62 



his declining health admonished him, some three years ago, to seek 

 relief from the toils of office, he continued to fill that eminent sta- 

 tion, — eminent, as the appropriate, and long the appropriated reward 

 of scientific labours.* 



Dr. Patterson was elected a member of the American Philosophical 

 Society in 1809, when he had just attained the age of twenty-two, — 

 the youngest man ever admitted among us. In 1813, he became 

 one of the Secretaries : in 1825, a Vice-President; and in 1849, he 

 succeeded Dr. Chapman as President. He died on the 5th of Sep- 

 tember, 1854. 



Dr. Patterson's character was altogether equable and simple; and 

 on that account, it is a difficult one to delineate: its features were 

 too graceful and harmonious to admit of any exaggeration. 



His talents were of the highest order, and they had been culti- 

 vated with much assiduity, and under the best auspices. His affec- 

 tions were diffusive, but discriminating and ardent. His energies, so 

 far as they did not regard either his own advancement or his fame, 

 were active and fearless. Yet they were tempered perhaps by a too 

 modest estimate of his power : for he was modest to a fault ; and 

 his friends had reason to complain more than once, that he yielded 

 precedence when he should have claimed it. 



His mind was beautifully moulded of congenial elements. I have 

 never known a man of more prompt or truer perceptions. And 

 then, his ideas seemed to combine themselves without effort in the 

 clearest and most beautiful analysis of the topic under argumenta- 

 tion. He never spoke, for he never thought, without disciplined 

 though rapidly ordered method. Still, he was rarely impulsive. He 

 was best contented when he could gather his thoughts in council 

 around him; for he had in a wonderful degree that excellent talent, 

 the power of concentrating his whole mind upon a single point. 



Among the men of his circle, in conversation or at the desk, his 

 powers of language were unequalled. He was perspicuous, exact, 

 elegant. Pie repeated nothing in a different phrase, for his first was 

 the best. He would explain a theory, or describe a process, or 

 balance an argument ; and all would understand and acquiesce. 



Fie was of course an instructor of the highest grade. His lec- 

 tures were models. They traced for you the ripple-marks of by- 

 gone theories;, but he belonged himself to the era of progress, and 



* The elder Dr. Patterson held it for nearly 20 years ; David Rittenhouse 

 had held it before him ; and the corresponding office has been filled in Eng- 

 land by Newton and Sir John ITcrschol. 



