Maury, the American, Galileo of the Sea

In honor of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, in session in Richmond, and in memory of one of the South’s most distinguished sons. The Times-Dispatch this morning publishes, in full, the address “Maury, the American.” delivered before the Matthew Fontaine Maury Association in the Jefferson Hotel a few days ago by George Bryan. It is not only awarely eloquent tribute to the distinguished scholar who was really the founder of our Naval Observatory, and the Galileo of the seas, but an irrisistible appeal for an enduring memorial to one of the type of men who have made our country great.

Here is Mr. Bryan’s address:

His Inspiring Life Work.

“The life and work of Matthew Fontaine Maury are so full, so suggestive, so inspiring, as to make easy the task of one who has them for a theme, the only difficulties being to select, wisely from the abundance of material and then to confine the treatment to appropriate limits. There will be nothing, therefore, in what I shall say, of a biographical nature, but rather a presentation of certain facts upon which, in my judgment, may justly be predicated the name and fame of Maury as a great American. Not one of the simple great ones gone forever and ever by’ as the poet of a generation ago sang somewhat pessimistically, but a man in natural abilities, character and attainments essentially great, every feature of his career carrying, not only inspiration, but a positive appeal, to the youth of today to turn from the paths of the deadly commonplace, to bend the back to the burden of humanity and lift it at least a notch or two in its God-ordained progress upwards.

Meaning of “American.”

“Maury, the American! The justice of the appellation is manifest to every student of his career. We should perhaps begin with a definition, and mine would be that ‘american’ means vitally one who literally creates from nothing a career for himself and lasting benefits and blessings to his country; one who in not disobedient to the vision of practical and ever-increasing usefulness, and who gives evidence of its reality by self-sacrifice and everlasting perseverance: one who refuses to adhere slavishly to standard methods as the best attainable, merely they are old-and often infirm-one who, instead, when he has found something by which money or time may be saved, labor lightened life lengthened, looks up from his bench, his lathe or his desk, cries out to all the world, ‘My way is better’–and then demonstrates it.

“Such is my informal definition of an American. An invitation to prove its correctness would be most attractive, and would be gladly accepted but for lack of time. It must suffice to make the claim and let our judgment abide the result of an inquiry like that of this evening.

“In the first place, then, we would go back to that Tennessee home in 1825 and the pent-up Utica which was undoubtedly Maury’s. The son of a planter of that day, living the severely simple life of a boy on the farm, the cotton field, says his daughter and biographer. Mrs. Corbin, found him work, and a coon or bear hunt with the negroes and hounds brought from Virginia made up his field sports.’ It is difficult to repress a smile at even the suggestion that this lad of nineteen should before a score of years had passed have won a world-wide reputation as a practical scientist, and that Kings and Parliaments should vie with distinguished commercial bodies in doing him honor and acclaiming him a world benefactor.

Farm Bey Who Heard a Call.

“Yet it was even so—and therein lies the charm and wonder of it all, and the lesson, too, if we will but learn it-the story of the farm boy who fancied that he heard a call, obeyed it, went forth, not knowing whither he was going, and found fame almost at the first turn of the road.

“‘It was a far cry, writes former Secretary Daneils of him, ‘from the rude cabin in the primeval forests of Tennessee to the gathering of savants in Brussels, where Maury’s fame and Maury’s greatness made him the central figure and won for him five honers of knighthood, conferred by the rulers of Belgium, Denmark. Russia, France and Prussia, and so many medals of distinction he hardly had a place to store them. His career is an inspiration, not only to the youth of his country, but of the whole world, which he made his debtor.’

“When the roll of great Americans is called and their lives and deeds are critically studied, one cannot fall to notice how often ani how prominently a somewhat old-fashioned quality appears-the quailty which itself is said to constitute genius, even the infinite capacity for taking pains.

Hard Work Glorifed.

“If ever hard work was glorified, it was throughout the career of Commander Maury. He apparently revelled in the classification of material and the compilation of statistics from literally thousands of sources. Hard work, gruelling indeed; work which many a master of modern efficiency’ methods today assigns to a subordinate, approving the results blindfolded. Superficial and perfunctory-even immoral–we at times call this deputy work, impossible to one with at once the conscious and the love of thoroughness and accuracy of Maury. His material for his first work filled more than 400 manuscript volumes-he removed the old log-books which had been stored away in the Hydrographic Office.’ Day and night, for weeks at a time, he toiled on with his microscopic analyses of winds, tides and currents from all parts of the earth— months after month. with infinite patience, he labored over his methods and processes until the light broke in, and what was in effect a new science was given to the world.

“The heights by great men reached and kept

Were not attained by sudden fight:

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upwards through the night.

Maury Trusted Himself.

“Commander Maury was essentially American also in that he trusted himself. He was not overconfident, but, having reached a conclusion from premises the accuracy of which he had demonstrated, he feared not to put a trumpet to his lips and say, ‘I have found and named a river in the sea.’ But for the gentleness of his nature, he might well have said to the scientific men of his day, ‘Oh, blind and slow of heart to believe! for centuries this river has run, yet you have never opened your eyes to the evidences of its existence almost as manifest as it it had banks of earth, and it is left to me to point you to the obvious:

“One of the immensely interesting things about Maury and his progress is the prompt recognition accorded his discoveries by the scientific world It is commonplace to recall that Galileo languished in prison for the blasphemy and presumption of his assertion that the sun is stationary, and that the earth, along with other bodies, revolves around it.

