S50 



CHAUNCEY WEIGHT. 



human knowledge, and the vahie of inventions is read only on the 

 liatent-rolls, the seeds which are scattered broadcast by the roadside 

 and not selfishly garnered in some private granary, though the sower 

 may have no sense of his own merits, will make the harvest of future 

 science. The deep impression which a quiet, unobtrusive, self-poised 

 career, like that of Mr. Winlock, makes upon the community, can 

 never be known until it is finished. And then we see the beautiful 

 spectacle of all — friends and strangers, those who knew him best, 

 and those who seemed to know him but little — spontaneously offerino- 

 the tributes of gratitude and affection which they would have refused 

 to the noisy claimant. This is the best hope and the highest reward 

 of science. 



CHAUNCEY WRIGHT. 



Chauncey Wright, who died suddenly at Cambridge on the 

 12th of September, 1875, was born at Northampton, September 20, 

 1830, and was graduated at Harvard College in 1852. He was an 

 accomplished and able mathematician, and was a member of the 

 Academy in the mathematical section ; but it was in the direction of 

 philosophy that his original, profound, and accurate thought had its 

 most congenial exercise, and found frequent public expression through 

 various journals and reviews. After the publication of Darwin's 

 Origin of Species, his attention was chiefly devoted to the discussion 

 which then received so powerful an impulse ; and he is, probably, 

 most widely known as a participant in that discussion. One of his 

 articles, wliich appeared in the " North American Review," was con- 

 sidered so important a contribution to the literature of this school, tliat 

 it was republished in pamphlet form in England, — a compliment the 

 more noteworthy, because it was paid to one who was not a professed 

 naturalist. Mr. Wright took much interest in this Academy, and was 

 for several years its Secretary. He exerted an important and peculiar 

 influence in scientific and literary circles, and one which, theie is every 

 reason to believe, would have become wide and commanding, if his 

 life had been spared. We cannot hesitate to say' that his loss is one 

 of the most serious that the Academy and the whole educated com- 

 munity have this year to deplore ; and we are glad to learn that his 

 friends are preparing a republication of his writings, now scattered 

 through the volumes of periodicals, and will join to it an account of 

 his life and mental characteristics. 



