122 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



velop the higher life of a community. Education, art, sci- 

 ence, in their higher departments, — all that which we call 

 culture, as well as all, even the most common charity, must 

 look — not to the government, but to the individual, to as- 

 sert and enforce their claims. And the individual who is 

 to do this, is not of a distinct race or profession or pursuit. 

 He is, and must be, one of ourselves. He must be the man 

 whom we meet in our daily walk, as the merchant, the manu- 

 facturer, the lawyer, financier, clergyman, or man of af- 

 fairs, who has been made to see, and does see, that there is 

 a more complete and more enjoyable life than that which 

 is wholly confined within the narrow boundary of the ware- 

 house, the ofiice, or the shop. 



If we should strike out from our States and cities the insti- 

 tutions, religious and secular, founded and sustained solely 

 by private munificence, the barrenness of our civilization 

 in its higher range of influence would be most startling. 

 Our churches, colleges, academies, museums, asylums, hos- 

 pitals, libraries, our institutions for the study and develop- 

 ment of science, art, music, — all these owe their origin and 

 their support to a recognition on the part of individual citi- 

 zens of a vital need which Government cannot meet. 



Mr. Shaw had the capacity and the good fortune to see 

 that there was a fuller life for him than his career as a 

 merchant afforded, and before middle age he found, in that 

 wonderful and complex mystery which we call nature, as 

 manifested in fruit, and flower and tree, the possibilities 

 of that larger life to him which brightened and blessed more 

 than half a century of his own existence, and will continue 

 to brighten and bless this community for centuries to come. 



It was a large thought, that which years ago came to him, 

 to perpetuate the magnificent work which his love and in- 

 terest had created and developed ; and having shared it 

 most generously with his contemporaries, to make it live 

 for generations to come. 



Many men have had just such dreams of beneficence. It 

 is the weakness of our poor human nature that we permit 



