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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 114. 



of his career sliows that his whole environ- 

 ment fostered his public spirit and made 

 difficult, and at times impossible, the re- 

 tirement so essential to the studies of nature. 



G-oode's practical and public achieve- 

 ments for natural history, therefore, do him 

 even more honor than his writings, because 

 from June, 1870, when he graduated from 

 Wesleyan University, to September, 1896, 

 administrative service became paramount, 

 and he was free to devote only the odd 

 intervals of his time to research. Our 

 great gain in the national institutions he 

 has advanced is our corresponding loss in 

 icthyology and the kindred branches of 

 zoology. 



Goode's successful work in the natural 

 history courses at Wesleyan led at gradu- 

 ation to a position in the College Museum, 

 where in 1870 he at once showed his great 

 talent for systematic arrangement. In 

 further preparation for zoology he went to 

 Harvard and for a few months came under 

 the genial influence of Louis Agassiz. But 

 the turning point in his life came in 1872, 

 when, working as a volunteer upon the 

 United States Fish Commission at Eastport, 

 he met Spencer F. Baird. The kind of 

 simple but irresistible force which Abraham 

 Lincoln exerted among statesmen, Baird 

 seems to have exerted among naturalists. 

 He at once noted young Goode's fine 

 qualities, adopted him and rapidly came to 

 be the master spirit in his scientific life. 

 Goode delighted to work with a man so 

 full of all that constitutes true greatness. 

 He frequently spoke of Baird as his master, 

 and intimate friends say that he never 

 showed quite the same buoyant spirit after 

 Baird's death — he felt the loss so keenly. 

 Baird took Goode to Washington in the 

 winter of 1872, and practically deter- 

 mined his career, for he promoted him 

 rapidly through every grade of the Fish 

 Commission and Museum service. It is 

 hard to realize now the intensely rapid and 



eager development of our national scientific 

 institutions in those years. 



No doubt Baird's mantle fell fittingly 

 upon Goode's shoulders, and he had all but 

 the magnificent physique of his master to 

 qualify him for this heavy burden. His 

 talents and methods were of a difi'erent 

 order. Both men enjoyed universal ad- 

 miration, respect and even love, but Baird 

 drove men before him with quiet force, 

 while Goode drew men after him. Lacking 

 the self-confidence of Baird, Goode was 

 rather persuasive than insistent. His suc- 

 cess of administration also came partly 

 from an instinctive knowledge of human 

 nature and his large faculty of putting him- 

 self in other men's shoes. He sought out 

 the often-latent best qualities of the men 

 around him and developed them. When 

 things were out of joint and did not move 

 his way he waited with infinite patience for 

 the slow operation of time and common 

 sense to set them right. He was singularly 

 considerate of opinion. ISTot " I think," but 

 " Don't you think ?" was his way of entering 

 a discussion. I am reminded of the gentle- 

 ness of my teacher, Francis Balfour, when 

 one of his students carelessly destroyed a 

 rare and valuable preparation, as I learn 

 from one of Goode's associates that, under 

 similar provocation, without a word of re- 

 proof, he stooped over to repair the damage 

 himself. He was fertile of original ideas 

 and suggestions, full of invention and of 

 new expedients, studying the best models 

 at home and abroad, but never bound by 

 any traditions of system or of classification. 

 He showed these qualities in a- marked de- 

 gree in the remarkable Fisheries Exhibit 

 which he conceived and executed for Berlin 

 in 1879, and continued to show them in his 

 rapid development of the scope as well as 

 the detail of a great museum. To all his 

 work also he brought a refined artistic taste, 

 shown in his methods of printing and label- 

 ing, as well as in his encouragement of the 



