SKETCH OF GEORGE BROWN GO ODE. 405 



reform, and climaxes of human achievement. This great an- 

 thropological syllabus of all knowledge Dr. Goode used as the 

 modulus of his own thoughts and a plan by which he arranged 

 his books, his pictures, his clippings from newspapers, useful 

 facts' gathered here and there, and everything of a material nature 

 which he desired to preserve." 



He was interested in botany and versed in it, making the study 

 of the flowers one of the attractions of his excursions ; an earnest 

 student of all matters pertaining to American history, a delver in 

 genealogy from his boyhood, author of a work on his family his- 

 tory, and one of the editors of the Wesleyan University Alumni 

 Record ; one of the founders of the American Historical Associa- 

 tion and a member of the Southern Historical Society ; was inter- 

 ested in patriotic societies, and an ofiQcer of those of the Sons of 

 the Revolution and Colonial Wars. He was a founder of several 

 scientific societies in Washington and a member of others in this 

 country ; was a past president of the Philosophical Society and 

 the Biological Society of Washington ; was elected a member of 

 the National Academy of Sciences in 1888 ; had been chosen in 

 the American Association to be vice-president for the Section of 

 Zoology at its meeting of 1897 ; and was a member of the Zoologi- 

 cal Society of London. 



Great as were Dr. Goode's scientific attainments and achieve- 

 ments, his friends and biographers are most emphatic in their 

 testimonials to his personal attractiveness. Prof. S. P. Langley, 

 whose associate he was in the Smithsonian Institution for many 

 years, says, in the memorial he contributed to Science : " I have 

 never known a more perfectly true, sincere, and loyal character 

 than Dr. Goode's ; or a man who with a better judgment of other 

 men or greater ability in molding their purposes to his own, 

 used these powers to such uniformly disinterested ends, so that he 

 could maintain the discipline of a great establishment like the 

 National Museum, while retaining the personal affection of every 

 subordinate. . . . His historical powers in grouping incidents and 

 events were akin to genius. His genealogical writings showed 

 wide and accurate research, while his literary faculty displayed 

 itself with singular charm in some of his minor writings. But 

 how futile these words seem to be in describing a man of whom 

 perhaps the best, after all, to be said is that he was not only 

 trusted but beloved by all with an affection that men rarely win 

 from one another ! " 



Mr. Gill says: "His disposition was a bright and sunny 

 one, and he ingratiated himself in the affections of his friends 

 in a marked degree. . . . But in spite of his gentleness, firm- 

 ness and vigor in action became manifest when occasion called 

 for them." 



