Professor Browne's Tribute 21 



An anecdote which he once told me of himself is charac- 

 teristic of his way of thinking. When a boy and, I sup- 

 pose, a small boy his teacher once asked him: "If the 

 third of six be three, what will be the fourth of twenty?" 

 Young Brooks answered, "Five." The teacher, thinking 

 that he had not understood the question, repeated it. 

 "I don't see," said the boy, "that altering the value of six 

 alters the value of twenty." 



Dr. Brooks was fastidious about the language of any- 

 thing he wrote for publication, holding an obscure, 

 pedantic, or clumsy style in abomination. He often dis- 

 cussed various forms of phrasing, and arrangement of 

 clauses in a complex statement. Above all things he 

 aimed at being perfectly lucid, and would read to me 

 taking me as representing the average mind passages 

 from his manuscripts, to see if I found them absolutely 

 clear. 



In losing Dr. Brooks, the University has lost one of its 

 strongest and brightest minds, while I personally grieve 

 at the loss of an endeared friend. 



