ADDRESS OF HON. S. S. COX. 103 



charming simplicity, his loving domestic relations, his singleness of 

 purposej his freedom from sordid, jealous, harsh, and bitter qualities, 

 his chaste, subdued, and genial humor, his pure, poetic, and aesthetic 

 susceptibility, his benignant and dignified manner, his delight in 

 acquiring, what he imparted with so much suavity, and his earnest 

 and unobtrusive pursuit of lofty ends through noble means, gave 

 him felicity, ay, even genuine fame, in this life. 



Called to administer the Smithsonian trust, his conscientious 

 devotion gave it from the first the direction designed by the testator. 

 His aim was to originate and disseminate. He scattered the seed 

 broadcast, not through whim or favoritism, but on a matured plan. 

 His place required a love of science, along with a talent for organ- 

 ization. He brought these to bear upon the origination of 

 knowledge, and by his scientific sympathy and ready recognition 

 of others of his guild he commanded honest homage and became 

 the director, helper, and umpire in scientific disputation. Did the 

 War Department require his aid in meteorology? He gave the 

 plan of weather signals. Did the Census Bureau ask his help? 

 He planned the remarkable atlas as to rain-falls and temperature. 

 Did the Coast Survey require scientific suggestion, or the Centen- 

 nial Commissioners his judgment, or the new library and the " School 

 of Art" a friend and adviser, or the Light-House Board laws of 

 sound for fogs, and cheaper and better illumination? He freely 

 gave what was gladly welcomed. His Institution gave Agassiz 

 opportunity to study fishes, Baird birds, and all students encour- 

 agement to investigate our American archaeology and ethnology, as 

 well as our fauna and flora. 



The fund which was under his control was scrupulously used. 

 At our annual meetings as regents I cannot fail to recall the black- 

 board where his fisc was chalked with all the exactness of an old 

 accountant and explained with all the nervous solicitude of a school- 

 boy doing his first sum. 



