32 William Keith Brooks 



honored, and, with good cause, loved the man whose kind- 

 ness expressed itself in deeds not made public. 



Professor Brooks was very fond of good reading and 

 familiar with the classics of English literature and 

 though he was not able to acquire a library he did get and 

 keep at hand his favorite authors not for their bindings 

 but for their thoughts and modes of expression. His 

 enviable use of English came in part from his reading but 

 was primarily a habit of mind. 



For one of his dogs that chewed up Shakespeare and 

 Tennyson, he had only praise, as exhibiting the tastes of 

 a gentleman, but the other that destroyed cheap novels, 

 was a worthless rascal. An even more characteristic 

 judgment was expressed when one of his students told 

 him that it required three generations to make a gentle- 

 man, and he replied that he thought a gentleman was one 

 who had consideration for the feelings of others. 



In later years he developed a strong love of music, and 

 when it became impossible to work through the evenings, 

 as of old, he passed away many an hour in the enjoyment 

 of classical music that mechanical devices have made 

 reproducible by one who has had no leisure for musical 

 education. Beethoven's fifth symphony, the overture to 

 Tannhiiuser and some fugues of Bach were favorites of 

 his. 



His love of flowers led him to make what use he could 

 of a city window and when fate brought him a residence 

 outside the city, a great solace to him was the diminutive 

 greenhouse he was finally able to indulge in. Denied the 

 opportunities that Darwin had, he could not carry on the 

 experiments upon the breeding and heredity of plants that 

 he wished, but when, too late, he had some little space he 

 did such work as circumstances allowed. But it was 

 largely as a source of pleasure and relaxation that he 

 reared his favorite flowers. His attitude of mind towards 

 all forms of life was expressed in the following sentence : 



