Mabch 5, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



373 



GOODE AS A NATURALIST.* 

 The designation ' naturalist ' was one 

 "which Goode richly earned and which he 

 held most dear, and our deep sorrow is that 

 his activity as a naturalist extended over 

 only a quarter of a century. It is pleasant 

 to reflect that he was a man of whom no 

 adverse word can ever be spoken either in 

 science or in character. We think of both 

 at this time because in him the man and the 

 profession were inseparable and constantly 

 interacting. His scientific virtues were of 

 an order rare as the Christian virtues, and 

 we cannot thoroughly understand his scien- 

 tific career unless we understand him as a 

 man. Errors of judgment, misleading 

 tenets and adherence to false hypotheses 

 among some of the most gifted of our pro- 

 fessional ancestors have arisen as often from 

 defect of principle and from personal preju- 

 dices as from defect of knowledge. We 

 see in our friend, on the other hand, that 

 the high standard of scientific achievement' 

 was constantly parallel with, and very 

 largely the outgrowth of, a high standard of 

 personal character and motive. 



In brief the work of the true naturalist 

 is ever lighted by the four lamps of love, 

 of truth, of breadth and of appreciation, 

 and all of these shone brightly upon the 

 path of Goode. His love of nature was in- 

 born, predetermining his career, and so far 

 surpassing his self-interest we fear it is only 

 too true that he sacrificed his life for the 

 diffusion of natural truth. So far as I know, 

 he never entered a scientific controversy, 

 and was never under temptation to warp or 

 deflect facts to support an hypothesis, yet 

 he was incapable of tampering with truth 

 under any circumstances which might have 

 arisen. His Presidential Address of 1887 

 before the Biological Society showed him as 



* Address at the ' Goode Memorial Meeting, ' Na- 

 tional Museum, Washington, February 13th, by 

 Henry Fairfield Osborn, DaCosta Professor of Zool- 

 ogy, Columbia University. 



scrupulous not to overestimate as he was. 

 eager not to underestimate the existing 

 status of American science. While largely 

 cultivated by wide experience in contact 

 with nature and men, his breadth of view 

 was certainly innate. If Goode had a 

 fault it was that his interests were too 

 numerous and his sympathies too broad. 

 He displayed not only a warm appreciation 

 of those around him and an enthusiasm for 

 contemporary research, but an exceptional 

 sense of the close bonds between the present 

 and the past, as seen in his admiration for 

 the pioneers of American science, and his 

 repeated vindication of their services. >This 

 passion for history led to an important phase 

 of his literary work. His fine addresses, 'The 

 Beginnings of ]S"atural History in America.' 

 (1886), The Beginnings of American Sci- 

 ence ' (1888), ' The Literary Labors of Ben- 

 jamin Franklin ' (1890), and ' The Origin 

 of the National Scientific and Educational 

 Institutions of the United States' (1890). 

 ' An Account of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion ' (1895), sprang from the same instinct 

 which prompted him to compile the valua- 

 ble bibliographies of Baird, of Girard, of 

 Lea and of Sclater, and to undertake the 

 remarkable genealogy of his own family 

 entitled ' Virginia Cousins.' The time, be- 

 tween 1887 and 1895, which he devoted to 

 these subjects caused some of his fellow 

 naturalists anxiety, yet I fancy this work 

 was largely sought by him for diversion 

 and rest, just as Michael Foster tells us that 

 philosophy and controversy served as rec- 

 reation to Huxley, at a time when over- 

 work had given him a passing distaste for 

 morphology. 



His trend of life, guided by these four 

 beacon lights, was swayed by two counter- 

 currents — first, his strong impulses as an 

 original investigator, and second, his con- 

 victions as to the duty of spreading the 

 knowledge of nature. These currents moved 

 him alternately. The most superficial view 



