JOHN BARNARD SWETT JACKSON. 351 



rendering presentable some dilapidated tenant of his immortalizing 

 receptacles. 



In many points, he resembled that model of all the finest qualities 

 which belong to the student of science, Dr. Jeffries Wyman. In both 

 the love of knowledge for its own sake was the divine gift which set 

 them apart from the men of mixed motives, who have a conditional 

 liking for truth among many other things. It is truly an inspiration, 

 as much so as that of the poet, which renders students of nature like ' 

 "Wyman and Jackson restless under the stimulus of half knowledge, 

 and keeps them wakeful until they have got at some secret which 

 seems to hide itself from their search. Few, very few of our men of 

 science pass so large a part of their lives in their laboratories. In 

 both there was the same union of modesty of statement with confi- 

 dence in the accuracy of what they alleged as the result of their own 

 observation. Each knew the other's exactness and trustworthiness. 

 Dr. Jackson often cited the keen observations of Dr. Wyman with the 

 evident feeling that he was referring to a man whose eyes were as 

 sharp as his own, — the highest compliment one observer can pay 

 another. He would not have claimed the discursive range or the in- 

 ventive ingenuity which so eminently belonged to the Cambridge bio- 

 logist aud comparative anatomist, whose large outlook took a wider 

 field of knowledge for its province. But, differing in their special 

 gifts, their noblest qualities were such as belonged equally to both. 

 If such a title were known to the calendar as Saints of Science, both 

 these faithful, sincere, modest, pure-minded students of nature would 

 be numbered among them. 



A new generation had grown up since Dr. Jackson had passed the 

 middle term of life. The aspect of his chosen branch of knowledge 

 had greatly changed since he stood forth as its oracle among us. But 

 the whole profession kuew what he had done for it ; the older mem- 

 bers had seen him building up the two museums of which he was the 

 chief architect ; the younger knew, in some measure at least, the 

 breadth and depth of his long-continued labors. So when a few years 

 since the proposal was made that he should be invited to sit for his 

 portrait, it met with a response which showed that the profession 

 which he had served so long and well could not wait to bear their 

 testimony to the universal esteem and veneration in which he was 

 held until that terra should be reached when praise wastes itself 

 unheard by those upon whom it is lavished. His quiet life will be 

 long remembered in the truly monumental works it has left as his 

 record. 



