WILLIAM KEITH BROOKS 451 



friends and neighbors and glad to converse when he had a topic 

 to develop or a congenial companion to listen to, but was often 

 absorbed and so lacking in small talk as to seem unapproachable. 



The topics of the day had peculiar aspects to him. In the Japan- 

 ese War it was the unfortunate people of Manchuria who greatly 

 excited his sympathy. The subject that interested him deeply 

 was part of him and came to the surface in place of mere common- 

 places; when giving lectures on the oyster problem he could talk 

 of nothing else; when wrestling with philosophical problems he 

 might give to his first met friend such sayings as "the term 'super- 

 natural ' is due to a misconception of nature, nature is everything 

 that is." 



Professor Brooks' anger rarely came to the surface, but he had 

 strong natural likes and dislikes which underwent unexpected 

 change as evidence accumulated. Bad politics, speciousness, and 

 dishonesty and oppression aroused his long-continued animosity. 

 He never forgave the superior officer who would defraud the state 

 by having him sign receipt for wages in excess of what he received. 



He had full sympathy for servants and those of restricted educa- 

 tion and did many a deed of kindness known to few. In the period 

 of his own greatest relief from poverty and acme of academic 

 renown he was found bringing daily bottles of milk from his coun- 

 try home that the motherless children of the faithful laboratory 

 servant might share his own advantages. 



His sympathies extended beyond his fellow-man to animals 

 and even to the plants he grew and tended as companions rather 

 than as specimens. For long years his close companion and 

 friend was the grand St. Bernard dog, "Tige," whom Professor 

 James of Harvard has referred to as "that noble dog." Following 

 his master from college life to Baltimore and through many of his 

 wanderings by the shore this constant comrade falling prey to 

 some heart disease was truly mourned and never forgotten, though 

 other dog friends, many and varied, later came in his stead. 



Professor Brooks was preeminently suited for the happy domes- 

 tic life he led as he could ignore the petty frictions of daily life 

 and though absorbed in his work yet rule with wisdom and firm- 



