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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



began the compilation and publi- 

 cation of the Annual of Scientific 

 Discovery, which he continued for 

 some sixteen years. That he was 

 a clever student with quite excep- 

 tional endowments is seen in the 

 circumstance that immediately after 

 graduation he was appointed assist- 

 ant professor in the scientific school 

 and lecturer on physics and chem- 

 istry in Groton Academy, Massachu- 

 setts. He also, between 1857 and 

 1863, prepared a series of scientific 

 school books embracing the subjects 

 of physics, chemistry, and geology, 

 and a volume on the Science of 

 Common Things, all of which at- 

 tained a wide circulation. 



Thus for a period of nearly fifteen 

 years Mr. Wells had devoted him- 

 self assiduously to the cultivation of 

 the physical sciences. Beginning 

 with the practical operations of the 

 laboratory, where the value of ex- 

 periment and observation is made 

 apparent, his work was continued in 

 the strengthening and developing 

 experiences of the teacher, and 

 thence led up to that wider knowl- 

 edge and that clearness of exposi- 

 tion which a bright mind would 

 acquire in the preparation of a num- 

 ber of successful scientific class 

 books. It may be presumed that 

 by this time he was thoroughly ac- 

 quainted with scientific method in 

 its applications to the investigation 

 and explanation of physical phe- 

 nomena. With the results this had 

 yielded in building up the great 

 body of verified knowledge compos- 

 ing the several sciences he must also 

 have been familiar. Mentally alert 

 and with sharpened powers of obser- 

 vation, he was able to seize and clas- 

 sify the facts bearing upon the prob- 

 lem in hand, and subject them to 

 systematic processes of scientific rea- 

 soning. 



Such, in brief, was the training 

 and such the equipment brought by 



Mr. Wells to the study of economic 

 questions when he first began to 

 write upon them in 1864. A better 

 preparation for the work to which 

 he was to give the next thirty years 

 of his life can scarcely be imagined. 

 While it is quite true that in entering 

 this new field he was to encounter a 

 class of facts and variety of phenom- 

 ena that were of a very different or- 

 der from those with which he had 

 previously been dealing, their appar- 

 ently haphazard character did not 

 deceive him. Well versed in the 

 practice of tracing effects to causes, 

 gifted with remarkable powers of in- 

 sight, and thoroughly believing that 

 the methods of science would prove 

 as available in the study of econom- 

 ics as in other fields, he began his in- 

 vestigations without misgiving, pa- 

 tiently accumulated and studied the 

 facts, and when conclusions were ar- 

 rived at, no matter how contrary they 

 might be to current teaching, fear- 

 lessly announced and defended them. 

 Though half his life a firm believer 

 in the doctrine of protection, when 

 Mr. Wells went to Europe for the 

 Government in 1867 to investigate 

 the subject of tariff taxation, high 

 and low tariff countries alike were 

 visited, with the determination to 

 leave nothing undone that would aid 

 to a better understanding of the 

 question. All the varied aspects of 

 the problem were carefully studied 

 in connection with the principal in- 

 dustries of the respective countries, 

 and, finding reason in the facts thus 

 obtained to revise his opinions, he 

 came home a convert to free trade. 

 For an account of what he had ob- 

 served during the course of his in- 

 vestigations, and of the conclusions 

 based thereon, the reader is referred 

 to the fourth volume of his reports 

 as commissioner of internal revenue, 

 published in 1869. His book on Re- 

 cent Economic Changes, and the pa- 

 pers on The Principles of Taxation, 



