360 GEORGE BASSETT CLARK. 



Personally, Edward Burgess endeared himself to all closely asso- 

 ciated with him by his uniform good nature and fairness. He never 

 plumed himself in the slightest degree upon his successes, and the pub- 

 lic adulation which crowned him after the international races was re- 

 ceived with gratification, but did not in the least disturb his equability 

 or increase his self-esteem. His untimely death was a national loss, for 

 there is no doubt among those that knew him that he was capable of 

 steady progressive development, a quality of body and mind which, in 

 combination with genius, gave strong assurance of a future greater even 

 than the past. 



GEORGE BASSETT CLARK. 



George Bassett Clark was born in Lowell, Mass., on February 

 14, 1827. His early education was received at the Grammar School, 

 the High School, and afterwards at Mr. Whitman's private school in 

 Cambridge, to which place his father had removed in 1835. In 1844, 

 the subject of this notice entered Phillips Academy at Andover, 

 where he completed his literary education, and began for himself an 

 original course of practical training in the work which was subse- 

 quently to distinguish him. He had already shown an interest in the 

 mechanical arts, and had made his proficiency with the lathe a source 

 of some little profit to himself, by manufacturing toys for his juvenile 

 acquaintances. He now procured a piece of an old bell, which he 

 took home with him, and from which he undertook to construct the 

 speculum of a reflecting telescope. Undeterred by the doubts of his 

 elders as to the possibility of bringing his scheme to a successful con- 

 clusion, he presently gave them a practical proof of his ability by 

 producing an instrument with which a satisfactory view of Jupiter and 

 its satellites could be obtained. This first success encouraged him to 

 attempt the construction of refracting as well as of reflecting tele- 

 scopes ; and his father, becoming interested in his son's experiments, 

 was thus led to join him in the work. Neither the father nor the son, 

 however, seems at this time to have expected seriously to undertake 

 the business of an optician. Mr. Alvan Clark continued to employ 

 himself as a portrait-painter, while the younger man, after finishing 

 his course at the Phillips Academy, engaged in the work of civil en- 

 gineering, and was employed in that capacity upon the Boston and 

 Maine and the Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroads. 



The discovery of gold in California, in 1848, turned his attention 

 to still another industry, and he was among the first who hastened to 

 the new land of promise. His fortune differed little from that of the 



