WILLIAM KEITH BROOKS 455 



we speak of inherent properties as nature and of superinduced 

 changes of experience as nurture, in the life of Brooks we must 

 emphasize the great importance of his nature; the childlike excel- 

 lencies and deep thought-power given him from his origin while 

 on the other hand the value of his nurture should not be over- 

 looked. One of his early companions has recently said: "In all 

 his training at home, in school and at college he was rigidly sur- 

 rounded with influences adverse to original research or to scientific 

 study." But we must not forget the formative power of his 

 mother's influence, his church and school training, his college 

 life and contact with great naturalists and later his rich oppor- 

 tunities at the Johns Hopkins and its seaside laboratories. 



His talents were inborn and overcame obstacles and assimilated 

 opportunities; but other opportunities might have made a very 

 different result. His life was reactive to environment, but the 

 environment acted as a stimulus and he reacted after his kind 

 and was not passively molded by circumstances. 



When all is said, William Keith Brooks was able to leave his 

 mark on the development of science in America not so much by 

 any "mystery" of "genius" as by stubborn labor, conscientious 

 application to duty, by pertinacity of purpose, by concentration 

 of his forces upon what he could do, by wisely seizing opportunities 

 for self-expression, by living much in the ideal world so that he 

 was not crushed by the weight of daily burdens and above all by 

 being able to keep much of his child spirit even to the end. 



