August 23, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



211 



was always for the noblest and best in hu- 

 man effort. While too engrossed in his 

 scientific and philosophic writings to take 

 the initiative in University or public affairs, 

 he was ever in touch with the progress of 

 the time, and ever sympathetic and health- 

 ful in advance movements. He was of an 

 exceptionally cheerful and happy disposi- 

 tion and was possessed of a fund of humor 

 that made him a sparkling and entertaining 

 conversationalist. He had the graces and 

 manner and speech and chivalric instincts 

 of a gentleman of the old southern school. 

 He was beloved by the whole University, 

 and with increasing years this love became 

 a sort of veneration, so that he was in the 

 later years of his life the veritable idol of 

 the University community. 



His death, without lingering pain, in the 

 midst of the grand Sierra that he loved so 

 well, surrounded by many of his friends, 

 was a fitting close to his long life. His 

 kindly presence and benign influence will 

 long live in the memory of the University, 

 and in the world of science he has certainly 

 established for himself a monument more 

 lasting than brass. 



Andrew C. Lawson. 



Univeesity of Califoenia, 



AN AMERICAN SENATE OF SCIENCE. 

 When in the course of human events the 

 most vigorous colonies of the New "World 

 deemed it necessary to found a nation, they 

 cast aside tradition and example and in- 

 vented a sj^stem of government based on 

 the theory of human equality. The move- 

 ment opened a new chapter in the history 

 of nations ; earlier governments grew into 

 form much as the primitive implement takes 

 shape by continued use, but this was a dis- 

 tinct creation, like the complex tool in- 

 vented and made for a purpose ; and the 

 fundamental theory was new in application 

 if not in thought. The invention of the 

 colonists was applied experimental!}", and 



worked well ; minor changes were found 

 needful here and there in the adjustment 

 of the mechanism to its work, yet remark- 

 ably enough the most sweeping changes led 

 directly toward the fundamental theory of 

 equality ; and for a century and a quarter 

 the world's first invented government has 

 proved the world's most successful govern- 

 ment. The device of governing bj^ the 

 people for the people was adopted by the 

 component organizations with equally satis- 

 factory results. The colonies, and after 

 them the states, rested on the fundamental 

 theory ; the municipalities followed ; coun- 

 ties and townships and villages adopted 

 practice and theory together ; and political 

 organizations sprang from the theory to 

 shape the practice of governmentation. In 

 the smaller organizations as in the larger 

 the governmental mechanism has worked 

 well ; difficulties have arisen, yet remark- 

 ably enough most of these have resulted 

 from the opposition of one-man power to 

 the theory of equal rights ; and the world's 

 most striking examples of growth in cities 

 and States are found in numbers in the na- 

 tion invented by its founders. 



The essential mechanism of the invented 

 government was that of control by equi- 

 tably selected representatives. Provision for 

 keeping the control adjusted to current 

 needs was made by limiting tenure of ofiice 

 and excluding hereditary privilege ; while 

 provision against undue instability was 

 made by arranging for the equitable selec- 

 tion of representatives of a second order, 

 i. e., representatives of representatives. In 

 that branch of the government performing 

 legislative (or constructive) functions, these 

 representatives of representatives are organ- 

 ized in senates, whose powers are coordinate 

 with those of the primary representative 

 bodies. In general terms, the representa- 

 tive body is the progressive factor, the sen- 

 ate the conservative factor, of the body- 

 politic ; and it is the special function of the 



