Memorial Meeting. 29 



It is true that every administrator must Icaru and oro^- with the 

 progress of his work ; but that the work shoukl be put into the hands of 

 total inexperience, as is frequently suggested, is like insisting that all 

 our genealogies should be traced from Adam and Eve. 



The relations which Goode bore to the scientific activity of the country 

 and less directly to that of the world are best understood through a sketch 

 of Museum administration in the concrete. We may begin with condi- 

 tions in such an institution itself. 



It is hardl}' true, as I have heard it somewhat broadly stated by one of 

 tlie uninitiated, that "scientific men are all cranks," though this estimate 

 is by no means without its supporters. Yet it can not be denied that there 

 is something out of the common and, to the average citizen, peculiar 

 in the mental constitution which leads to the adoption of a profession 

 which offers no pecuniary reward at all adequate to the required exertion ; 

 which, in this country at least, extends little hope of discrimination from 

 quacks and charlatans adept at attracting public notice ; in which the 

 modest prizes are few and far between, promotion problematical ; where 

 the worker mUvSt congratulate himself if he is able to support and educate 

 his family without actual privation, and must find his reward, if at all, 

 in the consciousness of work well done and the esteem of a few contempo- 

 rary toilers. Such a mental constitution, I repeat, does have in it some- 

 thing different from that of the ordinary mind and something which the 

 average man finds difficult to reconcile with his idea of common sense. 

 Onh' the other day I heard of a conscientious guardian of an orphan Avith 

 a small competence, who refused to allow the bo}' to follow his natural 

 bent and become a naturalist, on the ground that it would be a dereliction 

 of duty if the guardian permitted his ward to enter upon a career in which 

 the rewards are .so few and financial success so doubtful. 



Those in whom the bent is so strong as to defy all obstacles not infre- 

 quently are somewhat one-sided people. They feel, as they ought to 

 feel, that their own specialty is the most important of the many domains 

 of .science. Since they have not hesitated at any .sacrifice to devote them- 

 .selves to it, it is not unnatural that they .should feel that from colaborers 

 in science, support, encouragement, and a .sufficient allotment from the 

 common fund are justh' due. In a great museum this connnon fund or 

 income is never sufficient to meet all demands. The director nnist l)e 

 more than human who can apportion di.sappointment without exciting- 

 disapproval. Yet in the midst of annual expre.s.sions of regret I never 

 heard Goode 's justice or kindly feeling questioned. 



It sometimes happens, as a .scientist is human, that the weaknesses or 

 faults of our connnon humanity find a lodgment with him, possibly even 

 to the point where a love of .science .seems the only thread withholding 

 him from utter shipwreck. The kindly and generous nature of Profes.sor 

 Baird, joined to a certain practical shrewdness, enabled him to utilize and 

 succor, from time to time, such waifs, putting them where the redeeming 

 virtue might exert its wholesome influence and the broken soul might 



