two treatises of a religious character which he published,
are full of a lofty and glowing eloquence. He gave a few
lectures in mathematics to the class which, I believe, were
totally incomprehensible to every one of his listeners with
the possible exception of Child. He would take the chalk
in his hand and begin in his shrill voice, "If we take," then
he would write an equation in algebraic characters, "thus
we have," following it by another equation or formula. By
the time he had got his blackboard half covered, he would
get into an enthusiasm of delight. He would rub the legs
of his pantaloons with his chalky hands and proceed on his
lofty pathway, apparently unconscious of his auditors. What
has become of all those wonderful results of genius I do not
know. He was invited to a banquet by the Harvard Alumni in
New York where he was the guest of honor.
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