638 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



As trustee of Columbia College and of Princeton, he was largely 

 influential in giving scientific studies their proper prominence in these 

 institutions. It was through his influence, more than to that of any 

 other one person, that the " School of Mines " was established. He 

 always took the liveliest interest in its progress, and its ultimate suc- 

 cess was to him a source of great gratification. 



A few years ago the botanists of New York and vicinity formed an 

 association, to which they gave the name of the Torrey Botanical 

 Club. The club, from small beginnings, became so large that it was 

 thought best that it should become a chartered body, and an act of 

 incorporation was granted, and Dr. Torrey was elected the first presi- 

 dent under the charter. This election took place when he was too ill 

 to attend the meeting of the club, and he never assumed the office. 



When we come to speak of Dr. Torrey as a man, aside from his 

 scientific work, we feel embarrassed. Were we to say all that we feel, 

 those who did not know him might regard it as extravagant ; and, if 

 we are guarded in our expressions, those who knew him well might 

 think we had not done him justice. Soon after his death, one who had 

 known him long said to us, " He is the only man I ever knew of whom 

 it could be said he was truly lovable." " Truly lovable " expresses 

 his character more completely than any other words. However highly 

 we who knew him well may estimate him as a man of science, there is 

 something beyond and beneath this that we admire ; and, when we re- 

 call Dr. Torrey, it is not as the patient chemist or the acute botanist, 

 but as the friend. It rarely happens to one to possess the peculiar 

 personal attractiveness that was his. There was something about him 

 that invited confidence, and that in advance promised sympathy. 

 When we come to analyze this influence, we are forced to conclude 

 that it was his perfect unselfishness. It was this that drew to him the 

 affections of persons in all walks of life, for there are few who have so 

 many friends as he had, and we doubt that, in dying, he left an enemy 

 behind him. A devoted Christian, he never obtruded his Christianity, 

 but let it appear in his every relation in life. Belonging to a denomi- 

 nation that is by some considered exceedingly strict, he was most 

 charitable for the opinions of those who believed differently ; and, 

 while he followed the injunction to " do good to those of the house- 

 hold of faith," he allowed no sectarian lines to shut others out from 

 his sympathy and aid. His faith in Christianity was too deeply 

 grounded to be troubled by any fear that science might lead astray. 

 He followed science with a devotion second only to that to his religion. 

 Knowing that all truths are compatible, and that the researches of the 

 chemist, the geologist, the physicist, or the botanist, can never reveal 

 any thing that will displace God as the author and controller of all, he 

 kept up with the most advanced scientific thought of the day, and re- 

 mained until the last a devout Christian scientist. 



