Aflor tlir(m Bonpratlons o! SKitosmPn 

 klniillllcl wllh llio K'-oiilOMt liublln affalrH, 

 Iho I'ourth, w^rllo Uio oklor sons > 

 ,s yfh-f^ not without pubUo 

 (liKtlnctlon, proliably tlin 

 widfr IntPllfcHial pro-omliloiico of tlio 

 Adams fanillv muHt lif, nHcrlbed to ITon- 

 I'.v and Hi-(Hik.M an two of tlio profoundoHt 

 liiinkors and most n.ccomidlHliod wrltcr.H 

 oL' thrlr tlnio In blutory and philosophy, 

 In which thry attained Intornatlonal rec- 

 nfrnltlon. Thoro Is room for dlfferonco of 

 oiilnkin about tlin rcspocllvo mrrltM of 

 tlio momborM of thlM IllustrloviH lino; 

 llioro haH boen dUToronro of opinion 

 about It In the Adams family itsolf. It 

 may bo doubtful if any two of them 

 fully agreed as to whether John or John 

 Qulncy was the greater man, and Brooks 

 was accustomed to say, perhaps not unin- 

 fluenced by filial pride, that he regarded 

 his father, Charles Francis, as the great- 

 est man and his brother Henry as the 

 greatest mind ho ever knew. This at 

 least discredits the gibe of a hundred 

 years, having no other foundation than 

 the family traits of Independence of 

 thought and unbridled plainness of 

 speech, that no Adams ever spoke well 

 of any other Adams and no two of them 

 ever agreed about any other. Their 

 Idiosyncrasies must be overlooked In 

 view of their public' Virtues. 



+ + + 



Brooks Adams has led the retired life 

 of a scholar and writer, comparatively 

 unknown to his contemporaries, but with 

 all his limitations, he was a man of a 

 high ordor of ability who has never been 

 taken here at hl.=! true value. After grad- 

 uating from Plarvard In 1870, he began 

 as a lawyer, and In his later years de- 

 clared It to be the great disappointment 

 of his life that he had not succeeded In 

 that profession, but hla mfental structure 

 was too Inflexible for It and his powers 

 would have been wasted In that field. 

 Finding the trial unsatisfactory, his ac- 

 tive but scholarly mind turned to the pur- 

 suit of letters. In 1886, being asked by,a 

 publisher to writ's a short history of 

 Massachusetts for the Commonwealth 

 series, he broke upon the literary world 

 with "The Emancipation of Massachu- 

 setts," In which he demolished and re- 

 wrote the history of tlie colony and prov- 

 ince of Massachusetts Bay, originally 

 chronicled by the priestly oligarchy 

 against which the book was launched, and 

 in later times principally by eminent 

 members of the Congregational clergy. 

 It madte a great stir, especially In relig- 

 ious circles, and brought severe criticism 

 and even denunciation upon the author, 

 but ho lived to see it pass to a second 

 edition as accepted history. 



His elaborate preface to this edition in 

 1010, In compass a book by Itself, discloses 

 the breadth of his studies and the devel- 

 opment of his mind In the Interval, 

 though otlier published works had al- 

 ready done this. The "Emancipation" 

 was followed in 1896 by "The Law of 

 Civilization and Decay, an Essay on His- 

 tory," a study of the movement of human 

 society from the earliest times, in which 

 the philosophical bent of his mind is 

 given full play. He regarded this as his 

 most significant work, and doubtless it 

 contains his profoundest speculations. 

 This, likia others of his productions, was 

 translated and reproduced In continental 

 Europe, and while it passed several suc- 

 cessive impressions here, probably It has 

 given him a wider reputation abroad 

 than he ever had at homo. 



"America's Economic Supremacy," in 

 1900, was a collection of essays strung at 

 various times on the thread of economic 

 and consequent political and social 

 changes in the position and equilibrium of 

 Governments and Nations, especially in 

 the nineteenth century; and "The New 

 Empire," In 1902, also a collection of es- 

 says, dealt especially witli the influence 

 of geographic environment upon races 

 and nations. In 1913 he published "The 

 Theoryo f Social Revolutions." the thesis 



IhooloKlo.H, and naa IndllT.T.'nl m 

 though a regular attendant at tin. 

 J'aniliy placo oC wornlilp wlionnvor 

 day found him In Qulncy. Homo ( 

 temporaries unjustly regnrded 



thr 



brilliant 



Hun 



t hi. I 

 him 



Justly, I 



hlM wero lightly hold; they wnVe tlio re- 

 sult of profound study and convlcllnn. 



Ho was a phllosopiior of history; tho 

 greatest questions that have arlse'n out 

 of collective human society wore tho fa- 

 vorite subjects of his thought, which 

 never Bcenied to turn toward the indi- 

 vidual, though ho appeared to entertain 

 tho doctrine (it fatall.sm. If his phllosn i 

 phy would be stigmatized as pessimistic, | 

 perhaps nothing else could be expected 

 of a man of his mental reach and vision 

 who never hesitated to face the truth or 

 to accept the logical results of It. 

 + + + 



Among friends he was a companionable 

 man, hospitable, witty and entertaining 

 He was especially fond of his dogs and 

 his garden. Punctilious In the etiquette 

 of small social customs, for many of tlV9 

 conventions of modern society he had no 

 expression but contempt. With an Iras- 

 cible temper, which rarely did any per- 

 manent harm, he had a warm and gener- 

 heart and open hand, as many havi? 

 occasion to know who will remember him' 

 with grateful affection. He carried 

 frankness almost to a fault, yet any 

 friend .who knew him well would feel 

 that he Iiad imposed an obligation of th? 

 same frankness after his death that he 

 always Indulged while living; that, like 

 Cromwell he would be painted exactly as 

 lie was, and that posthumous padding of 

 tli'o angles on the surface of this unusual 

 and remarkable character would be an 

 injustice to the memory of one whose 

 dominant traits were candor, courage, 

 independence, and as complete freedom 

 from hypocrisy as Is permitted to man. 



