EDITOR'S TABLE. 



497 



applications to the trustees of the Tyn- 

 dall fund for aid to young men of gen- 

 ius and aptitude for research, which, 

 if it could have been granted, would 

 have given them a career, and told in 

 the most effectual way toward the ex- 

 tension of scientific knowledge. But 

 the sum consecrated by Prof. Tyndall 

 to this important end was not adequate 

 i to the wants of a nation. It was a large 

 gift for a scientific professor without 

 wealth, and, by the wise directions of 

 the donor, it will be productive of large 

 and lasting good, but it was given also 

 to call emphatic attention to a neglect- 

 ed field of education, well worthy of the 

 consideration of generous persons who 

 desire to be certain that their benefac- 

 tions will be well directed and confer 

 real benefit. We do not say that Prof. 

 Tyndall desired to set an example to 

 anybody, but only that he contributed 

 what was in his power to give an im- 

 pulse to science in this country in a di- 

 rection that was most needed ; but how 

 little Americans care for the object he 

 had in view is shown by the fact that, 

 amid all the multitudinous donations, 

 gifts, and squanderings of wealth, on 

 all sorts of objects, not a dollar has yet 

 been added to the Tyndall fund for 

 the promotion of scientific research by 

 helping to train capable and ambitious 

 young men for the work ! 



The country is characterized by the 

 mad pursuit of wealth and the worship 

 of riches ; but this is not the worst, for 

 along with this sordid passion there go 

 the most vulgar and ignoble ideals of 

 the uses of wealth. That ignorant, low- 

 minded men, who become millionaires 

 by inheritance or speculation, should 

 spend their money in tawdry ostenta- 

 tion is to be expected ; but the worst is, 

 that gentlemen of sobriety, cultivation, 

 and earnestness of character, who have 

 large means at their disposal, should 

 bestow them in charities that often do 

 more harm than good, or in endowing 

 professorships or building institutions 

 that give notoriety to their names, and 



VOL. XIII. 32 



are of but little other use. Meantime, 

 the country stands arraigned before the 

 world for its lack of interest in those 

 higher developments of thought which 

 have given origin to civilization, and 

 for giving their most powerful impulse 

 to tendencies which threaten the de- 

 terioration of society and the degen- 

 eracy and debasement of civilization 

 itself. 



THE LA TE MR. GEORGE S. APPLETON. 



Since the appearance of the last 

 number of this magazine, one of the 

 company of brothers by whom it is 

 published has passed away. Most of 

 our readers have, no doubt, been in- 

 formed by the newspapers that Mr. 

 George S. Appleton died July 7th, at 

 the age of fifty-seven. His unexpected 

 death has been a painful shock to the 

 relatives and intimate friends, by whom 

 he was much beloved, and who are now 

 left with only the consolatory memory 

 of his many excellences of character. 

 A few memorial words in regard to him 

 will be appropriate in this place. 



Mr. Appleton was a gentleman of 

 marked mental accomplishments, such 

 as are but rarely met with in the com- 

 mon walks of practical life. He was 

 liberally educated, his early tastes and 

 aptitudes for study being favored by 

 attendance upon the best schools at 

 home, and more completely developed 

 by a four years' course at a German 

 university. He was a wide and care- 

 ful reader, but, as he designed to de- 

 vote himself to the publishing business, 

 he was specially interested in lingual 

 studies, being a critical student of Eng- 

 lish and a master of the German, French, 

 and Italian languages. He also gave 

 early and prominent attention to the 

 subject of art, was familiar with its 

 history, and a discriminating critic in 

 several of its principal departments. 



But, though a man of refinement, 

 of elegant culture, and fastidious tastes, 

 Mr. Appleton did not allow aesthetic 



