APPRECIATIONS 443 



to be ruffled or disturbed. Extraordinary as his mental 

 faculties were, he had evidently added to their efficiency 

 by severe discipline, for he possessed that infallible mark 

 of a well-trained mind, of having all of his great and diver- 

 sified stores of knowledge classified and grouped together 

 in his brain according to subjects; so that he could call 

 up his whole knowledge of any subject at a moment's 

 notice. Another remarkable thing about Prof. Baird's 

 mental composition was that with a thoughtful, scientific 

 cast of mind, were united qualities of the most practical 

 character. Prof. Baird was a scientific man by nature. 

 He loved science and scientific studies; but at the same 

 time no man had a sounder judgment or a clearer head 

 in the management of practical affairs than he. It is 

 very rare to see scientific and practical qualities of mind 

 united in such an eminent degree as they were in Prof. 

 Baird. 



Prof. Baird was gifted with still another unusual 

 mental endowment which reminds one strongly of one of 

 the traits of the first Napoleon. With that comprehen- 

 siveness of mind which takes in the broad features and 

 large general outlines of a great enterprise, he combined, 

 as Napoleon did, a capacity for close and thorough atten- 

 tion to all the details of a subject, down to the minutest 

 item necessary to success. This combination, as we all 

 know, is a rare one. As an illustration of Prof. Baird's 

 wonderfully retentive memory and easy grasp of details, 

 as well as his gift, also remarkable, for a rapid dispatch 

 of practical work, I may mention a little incident that 

 occurred at Calais, Me., where I visited him in 1872, 

 which has fastened itself on my mind ever since. He had 

 received twenty-seven letters by the mail of the day before 



