LATER YEARS 399 



Perhaps the hardships of his youth enabled him more 

 fully to appreciate the comforts of his later life. But not 

 one cent did he ever spend for ostentation, nor did his 

 surroundings ever in any way affect the simplicity of his 

 life or the efficiency of his work. 



Money to him was chiefly valuable in that it enabled 

 him to grasp wider scientific opportunities, and build 

 up in the Museum a great institution for study and re- 

 search in science. His ample fortune he poured out 

 lavishly for science. He would hesitate over the price 

 of a horse, while he bought without a thought, for 

 many times the sum, the fossil bones of its remote 

 ancestor. 



During his life his contributions to the Museum and 

 the University amounted to over a million and a half 

 dollars, and a further very considerable sum will even- 

 tually revert to Harvard University for the use of the 

 Museum. His attitude on the question of his expendi- 

 tures for science is well shown in a few lines from a 

 letter to Murray : " While the sum total seems a large 

 expenditure and one which appeals to the public and to 

 the University officials, I hope that my influence on 

 science at Cambridge will not always be measured by the 

 dollar standard, as it is so apt to be. What I care for 

 far more is the recognition of the fact that having the 

 means I have backed up my opinion of what was worth 

 doing by a free expenditure of funds, and furthermore, 

 that I have since 1870 devoted my time as completely 

 to the interests of the Museum as if I had been working 

 on a salary of 1500 a year. And that since that I have 

 published the results of my work continuously and hope 

 to be judged by that and not by the total I may have 

 spent for the same. I want to go down as a man of 



