214 PROFESSOR THOMAS CONDON. tries and social development, and endeavored to trace their re- lationship to common ancestry. There were but few obscure nations of the world in which he was not deeply interested ; he knew their past history, their present political condition and struggles for liberty. He prized the history of our Aryan ancestors and treasured their old Vedic hymns as among the first bright glimpses of the human soul in reaching out for its Creator. The religion, art, and literature of the Egyptians, Arabians, Persians, and Greeks were to him a source of great pleasure. He followed the lives of noted statesmen and was most enthusiastic in his admiration for the world 's true heroes. All great religious movements, including the higher criticism and the relation of science to religion were matters of absorb- ing interest. And yet there were but few who knew and loved Oregon's trees, shrubs, and wild flowers so well as he. 1 ' In 1902, after passing his eightieth birthday, Mr. Condon published his 'The Two Islands/ a popular work on the geo- logy of Oregon, which, aside from its scientific value, will be prized for its clearness and simplicity of style and the subtile charm of his own personality as constantly revealed in its pages. It was not written for technical scientists, but for the larger circle of readers who love to catch such glimpses of the progress of creation. No, Mr. Condon was not a specialist, either by nature, inclination, or education. And it was well for the early development of Oregon that he was a true pioneer with a large appetite for all knowledge, a keen pleasure in im- parting that knowledge to others, and a broad, sympathetic outlook into the needs of the Northwest. If he had been a specialist he might have received more technical credit in the scientific world, for he discovered many new fossils and named but few. But what is the naming of a few fossils more or less, when compared with the grandeur of such a broad sweep of knowledge, permeated by such a beautiful spirit of help- ful ness? "The pioneer work in this new and unexplored State, so remote from the great centers of learning, required just his type of mind ; just his habit of first sketching in the broad out- lines and then filling in the details with all their picturesque beauty. For as the artist works, he worked. A colleague who wrought by his side has said of him, that instead of beginning with the minute details and progressing toward the large facts of life, he always be^an with the broad outlines, the great principles of any subject, and worked down to its details.
