25 



extendiiii;'. and while liis views were enlar^inj^ and hi>! opinions were 

 approacliing more and more to maturity, it is not strange that he did 

 not pulilish. He was not yet ready. And it must be remembered that 

 he died early, just entering his tit'ty-uinth year, and probably like most 

 .sanguine persons, he looked forward to many coming years for making 

 known his researches to the world. But it may be that by his death 

 and the publication of his truly heroic and glorious example to the 

 world, more good will be done than he could have done by his pen. 

 We speak deliberately when we say, his example is heroic and glori- 

 ous. Peace has its heroism and its glory as well as war. The entire 

 devotion of the heart to high and noble purposes, the firm determina- 

 tion, the unbending will, the generous forgetfuluess of self in enter- 

 prises for the welfare of man, all may be as true and as productive of 

 great results in peace as in the field of battle. 



His importation of Inca literature is an illustration of a declaration 

 lately made by an intelligent merchant whose business is the importa- 

 tion of books, and who said that Dr. Wilson annually imported more 

 books than any other man in America. He gave away not onl}^ single 

 volumes but entire libraries. We have already referred to the giving 

 of his medical library to the Philadelphia Medical Society; we have 

 spoken of the library of the Academy of Natural Sciences, of the libra- 

 ry of the Entomological Society, and we must add, a library to the 

 Historical Society of Philadelphia. Maclure had donated several hun- 

 dred French volumes, in paper covers, to the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences. They were exceedingly valuable as historical documents, 

 being official journals and reports of the French authorities during the 

 exciting times of the old Revolution. The members of the Academy 

 being devoted to the Natural Sciences, never expected to use those old 

 historic records which occupied valuable spaces on their crowded 

 shelves. It was determined, therefore, to offer them for sale, at the 

 price of §500. to the Historical Society, which would find them directly 

 in the line of their labors. When this had been done. Dr. Wilson 

 pciid the S500 and presented them to the Historical Society with §1,000 

 in addition to have them bound. The Academy has established the 

 $500 as the Maclure fund, whose annual interest is applied to purchase 

 for their library appropriate volumes, in the front of which Maclure's 

 name is to be inscribed. It was perfectly understood both in the En- 

 tomological Society and the Academy of Natural Sciences that no 

 member should be retarded in his investigations for want of books. 

 He had simply to make known to Dr. Wilson his desires and the books 



