HIS POSTHUMOUS REPUTATION 243 



and scientific journals where the praises of former years 

 were repeated. The Athenaeum of July 21, 1888, after 

 pointing out how Maury's meteorological work had come 

 to be unduly depreciated, declared, 'The work {Physical 

 Geography of the Sea) remains one of undoubted genius — • 

 great if only for the impulse which it gave to the study of 

 this particular branch of physical geography and for the 

 enormous advance in the science of meteorology which 

 we owe to it". The Saturday Review of October 20, 1888 

 said that scientific navigation was almost non-existant 

 before Maury's work and that he had improved the 

 course of every ship on the sea. It would be tedious 

 to quote further from these reviews, and it will be 

 sufficient to state that they were unanimous in their 

 opinion that Maury deserved high rank among the 

 great scientists of the world because of his pioneer work 

 in the field of oceanography. 



In this connection, there is a letter which, because of 

 the fame of its author as well as the pertinence of its 

 contents, is of peculiar interest. Thomas Nelson Page, 

 the distinguished Virginia novelist, wrote to Mrs. 

 Matthew Fontaine Maury, ^ on the receipt of a copy of 

 Mrs. Corbin's biography of her father, as follows: 

 "Please accept my thanks for the biography of your 

 distinguished husband which will be an addition to our 

 library both on account of its literary merit and of the 

 information it contains of one of our greatest men. I 

 trust you may live to see the services he rendered man- 

 kind suitably commemorated by a monument worthy 

 of him. But whether you do or not, the time will 

 assuredly come when he will be recognized by our people 

 as an honor to the race from which he sprang. I esteem 



1 Mrs. Maury survived her husband until the year 1901. 



