s in the School of Philosophy of Columbia University,
taking courses in Philosophy and Education under Professor Nicholas
Murray Butler, and in Germanic Literatures and Germanic Philology under
Professors Boyesen, William H. Carpenter and Calvin Thomas. It was under
the guidance of Professor Carpenter that the present work was conceived
and executed.

Such a brief outline of Mr. Nordby's career can, however, give but an
imperfect view of his activities, while it gives none at all of his
influence. He was a teacher who impressed his personality, not only upon
his students, but upon all who knew him. In his character were united
force and refinement, firmness and geniality. In his earnest work with
his pupils, in his lectures to the teachers of the New York Public
Schools and to other audiences, in his personal influence upon all with
whom he came in contact, he spread the taste for beauty, both of poetry
and of life. When his body was carried to the grave, the grief was not
confined to a few intimate friends; all who had known him felt that
something noble and beautiful had vanished from their lives.

In this regard his career was, indeed, rich in achievement, but when we
consider what, with his large equipment, he might have done in the world
of scholarship, the promise, so untimely blighted, seems even richer.
From early youth he had been a true lover of books. To him they were not
dead things; they palpitated with the life blood of master spirits. The
enthusiasm for William Morris displayed in the present essay is typical
of his feeling for all that he considered best in literature. Such an
enthusiasm, communicated to those about him, rendered him a vital force
in every company where works of creative genius could be a theme of
conversation.

A love of nature and of art accompanied and reinforced this love of
literature; and all combined to produce the effect of wholesome purity
and elevation which continually emanated from him. His influence, in
fact, was largely of that pervasive sort which depends, not on any
special word uttered, and above all, not on any preachment, but upon the
entire character and life of the man. It was for this reason that his
modesty never concealed his strength. He shrunk above all things from
pushing himself forward and demanding public notice, and yet few ever
met him without feeling the force of character that lay behind his
gentle and almost retiring demeanor. It was easy to recognize