Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/711

Rh If hunger and inner nutrition are not the only law of being, if expenditure from self to without is also a fundamental and essential law, it results that egotism is not radical, and activity may really become loving. The being does not tend solely to bring everything toward itself, as if by a gravitation of which it is the only center; but it tends also to extend, to give, and to join itself. Utilitarianism, Darwinism, and Spinozism are passed by. Enjoyment, "pure and veritable," which is not merely a remedy for pain, thus becomes apparent as the overflowing activity, which feels itself at last free from obstacles, superior to what was strictly necessary for the satisfaction of want; it is no longer a simple balance, but a profit, and, as we think we have shown, a surplus. It is, therefore, in the domain of sense, something analogous to what in art causes pleasure by excellence, and realizes the supreme charm—grace. Grace is produced by a superabundance, resulting in enfranchisement from the rude struggle for existence, freedom and ease of motion, facile play of thought, expansion of the heart, and generosity of the will. True pleasure is the grace of life.—Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from the Revue des Deux Mondes.



F the long series of living American scientists, probably no one is more generally and favorably known than Curator of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Permanent Secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Brief reference to Mr. Putnam's ancestry will prove of interest. He is a lineal descendant of John Putnam, who came from England, circa 1634, and whose family became very prominent in Salem, Massachusetts, particularly during the witchcraft delusion. A glance at the Putnam genealogy shows how large a proportion of the prominent people of that historic town, Salem, are included among his ancestors—Fiskes, Higginsons, Palfreys, Hathornes, and others. The same is true of his mother's family, the Appletons. As was the case with the Putnam family, the great majority were graduates of Harvard College, one of them, the Rev. John Rogers, being president of that institution.

Mr. Putnam was born at Salem, April 16, 1839, being the youngest of the three sons of Eben and Elizabeth Appleton Putnam. In very early life he evinced a fondness for natural history, which his parents wisely encouraged, and he was fortunate also in living in a town where was maintained a most excellent zoölogical museum.

Putnam's active scientific career dates from his election to 