In Retrospect 285 



thinking hard about the whole question which every el- 

 derly person in an administrative capacity has been pon- 

 dering — as to whether or not he is pulling his weight in 

 the boat at times like this. Or should I shut the Museum 

 up and walk away from it for the duration? Then I read 

 something which clarified my thoughts and proved extraor- 

 dinarily comforting. You remember when Justice Holmes 

 told of walking down Pennsylvania Avenue on a drizzly 

 night, after a long session of the Court which had involved 

 argumentation, perplexity, and perhaps some bickering, 

 and how raising his eyes and looking ahead he saw out over 

 the Treasury Department clear sky and the shining of 

 stars. Well, the stars have shone for me in the form of 

 some lines recently written by my friend Dr. Albert Eide 

 Parr, the distinguished new Director of the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History in New York. Feeling that we 

 need a credo for our work, he writes: — 



This war is not a war for material gain, but a war 

 for the protection of a civilization. Therefore, the spir- 

 itual home front has an importance in this struggle 

 which it never had in the imperialistic battles of old. 

 And on this spiritual home front the war itself imposes 

 a terrible handicap upon our efforts. Democracy is a 

 type of government designed for peace and civilized 

 living. We who have had opportunity to mature in 

 a democracy at peace have learned to love it for the 

 beauty it reveals under the proper conditions for its 

 existence. Our love for it is permanent. We can sus- 

 pend its freedom for its own protection, and hide 

 many of its beauties to the world, safe in the knowl- 



