Vaux.l ♦ 7^ [Dec. 19, 



Biographical Notice of Ilenry M. Phillips. By Richard Vaux. 

 {Read before the American Philosophical Society, Dec. 19, ISS4.) 



It rarely happens that a marked or lasting impression is made on the 

 public mind by merely professional men. Devoted to the consideration of 

 principles of paramount importance intrinsically and relatively, they are 

 only applied in their direct operation witliin a limited circle. It is therefore 

 those larger spheres, the arenas in v.iiich acliievements are of signal im- 

 portance, both to direct thought and excite actions that are not usually 

 accessible to' those trained in special studies, and who devote their powers 

 to circumscribed mental efforts. 



The legal training, while it is the best foundation for the highest suc- 

 cesses in public life, and especially qualifies for a participation in the re- 

 sponsible duties of public afltairs, if exclusivelj' absorbed in professional 

 duties fails to imprint itself on the pages of history. The brush, the pencil, 

 and the chisel, attaining immortality, in some sort deal with universal 

 law, formulated in objective teachings. 



The lawyer reaches the highest professional eminence when he unites gen- 

 eral knowledge with skill, learning, and the careful study of the principles 

 of jurisprudence. Assiduous and unremitted application is the absolute 

 essential for such triumphs. One finds in the history of statesmen, who 

 have gained personal and public renown, and who rank with the great men 

 whose posthumous fame lives in later generations, that their first prepa- 

 rations were in the study of the Pandects, the Institutes, the Civil and 

 the Common law. Yet these names are unfrequent. The sword and 

 the sceptre have cut into the tables of historic stone, the immortality of 

 these rulers of peoples, and great leaders of victorious armies. The forum 

 is the arena of peaceful antagonisms and contests in which the weapons 

 are didactic skill, logic, reason and oratory. 



Victories thus and there won are not declared by the display of osten- 

 tatious acclaim. In the quiet assertions of the deliberate and calm do- 

 minion of legal right, and ascertained justice, the supremacy of law is 

 honored. 



These reflections are eminently appropriate as preparatorj'' to the notice 

 of the death of one of our members, who, as a lawyer and a citizen held 

 a pronounced position at the Bar of Philadelphia, and in public estimation. 



Henry M. Phillips was born in Philadelphia, on the SOtliof June, in the 

 year 1811. Without large wealth, and its surroundings and influence, the 

 lad early evinced a zeal and devotion to the shaping of his own career, 

 which attracted even more than passing comment. lie was a pupil in the 

 most prominent school of that day, the "High School of the Franklin 

 Institute." His quickness in acquiring knowledge was the leading trait 

 in his academic life. There was apparently no trouble in his mastery of 

 the subjects taught. It may be said that he ran through his course, until 

 at its close he was with the foremost among his fellows. 



