DISCOURSE OF W. B. TAYLOR. 363 



perfect self-control led the casual acquaintance to regard him as 

 reserved and unimpressible. Of him it may be truly said in 

 simple and oft-quoted words: 



" His life was gentle; and the elements 

 So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up 

 And say to all the world This was a MAN!" 



With all his broad humanity, he possessed but little of what is 

 known as "humor." He could enjoy the ludicrous more heartily 

 when drolly narrated by its appreciative victims, than when sarcas- 

 tically recited at the expense of another. The sparkle of wit he 

 fully appreciated, provided it were free from coarseness and from 

 personal satire. From the subordination of his sense of humor to 

 his native instinct of sincerity, he had no approbation or indeed 

 tolerance of "practical jokes/ 7 holding that the shock to the feel- 

 ings or to the confidence of the dupe, is far too high a price for the 

 momentary hilarity enjoyed by the thoughtless at a farcical situa- 

 tion. Newspaper hoaxes literary or scientific, in like manner 

 received his stern reprobation, as uncompensated injuries to popular 

 trust and to the cause of popular enlightenment. 



Strong in his unerring sense of justice and of right, he allowed 

 no prospects of personal advantage to influence his judgment in 

 action, in decision, or in opinion : he never availed himself of 

 the opportunities offered by his position, of reaping gain from 

 profitable suggestions or favorable awards : and he never willingly 

 inflicted an injury even on the feelings of the humblest. ' This was 

 characteristically shown in the pains taken to convince the judg- 

 ment of those against whose visionary projects he was so often called 

 upon to report in the public interests of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 of the Light-House service, and of the General Government: 

 often expending an amount of valuable time and of patience which 

 few so situated would have accorded, or could well have afforded. 

 And yet on the other hand when himself the subject of injustice, 

 misconstruction, or abuse, he never suffered himself to be provoked 

 into a controversy; as if holding life too serious, time too pre- 

 cious, to be wasted in mere disputation. Least of all did he ever 

 think of resorting to retaliatory conduct or to the expression of 

 opprobrious sentiments. He calmly put aside disturbing elements, 



