1888, ] 229 [Brinton. 
one’s own needs. This classification impressed me as comprehensive and 
just, and was, I am quite sure, original with him. 
The amelioration of society in modern times he explained as due to the 
evolution of the benevolent emotions and of the sense of justice through 
enlarged social relations, and not to religious dogmas. All such dogmas 
and doctrines he looked upon as transient forms of man’s intelligence in 
its progressive development toward clear materialism, which teaches that 
beyond the properties of matter, its elements and laws, there is nothing. 
Such an opinion may in the future prove to be the ripened fruit of the 
tree of knowledge; or new discoveries in the field of psychic research 
may pronounce it narrow and fallacious. No mortal can say. At present, 
the advocates of such tenets are few, and their presentation unwelcome, 
especially in this country. A considerable degree of moral courage is 
required to maintain them, and this should always be placed to the credit 
of those who conscientiously attach themselves to a small and unpopular 
minority. 
Finding his pleasure almost exclusively in such studies, themes purely 
of the intellect, he cared little for the beautiful in art or nature. He 
quoted with approbation Dr. Johnson’s reply when asked to stroll through 
the fields near London, ‘‘ Let us walk down the Strand ; let us see men.’’ 
Equally indifferent was he both to what is called society, and to the 
games and amusements in which most men pass their leisure. I never 
knew him to take a drive for pleasure, nor to play a game of cards or 
billiards, nor to go gunning or fishing, nor to attend a concert, nor to 
visit a picture gallery. Through this narrowness of his tastes he became 
almost a recluse in his later years, and was frequently misunderstood by 
those whom he did meet. He devoted his time to reading, being of the 
opinion of Lord Bacon, that ‘‘Reading is converse with the wise; but 
action is, for the most part, commerce with fools.’’ 
Law was averse to the labor of composition. He prepared a few papers 
for reading before the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society, whose meet- 
ings he attended with regularity, but I believe nothing he wrote was 
published in full. Most of these papers were ‘descriptive of historic 
sociological conditions, either in this country or in Europe. Mr. Isaac 
Myer, the competent historiographer of the Numismatic and Antiquarian 
Society, has given their titles, together with a number of genealogical and 
biographical details in the necrology of Mr. Law which he laid before that 
Society. 
Such limited regults of a life of leisure mainly devoted to literary and 
historical study is a phenomenon common enough in this age. It was 
not altogether due to indolence or timidity. The pursuit of fame, pro- 
nounced a disease by Milton, and overtly despised by Shakespeare, be- 
comes the most trivial of motives to one who is accustomed to compare 
the momentary duration of human life with the infinite measures of time 
and space. All his intimate friends know that this was a familiar topic of 
