" She approaches every truth
reverently, albeit joyously, for she feels that she is the leader of the
children over into the Promised Land. In the book already quoted,
Professor Phelps says, "I read in a German play that the mathematician
is like a man who lives in a glass room at the top of a mountain covered
with eternal snow--he sees eternity and infinity all about him, but not
much humanity." Not so in her teaching of mathematics; for every subject
and every problem transports her to the Isle of Patmos, and the hour is
crowded with revelations.
=Human interest.=--And wherever she is, there is humanity. There are no
dry bones in her work, for she invests every subject with human interest
and causes it to pulsate in the consciousness of her pupils. If there
are dry bones when she arrives, she has but to touch them with the magic
of her humanity, and they become things of life. Whether long division
or calculus, it is to her a part of the living, palpitating truth of the
world, and she causes it to live before the minds of the pupils. The
so-called dead languages spring to life in her presence, and, like
Aaron's rod, blossom and bring forth at her touch. Wherever she walks
there are resurrections because life begets life. No science, no
mathematics, no history, no language, can be dull or dry when touched by
her art, but all become vital because she is vital. By the subtle
alchemy of her artistic teaching all the subjects of her school are
transmuted into the pure gold of truth and beauty.
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