XII OBITUARY NOTICES. 



of the day. He complained in his quiet way that he was obhged to 

 spend his days in executive and routine tasks. " Only the even- 

 ings," he remarked, "can I call my own, and these I must reserve 

 for my work." 



His health began to fail, as a result, no doubt, of this strain ; his 

 eye-sight, too — he was always very near-sighted — began to suffer, 

 and in the spring of 191 4 he resigned his post in the hope of enjoy- 

 ing some remaining years to be devoted to his favorite studies, and 

 in carrying on the congenial duties of Secretaire Perpetuel of the 

 Academic des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, to which he was elected 

 when it became known that he intended to return to Paris. He 

 reached home in August, just as the War broke out, only to be struck 

 down by an attack of heart disease, from which he never fully re- 

 covered. The War brought deep sorrow to him as a French patriot, 

 and also a severe personal bereavement in the death of his talented 

 son, Jean Maspero, who fell in battle on the 17th of February, 191 5. 

 Jean Maspero was following in the footsteps of his father and had 

 already achieved a high reputation as one of the most brilliant of 

 the younger scholars of France when he gave tip his life to his 

 country. The father writes pathetically of this : " Until now I felt 

 considerably younger than my age. I cannot tell you how I have 

 aged in a few months." The blow, no doubt, hastened the end, and 

 he died suddenly at a meeting of the French Academy, of which 

 for over forty years he had been one of the most distinguished 

 members. 



The death of Maspero suggests a remark of a more general 

 character. To the man of science such a catastrophe as this, the 

 most tragic war in history, brings a sorrow additional to that which 

 affects the patriots of all the belligerent nations (and of neutrals as 

 well), for it means the severance of international ties which in the 

 case of Maspero were particularly numerous and close. Through 

 his writings and through his directorship of the Service of Anti- 

 quities he was brought into contact with the scholars of all nations — 

 not least with the savants of Germany, whose activity in Egyptology, 

 as in all branches of science, is so marked. His Recueil was open 

 to the scholars of all lands — its international character was shown 

 by the large number of contributions that appeared in it in Ger- 

 man and English. Absorbed as we naturally are by the more ob- 



