ii6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SKETCH OF SEARS COOK WALKER. 



A FEW years before the middle of the present century the 

 condition of science in America was far from inspiring. 

 Although this country had long since ceased to be a dependency 

 of Great Britain politically, it still seemed unable to rise out of 

 such a position intellectually. In science and letters English au- 

 thority was paramount. To the generality of American scholars 

 a grudging mention in an English publication outweighed domes- 

 tic honors of a much higher grade. Scientific treatises emanat- 

 ing from Great Britain were accepted as gospel, while the science 

 of the rest of Europe was known only through British transla- 

 tions. There were a few men of science who were independent in 

 the midst of dependency. The above description shows the gen- 

 eral character of a period happily long since brought to an end, 

 and among those most active in bringing about its end was the 

 subject of the present article. 



Sears Cook Walker was born March 28, 1805, in Wilming- 

 ton, a small town of Massachusetts, about sixteen miles northwest 

 of Boston, where four generations of his ancestors had lived and 

 died. His father's mother was descended in a direct line from the 

 celebrated Elder Brewster, who came over in the Mayflower. 

 Sears was a delicate child and so precocious intellectually that he 

 early became the wonder of the village. His father had died 

 when he was a mere infant, so that his whole care and training 

 devolved upon his mother. She fortunately realized the impor- 

 tance of providing for his physical welfare and checking his too 

 great fondness for books. It was a constant struggle with the 

 boy's natural inclinations to do this, but the effort was successful. 

 He joined heartily in many of the sports of his companions, and 

 gradually gained a good measure of health and strength. 



Young Walker took the studies preparatory for college at 

 the academies of Andover, Tyngsborough, and Billerica ; then went 

 to Harvard, where he was graduated in the class of 1825. Imme- 

 diately after his graduation he took up teaching as an occupation 

 and followed it for ten years the first two years in the vicinity 

 of Boston and the rest of the time in Philadelphia. From 1836 to 

 1845 he was actuary of the Pennsylvania Company for the Insur- 

 ance of Lives and Granting Annuities. His life in Philadelphia 

 was a period of prosperity and comfort ; he, moreover, early took 

 on a corpulent habit of body, so that whatever influence his cir- 

 cumstances exerted was adverse to any strenuous intellectual 

 exertions, and to the obtaining . of adequate physical exercise. 

 Yet his mind was one that could not be idle. " While engaged 

 with his school," says Benjamin A. Gould, in his memorial ad- 



