JOSEPH HENRY. 357 



fiction, and perhaps cultivated, unconsciously, that faculty of imagina- 

 tion which served him as the interpreter of Nature. 



At the age of about fifteen Henry returned to Albany and entered 

 a watchmaker's shop as an apprentice. Whatever knowledge of 

 mechanism and delicacy of touch were thus acquired were not thrown 

 away upon one destined to plan and handle the nice appliances of 

 physical research. And yet his heart was not in the new occupation. 

 The stage, before the scenes and behind the scenes ; private theatri- 

 cals ; a club of amateurs of which he was president, and for which he 

 wrote and acted tragedy and comedy, — absorbed his time and thoughts. 

 All who have seen and admired the refined, intellectual face, and the 

 erect, dignified form of the ripe philosopher, can easily imagine the suc- 

 cess of the young aspirant for dramatic distinction when these charms of 

 person and mind were decked in the beauty of youth : the self-posses- 

 sion, the repose, and the grace of this expounder of physical science 

 alone remained to tell of his short-lived eccentricity. Those readers 

 who allow the mythical apple to divide with Newton the glory of a great 

 discovery will listen eagerly to the statement that the theatrical career 

 of young Henry was suddenly arrested by his accidental encouuter, 

 during a brief illness, with Dr. Gregory's popular lectures. The lit- 

 eral truth of the story is not questioned ; for Professor Henry himself 

 believed it, and reverently cherished the precious volume to the last 

 Such, however, was the occasion, but not the cause, of his dedicating 

 himself henceforth to science. Innumerable accidents of a similar 

 kind happeu to every one, but not with the same result. Man, espe- 

 cially such a mau, is not the creation of any accident. The inspira- 

 tion comes from within : it is the unbidden thought, and not the 

 external events with which it is associated. Said a great divine, " If 

 you say that man is the creature of circumstances, it must be with the 

 understanding that the greatest and most effective of these circum- 

 stances is the man himself." 



Bidding farewell to the stage and his theatrical companions, Henry 

 went seriously to work to complete his education ; at first in an even- 

 ing school, then with an itinerant pedagogue, and finally in the Albany 

 Academy, where he was both pupil and teacher. Next he was private 

 tutor in the family of the patroon, devoting his leisure to the study of 

 mathematics, and subjects which would fit him for the medical profes- 

 sion. In 1826 he made, in connection with Amos Eaton, the survey 

 for a road across the State of New York. In this work he displayed 

 so much energy and ability that his friends hoped to find, or to create 

 for him, a permanent position as engineer. But the State failed to 



