i6 JOURNAL OF Tilt: 



boldest mountaineers had never trod, through, under, and over 

 thickets ■ f laurel, where only bears and snakes or iwled before^ 

 One object before hmi in 1857 was to collect, in a southern latitude, 

 corrections for barometrical observations on mountain heights. 

 He proposed to connect the railroad survey across the Blue Ridge in 

 Nortli Carolina with the rop of MitchelTs Peak by a series of 

 stations differing from each other by 500 feet of altitude. He had 

 sent one of Green's Smithsonian Barometers to be observed by l)r, 

 Posey, in Savannah, Ga. Others were to be observed simulta- 

 neously in Asheville, N. C, at these stations on he sides of the 

 Black Mountain and on MitehelTs Peak thereof. But this, with 

 many other plans for the increase of Science, tlie welfare of the 

 University, the honor of North Carolina were buried and lie with 

 him in the lonely grave on the top of the mountain whicli he has 

 consecrated. 



Besides teaching in the lecture-room, Dr. Mitchell taught con- 

 stantly from the pulpit. After he came to Chapel Hill, and through- 

 out his life, very few week« passed without his reasoning with his 

 fellowmen concerning "Righteousness, Temperance and the Judg- 

 ment to come. " His sermons in the University Chapel abounded in 

 apt illustrations of revealed Truth drawn from Natural Science, 

 from History, and from Biography. In the village church his ser- 

 mons and lectures were full of comparisons of Scripture with Scrip- 

 ture, and with the daily experiences of his hearers in private or in 

 social life. For, in all his studies and in all his instructions, Dr. 

 Mitchell was a Physicist rather than a Metaphysician. He scouted 

 the notion that there is — that there can be any conflict between true 

 Science and true Revelation. He rejected the doctrine of a Natura 

 maturans by means of innate or connate forces, but proclaimed 

 that of a Natura ?7iaturata by a Person who, after creating all 

 things besides Himself, still works in all things, and by all things, 

 according to the counsel of His own will. He judged that Miracles, 

 as the seals of a Revelation, were possible, probable and historical. 

 His descriptions of the wisdom, power, and goodness of God in His 

 works of Creation and Providence were often connected with novel 

 instances of his own observation, and were always striking — although 

 addressed to the intellect rather than the emotions. For the re- 

 demption of mankind from its abyss of sin and misery he looked to 

 the mystery of the Cross of Jesus Christ, inwrought by the Holy 

 Ghost, and accepted by Faith. Ready at all times for every good 

 word and work, his purse and his co-operation were never withheld 

 from any reasonable and charitable undertaking. The poor, the 



