424 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
ease that attends “‘a real love of work for the work’s own 
sake.’’ And when it became evident that the comparatively 
unbroken attention requisite for serious botanical study was 
not to be secured, and as soon as a building was prepared for 
their reception, he presented all his botanical books which 
were needed to the herbarium of Harvard University ; and 
the remainder, with his herbarium, to the Boston Society of 
Natural History, — not giving up the while his studious hab- 
its, but transferring his attention back to the Latin and the 
French classics, and in a certain degree to German and Italian 
literature. 
As his father was one of the leading promoters of the estab- 
lishment of the Botanic Garden of Harvard University, Mr. 
Lowell was also its most efficient supporter through its years 
of sorest need; and, in memory of his father, he bequeathed 
to it the sum of $20,000 in order to make his annual subven- 
tion perpetual. He made a legacy of equal amount to the 
general Library of the University, which he along with his 
father and grandfather had served in a most responsible trust 
for seventy years. He never sought or accepted any office in 
city or state; but few men were more sought for responsible 
trusts, or ever served their day and generation more devotedly, 
disinterestedly, and wisely. He seemed always to have a firm 
confidence in his own judgment, and that confidence appears 
not to have been misplaced. 
