James E. Homans, editor

“ Hegeler believed in science, but he wanted to preserve the religious spirit with all its seriousness of endeavor, and in this sense he pleaded for the establishment of a religion of science. He recognized, for instance, that man with all his complicated psychical activity was a mechanism, but to him this truth was not derogatory to man, but an evidence of the great significance of machines. The mechanism of thinking is language, and so the speaking animal becomes the rational being. ”

“ His success in life is due to the combination of two qualities in his character, first the thoroughness with which he investigated from all sides the minutest details of a case when he had to take a stand, and then the insuperable persistence with which he stuck to it until he had achieved the desired result. ”

“ Hegeler and Mr. Matthiessen finally settled in La Salle, Ill., because its coal fields were nearest to the ore supply at Mineral Point, Wis. Here they started the Matthiessen and Hegeler Zinc Works on a small scale. The few employees of the original works grew in a comparatively short time, to upward of one thousand men, and the modest smelting-plant developed into one of the most modernly equipped smelters in the Middle West. ”