Part 2

The two most powerful men I have known intimately were J. Pierpont Morgan and Theodore Roosevelt. I had the privilege of calling the former “Uncle Pierpont” and have vivid recollections of him as he was in 1867, when I was a boy, and in the last two brilliant decades of his life. Theodore Roosevelt I knew slightly as a boy, as an intimate friend of my naturalist brother, Frederick, and in the last two and great decades of his life as my own friend. Although the man in the street would say that no two Americans could be further apart than these two, in many characteristics they were closely similar. The outstanding point of likeness was their courage in facing obstacles, their dominance in overcoming difficulties of all kinds. There was no “I can’t” in the vocabulary of either man; rather “I can and I will.” Close contact with both of these men enforced the life motto which became my own: Whatever is right can be done, and shall be done. Powerful as both were in leadership, they always sought the counsel of their friends and were apt to be governed by it, unless it was the counsel of timidity or of irresolution. Neither was dominant in the sense that Woodrow Wilson was dominant and autistic—to use the professional phrase. Both won the devoted friendship and admiration of hundreds of men and women, and both made many enemies; through similar virtues Roosevelt became the opponent of Morgan and Morgan became the opponent of Roosevelt. Both were intensely patriotic and willing to make any sacrifice, however great, for their country. Both were deeply religious and were guided by an unfaltering faith in Divine Providence. The most surprising likeness I observed was their humility; I never saw a trace of conceit in either Pierpont Morgan or Theodore Roosevelt. The assurance and self-confidence they both displayed in critical and commanding moments were part of the great game of life. Leaders must have broad shoulders, firm necks, and confident and determined faces when the world is full of doubting Thomases, as it always is. A marked point of likeness was the power of immediate, almost instantaneous, decision, which sometimes led both men astray. Contrasting with their power of command were their simplicity, their unselfish devotion to their friends, and their love of children and fascination for children. Both had a deep interest in science; with Morgan it was mathematics, minerals, and gems, and, in later years, archæology. Natural history was the first and last love of Theodore Roosevelt, in all its branches, and special study of birds and mammals constituted the greatest pleasure of his life.

It will surprise many of my readers that I have instituted such a comparison, that I have found resemblances amidst the many violent contrasts in the lives and characters of these two great Americans. It was the love of nature and of human nature which made them alike. Few of us are single in our personalities; most of us are dual, and the rare men like Morgan and Roosevelt are multiple. Among great naturalists Wallace, Darwin, and Pasteur were men of single natures, whose whole lives were devoted to single great purposes, to the attainment of which all other objects in life gave way. They were neither combatant nor militant, nor did they ever seek to force their theories or opinions by militant methods. They sought seclusion, avoided public meetings and controversies, and were astonished by the world-wide acclaim of their discoveries. It is told of Darwin that after meeting Gladstone he expressed surprise that such a very great man had paid him so much attention. It appears that this simplicity of life and avoidance of renown are most favorable to that creative state of mind which most frequently engenders renown.

On the other hand, Huxley and Cope were, above all, combatants in the new social and philosophical arena of Evolution. Huxley’s world-wide fame rests partly on his defense of freedom of thought and of research and on the brilliance of his rapier-like thrusts at some of the shams and hypocrisies of the Special Creation exponents of his day. His genius lay in polemics, in criticism, in exposition, rather than in creative discovery and generalization; it is a striking fact that he did not add a single new principle to the philosophy of Evolution. His life was one of enforced activity and public service, which left him little or no repose for creative thought, yet he added to anatomy a number of very important generalizations. There is no measuring what Huxley might have done if he had enjoyed the repose that was granted to Darwin. Cope was, above all, a creative naturalist of a high order, with a rapidity and originality of thought almost without parallel in the history of anatomy; great generalizations affecting the order and arrangement of the whole kingdom of backboned animals arose from his brain, while in philosophical analysis he was a tyro where Huxley was a master.

From these impressions of the lives of many naturalists we see that the naturalist is animated first of all by the joy of observation, without initial hope or thought of discovery but surely in the end leading to discovery; leading also to creative thought if observation is pursued with a single eye and unfaltering purpose, regardless of all obstacles or dangers and of the greatest impediment of all, namely, interest in self and in self-advancement.

CONTENTS

PAGE DEDICATION v

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FOREWORD vii

IMPRESSIONS:

ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE 1 “Alfred Russel Wallace, 1823–1913”

CHARLES DARWIN 33 “Life and Works of Darwin” “The Darwin Centenary at Cambridge”

THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 71 “A Student’s Reminiscences of Huxley”

FRANCIS MAITLAND BALFOUR 99

JAMES BRYCE 109

LOUIS PASTEUR 117 “The New Order of Sainthood”

JOSEPH LEIDY 131 “Joseph Leidy, Founder of Vertebrate Palæontology in America”

EDWARD DRINKER COPE 149 “A Great Naturalist”

THEODORE ROOSEVELT 165 “Theodore Roosevelt, Naturalist”

THE TWO JOHNS 183 “The Racial Soul of John Burroughs” “John Muir”

HOWARD CROSBY BUTLER 207 “Howard Crosby Butler, Explorer”

BIOGRAPHIES BY THE AUTHOR 213

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

“The Life and Works of Darwin” was an address delivered at Columbia University on February 12, 1909, the hundredth anniversary of Darwin’s birth, as the first of a series of nine lectures on Charles Darwin and his influence on science. “The Darwin Centenary” is based on an address in reply to the reception of delegates at Cambridge. “A Student’s Reminiscences of Huxley” was a lecture delivered at the Marine Biological Laboratory of Wood’s Hole in the summer session of 1895. The address on James Bryce was delivered at the memorial service to Viscount Bryce at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, March 5, 1922. The address on Joseph Leidy was originally delivered at the Joseph Leidy Centenary, Philadelphia, December 6, 1923, and was later published in Science. The article on Howard Crosby Butler was an address delivered at the Graduate College of Princeton University, October 31, 1922. This address was afterward published in the Butler memorial volume by the Princeton University Press. The chapter on John Burroughs is an address which was delivered at the John Burroughs memorial meeting, American Academy of Arts and Letters, on November 18, 1921.

Other chapters of this book are based on articles published in the following magazines: Popular Science Monthly, Science, The Century, The Sierra Club Bulletin.

ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE ]

ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE 1823–1913

I never had the pleasure of meeting Wallace, but I felt rewarded for the time I devoted to the study of his works and the influences which shaped his great career in preparing this Impression by his letter of acknowledgment, which is reproduced in facsimile. Wallace was a great man, although he was overshadowed by a much greater man, Darwin. The scientific relations of these two men were ideal; their magnanimity toward each other in the crisis of independent discovery of the great principle of Natural Selection is one of the noblest episodes in the history of biology.

ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE

Nature and nurture conspire to form a naturalist. Predisposition, an opportune period, and a happy series of events favored Alfred Russel Wallace.