154 
PUTNAM. 
ADDRESS OF MR. HERBERT PUTNAM,* 
LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS. 
I have listened to the addresses of Mr. Updegraff and Dr. 
Woodward with an interest the more keen because they em- 
bodied estimates, by men of science, of Dr. Newcomb as a 
man of science ; and have heard with satisfaction the tribute 
by Mr. Bryce, because it selected for emphasis personal traits 
which had independently impressed themselves upon me; 
for my own relations with Dr. Newcomb were of course not 
scientific, but purely personal. They existed particularly in 
connection with a company which from time to time has 
gathered with me at the Library for luncheon. During the 
past year and a half that company has been sadly depleted ; 
for it has lost its three most striking figures: Ainsworth Spof- 
ford, Edward Everett Hale, and Simon Newcomb. A table 
at which these three were present was, indeed, uniquely im- 
pressive: the bent absorption of Dr. Spofford; the towering, 
crag-like vigor of Dr. Hale, at once flashing and sonorous; 
the steady massiveness of Dr. Newcomb; Dr. Spofford remi- 
niscent of innumerable recorded things; Dr. Hale vividly 
personal ; Dr. Newcomb weighty with meditation of the great 
truths of nature itself, of cosmic laws, of vast spaces, of incon- 
ceivable, yet calculated dimensions. 
Such a company, including as it did men of different type 
and vocation, further diversified by occasional guests of type, 
vocation and experience still different, with no set program, 
and with the purpose only of agreeable intercourse, was calcu- 
lated to bring out individual characteristics of mind and of 
manner more vividly than one homogeneous in kind and in 
pursuit. 
It was as a member of this company, then, that T had par- 
ticular opportunity to observe Doctor Newcomb. And the 
♦Mr. Putnam hart accepted an invitation to participate in the meet- 
ing, but afterwards was compelled to withdraw because of contingent 
out-of-town engagements. As he was actually present, however, it is 
fitting to insert here the address he prepared for the occasion. 
