ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 29 



and good will towards men." was made actual by the tenor of his 

 own life. 



An intimate friend, Rev. Dr. F. M. Hubbard, who knew him well 

 as a collegian, as a minister of the gospel, as a scientific botanist, 

 thus speaks of him : 



The Diocese of North Carolina has suffered a great loss, and the church at 

 large hardly less, in the recent death of the Rev. Dr. Curtis, and his many ex- 

 cellences deserve a larger notice than the customary announcement that one 

 much loved has been called to his reward. His health had been rather feeble 

 for several years, but the end came very suddenly, and was a sad blow to all 

 who knew him. The Rev. Moses Ashley Curtis was a native of Stockbridge, 

 Mass., and graduated at Williams College, in that State, in the class of 1827. 

 Some three or four years after leaving college he removed to Wilmington, North 

 Carolina, where he was married, and in that State the most of his later life was 

 spent. He was ordained by Bishop Ives, and after a brief tour of missionary 

 duly, took charge of St. Matthew's Church, Hillsboro. To this parish, except" 

 ing that he was for a few years the Rector of Trinity Church, Society Hill, S. 

 C, the active, clerical service of his life was given. Here, by the great strength, 

 as well as the sweetness of his character, his unwearied labors, his quick and 

 tender sympathies, his high attainments in learning, and warm and steadfast 

 affections, he won from his people, and, indeed, from all who knew him, a love 

 and reverence that were hardly less than devotion. Few men are more earnestly 

 loved while they live, or, when they are called to die, are more sincerely 

 mourned. 



By his brethren of the clergy he was no less valued. Indeed, it is no dis- 

 paragement of the many excellent men of that order in that diocese to say that 

 no one among them was more esteemed and revered by them than was Dr. 

 Curtis. He was a well read and skillful theologian, a good classical scholar, 

 and not unfamiliar with modern languages. His degree of Doctor in Theology 

 was given by the University of North Carolina. His duties as the rector of a 

 parish, of course, occupied him chiefly ; but as his tastes, developed in very 

 early life, led him to give much of his leisure to the study of natural history. 

 In all the departments that are included under this name, he was singularly 

 well informed. Botany was, however, his favorite field, and in it he gained a 

 very enviable reputation. He had thoroughly — none so much so — explored the 

 plants of North Carolina from the sea to the mountains, and the monographs 

 he published are very accurate and of great value. His correspondence on this 

 subject, both at home and in Europe, was very extensive, and no man in the 

 Southern States had a higher or wider reputation. For many years his investi- 

 gations were mainly microscopic, and in cryptogamic botany he was in that 

 region without a peer. The standard work of the Rev. Dr. Berkely on English 

 mycology owed much to his minute and careful researches, and was at first pub- 

 lished under their joined names. In the survey of the State, ordered by the 

 Legislature, the department of natural history was entrusted to him, and his 



