REPORT ON THE HENRY STATUE. XXVII 



from one occupation to another. If we connect these well-known facts 

 with what he himself has written of the elements and order of educa- 

 tion, we conclude that bis early musings and questionings, his boyish 

 sports and adventures, were fondly remembered by bim as the inspira- 

 tion of his rational and scientific life. " The cultivation of the imagi- 

 nation," he writes, " should be considered an essential part of a liberal 

 education, and this maybe spread over the whole course of instruction, 

 for, like the reasoning faculties, the imagination may continue to im- 

 prove until late in life." " Memory, imitation, imagination, and the 

 faculty of forming mental habits exist in early life, while the judgment 

 and reasoning faculties are of slow growth." " The order of nature is 

 that of art before science, the entire concrete first and the entire ab- 

 stract last." These are wise and weighty words, but they are of special 

 interest when we bethink ourselves that the writer, when he penned 

 them, was doubtless all the while thinking of a dreaming boy, half 

 buried in the grass, looking up wistfully into the sky, thinking won- 

 drous thoughts too deep for tears, perhaps peopling with phantoms and 

 fairies that world of nature which he subsequently penetrated by those 

 wise questionings and ingenious theories which his sagacious experi- 

 ments turned into solid verities. He certainly could have been think- 

 ing of no one else when in the same connection he so positively affirms, 

 " The future character of a child, and that of a man also, is in most 

 cases formed probably before the age of seven years." 



From these musings he was awakened in his later boyhood suddenly 

 and abruptly, as by a call from nature herself. During a week of indis- 

 position, perhaps of serious reflection over an aimless and possibly a 

 tempted life, he was suddenly aroused by the consciousness that the 

 common phenomena of nature are the products of forces acting under 

 laws, and that it is possible for man to interpret these mysteries. It was 

 a simple sentence or two from a common-place though useful book, but 

 the thought in that sentence kindled a fire in the mind prepared for a 

 flame which was never extinguished. This thought held his attention; 

 it took possession of his memory; it quickened the imagination already 

 glowing with romances of another sort; it decided his life. These words 

 had been read and recited by thousands of boys before, but to this boy 

 they were spirit and life. They became a fire in his bones, and proved 

 the intellectual energy which had been slumbering within, by the force 

 of the reaction which they aroused. So definite was the impression 

 which they made, and so fervent and serious the resolve which they 

 called into life, that he promptly summoned his companions, that he 

 might solemnly announce to them his purpose henceforth to dedicate 

 himself to a priesthood of love and service at the altar of science. To 

 prepare for this service was no holiday work. His novitiate involved 

 labor and self-denial. He must earn the means which would buy not 

 only books and leisure and tuition, but also food and clothing. How 

 these difficulties were surmounted it is needless to recite. The story is 

 more or less familiar to you all. 