And time would fall us to tell of other Galileos who lived a few years or decades ahead of their time, and who were branded as fools and worse only because they opened their eyes to the self-evident and invited the world to open its—but it would not.

There are Galileos today, and, what is more, you and I may be among their jailers. If so. just as inevitably as the coming of tomorrow’s light, the truth will one day be manifest, and you and I, not our Galileos, will deserve the brand of folly.

World Got the Maury Habit.

“From this kind of bigotry and intolerance, Commander Maury did not suffer. It is pleasant to note the ready reception by the learned of all nations of his discoveries. To use a modern expression, the world seemed to get the Maury habit and listened when he spoke. In 1841 the National Intelligencer declared that he had transformed the simple Depot of Charts into an observatory-the Naval Observatory, which, as Mr. Daniels has said, has grown until its reputation is world-wide and other scientific organizations of the government covet its direction.

“Maury, the American! The big, broad man engaged in a world service which knew no limitations of self or self-interest. ‘He secured a copyright to any chart, never patented any idea, writes student of his life and services. ‘All that he learned and all that he discovered he gave freely to the whole world. It is because of his unselfish contributions that he is everywhere numbered with the great men who have enlightened the darkness of the world and who live forever with the immortals.’

Characteristic Self-Control.

“Another characteristic of Maury which I like to believe is truly American was his self-control. Throughout his rapid rise to fame throughout life-he maintained his balance. He had none of the mannerisms of near-greatners. He did not pose. His was not a constant struggle for the limelight, for the front page. He would have scorned the modern publicity agent. Nothing in his writings suggests the tone, I have spoken, and that is the end.’ On the contrary, he was always the inquirer—modestly propounding from time to time the great conclusions which he believed his premises justified, but always without a trace of an excess of the first person singular. Ever courteous to and approachable by

high and low, the famous and the obscure, delightful in his family life, his conversation and correspondence were notable for the kindliness and humor which pervaded them. It has been said that perhaps the severest test of real bigness in a man is the effect of success upon him.

Unspoiled of Heart.

“If, after arduous struggles, fortune smiles, and he goes his way unchanged in manner, unspoiled of heart, the crown of real success is his, for he has conquered, not only his difficulties, but himself. Let him, however, yield ever so slightly to the thought that, after all, he is in a class by himself and entitled accordingly to the salutation of men in the market places—and the world, whose ultimate estimate of men is rarely wrong, appraises him as lacking the one chief thing and as, therefore, incomplete.

“But serious as the effects of success upon disposition and temperament may be, there is a final test of real greatness of soul—the manner in which disaster and disappointment are met. No one whose life I have studied ever encountered those foes more bravely than Maury. It is impossible to read the account of his retirement by a plucking board when at the height of his fame and usefulness without a blended feeling of disgust at plucking boards generally, and this one in particular. then of admiration of the manner in which this evidence of their entire lack of the judicial spirit was met and borne by the object of their injustice.

Press Protests Against Injustice.

“No one can doubt that jealousy was at the bottom of it all—professional jealousy, the smallest, meanest form of mental or soul malady. Commander Maury, however,

bided his time, of the country rose almost as one man, says his biographer, and demanded his reinstatement. The National Intelligencer said: “The course pursued by the board and the storm of indignant public feeling aroused by that action has evidently reached the White House. The Secretary of the Navy feels that injustice has been done to one of the nobler spirits in the navy—to man whose name the whole country will delight to protect, and to which Science will turn as one of her special favorites.’

“Throughout it all, Maury preserved his poise, and at length came restoration and promotion by act of Congress.

“What, then, shall we say of such a man except that he was great? Reflect but for a moment upon his wind and current charts, with their shortening of voyages and incidental savings of millions of dollars annually; of his triumphs In applied meteorology, first as to the farm and later the great lakes–the genesis of the Weather Bureau of today: of his deep-sea soundings and of the plateau in the Atlantic; of the material assistance rendered by him to Cyrus W. Field in the laying of the cable, prompting that other great American to say modestly, Maury furnished the brains, England gave the money, and I did the work! Show me a life like this, full of rich fruit—victories of peace

far more blessed, if not more renowned, than those of war–and I will write for that life the verdict of mankind.

Maury’s Fame His Monument.

“Maury needs no monument of bronze and granite. He built his own, more lasting than brass. But a community, a State, a nation, honors Itself by erecting worthy memorials of those who have done it honor.

“He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.

“But the man whom we honor tonight did more, far more, than
Caesar. As Mrs. Margaret J. Preston sang of him:

“The stars had secrets for him; seas
Revealed the depths their waves were screening;
The winds gave up their mysteries—
The tidal waves confessed their meaning:

“He read those secrets and sounded those depths and translated into
common speech those mysteries—that all the world might be the wiser,
that labor might be lighter, that the advent of the Commonwealth of
Nations might be hastened-that, to use his own words the whole
world might be kin.’

“It is not panegyric—it is only simple justice to say of such a man:
“Nothing can cover his high tame but Heaven.
No pyramids set off his memory
But the eternal substance of his greatness.
To which I leave him.’”