OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : MAY 24, 1864. 293 



" The Fossil Footmarks of the United States," with twenty-four plates, 

 published in the fourth volume of the Memoirs of this Academy ; in 

 his " Report on the Ichnology of New England," with sixty plates, 

 published by the State, in the year 1858 ; and in a " Supplementary 

 Report on the Ichnology of Massachusetts," read last year before this 

 Society, and soon to be published by the Commonwealth. 



We cannot here call attention to Professor Hitchcock's prolonged 

 services to the cause of education, nor to his various writings upon 

 literary, moral, or religious subjects, many of which have a wide pop- 

 ularity ; although, indeed, his numerous published discourses, articles, 

 or volumes upon natural theology, and upon the relations of science to 

 revealed rehgion, ought not to be overlooked. These, indeed, are 

 characteristic of the man, who was a divine as well as a geologist, not 

 only profoundly convinced that revelation and nature are in essential 

 harmony, but who habitually drew illustrations and arguments from the 

 one for the other with a freedom and confidence that have rarely been 

 equalled. At the age of threescore and ten, under much infirmity, he 

 declares that his " attachment to the works of Nature has all the ardor 

 and enthusiasm of youth " ; and also that, as its highest and an unex- 

 pected service, " Geology has deepened his convictions of the truth, 

 not only of natural, but of revealed religion." These relations, indeed, 

 were the subjects of his fondest contemplation. He counts it as the 

 great failure of his life that he had been unable to fulfil his long- 

 cherished intention of writing a systematic treatise upon Natural The- 

 ology, — a work which, after years of preparation, he " was almost 

 ready to begin," just when his unwilling acceptance of the Presidency 

 of Amherst College — bringing onerous and uncongenial duties upon 

 advancing years and an enfeebled frame — compelled a final abandon- 

 ment of the undertaking. It may be doubted, however, whether a 

 treatise from his pen would have added much of importance to what 

 is contained in his published essays and articles upon this class of 

 topics, — some of them very elaborate, and in their way excellent, 

 but perhaps none of them so accurately grounded in science, or so 

 closely reasoned, as to answer the difficult questions of the day, or 

 to secure a permanently high rank in this field of inquiry. But 

 this excellent man has himself modestly remarked, that most of his 

 publications " were not written with the expectation that they would 

 go down to posterity, but to aid a little in advancing present knowl- 

 edge, in adding some items that should go into the general stock ; so 



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