SIR JAMES DEWAR CRICHTON-BROWNE 553 



than he to the occult in all its phases, and yet the press has been 

 not altogether wrong in ascribing to him a certain wizardry — " the 

 wizard of Albemarl Street " they have called him — for he was a 

 wonder-worker and threw a spell over his audience. Bent on the 

 pursuit of reality and on the control of nature through the advance- 

 ment of knowledge, there was scope in the amplitude of his mind 

 for ideal values. He had imagination, which is the forerunner of 

 science, " the vision and the faculty divine," and was a connoisseur 

 in music and the fine arts. On the bookshelves in his study, within 

 reach from his easy chair, were assembled well-worn copies of the 

 essays of Montaigne, Elia, and Emerson ; the poems of Hardy, Walt 

 Whitman, Rossetti, and Meredith; Landor's Imaginary Conver- 

 sations; Carlyle's Heroes; Sesame and Lilies, and the Cricket on 

 the Hearth. 



Dewar was knighted in 1904, and that was the only and wholly 

 inadequate recognition offered to him by his country, to which he 

 brought honor and profit. But foreign countries and learned bodies 

 were more appreciative of his merits than the dull-witted ministers 

 at home. The royal and philosophical societies and academies of 

 Rome, Belgium, New York, Philadelphia, Frankfort, Milan, and 

 Copenhagen were proud to inscribe his name on their rolls, and all 

 the four Scottish universities, as well as those of Oxford, Dublin, 

 Brussels, and Christiania, conferred on him honorary degrees. The 

 Royal Society awarded him its Copely, Rumford, and Davy medals, 

 and he was president of the British Association in 1902. 



Sir James Dewar married in 1871, Helen Rose, daughter of Mr. 

 William Banks, of Edinburgh, and she survives him. Never had 

 savant a more propitious spouse. Lady Dewar entered keenly 

 into all her husband's interests, sustained him in his heavy 

 tasks, and created the first scientific salon in London. There are 

 few noted people in the world of science who have not attended 

 the receptions in her drawing room at the Royal Institution after 

 lectures there. 



