1864.] ^45 [Goodwin. 



professorship occupy, in whole or in part, the time of four men ; the 

 chemical laboratory and apparatus among the finest in the United 

 States, and the scientific collections filling two spacious edifices; and 

 all this the fruit, directly or indirectly, of his own enterprise, energy, 

 and perseverance. Dr. Hitchcock created the material and the 

 reputation of Amherst College in the Department of Natural 

 History." 



" He had the originality and creative power which belong to 

 genius. He was made for a discoverer, for an originator of new 

 ideas, new theories, new methods, new measures. He was tall enough 

 to see over the heads of those around him, and catch the first dawn- 

 ing beams of a new day. He had more faith than most men in new 

 discoveries. This believing disposition sometimes amounted to 

 credulity, and welcomed a premature announcement, or a fabrication 

 even, like the celebrated moon hoax ; but it expected great things, 

 attempted great things, and achieved great things, for science. It 

 wrought miracles in the scientific world. He saw an element of 

 truth in Phrenology, recognized some unknown and mysterious power 

 in Animal Magnetism, or Mesmerism, as he more frequently called 

 it ; and in the true spirit of a philosopher, sought to extricate the 

 truth and discover the power. As a Christian philosopher he wel- 

 comed every discovery in Geology and the physical sciences, never 

 doubting that they would not only harmonize with, but illustrate and 

 confirm, the Sacred Scriptures. Ichnology, as a science, began, and 

 as yet may almost be said to end, with him. He was the originator 

 of the State Scientific Surveys. The American Scientific Association 

 is said to have sprung from his suggestion ; and he was its first 

 President. He possessed in a remarkable degree that power of rapid 

 and wide generalization, by which the fall of an apple suggested to 

 Newton the law of universal gravitation. Taught by a few terraces 

 on the hillsides, he could reconstruct the Connecticut Valley at each 

 successive geological epoch of its existence; and guided by a few 

 footmarks in the sandstone, he could repeople it with its various 

 orders and tribes of primeval inhabitants. If he had not been a 

 great geologist and naturalist, he would have been a great astrono- 

 mer and mathematician. The question which he should be, turned, 

 not on the faculties with which he was endowed, but on the accident, 

 or rather the providence, of his impaired health and eyesight." 



"In addition to the engrossing labors of a professorship combining 

 several distinct departments, or of the presidency, combined with a 

 professorship quite sufiicient of itself to employ one man, and besides 



