A Modest Eleemosynarian, But What Benefactions!

1895

It will be noticed that James Lick gave nothing for mere charity. He did not believe in relieving any human being able to work from the necessity of earning his bread. Lick gave to science and educational improvement, to public necessity and to art. He did not seek to set up a rival to any existing state institution. He did not duplicate anything. What he sought were new avenues by which mankind might be benefited without injury to themselves or posterity. The only eleemosynary institution which he founded was the Home For Old Ladies. For that blessings will be showered on his name through the long centuries.

His great telescope on Mount Hamilton has already made the retiring miller of the early days a name and fame as wide as the civilized world. The human sentiment appeared in honor of his liberal endowment of the pioneers. The Academy of Natural Sciences early attracted his attention as an institution from which great things might be expected, and it shared liberally in his benefactions. No man could have given more liberally, for he gave all that he had. The deep love of humanity which is apparent in all secures for him a place among the benefactors of mankind second to none. — San Francisco Bulletin.