BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF JOSEPH HENRY, 



PEEPAEED IN BEHALF OF THE BOAED OF EEGENTS, 



BY 



Prof. ASA GRAY. 



The Eegents of the Smithsonian Institution, on the day following the 

 obsequies of their late Secretary, resolved to place upon record, by the 

 hands of their committee, a memorial of their lamented associate. The 

 time has arrived when this should be done, now that the Institution 

 enters upon another ofiQcial year, and its bereavement is brought freshly 

 to mind. 



Although time may have assuaged our sorrow, as time will do, and 

 although the recollection that a well- spent life was well appreciated and 

 not prematurely closed should temper regret, yet they have not dulled 

 our sense of loss, nor lessened our estimate of the signal services to 

 science, to this Institution, and to the general good which remarkable 

 gifts and a devoted spirit enabled this man to render. 



If we would fit this memorial to the subject of it, we must keep in 

 mind Professor Henry's complete and transparent, but dignified sim- 

 plicity and modesty of character, in which a delicate sense of justice 

 went along with extreme dislike of exaggeration, and aversion to all that 

 savored of laudation. 



Yet it is not for ourselves, his associates — some of few, some of many 

 years — that this record is made ; nor need we speak for that larger circle 

 of his associates, the men of science in our land, who will, in their sev- 

 eral organizations, recount the scientific achievements of their late leader 

 and Nestor. And nothing that we can say will enhance the sentiments 

 of respect, veneration, and trust with which he was regarded here, in 

 Washington, by all who knew him, whether of high or humble station. 

 Even those, here or elsewhere, who came only into occasional intercourse 

 with him, will remember that thoughtful and benignant face ; — certainly 

 it will be remembered by those who, in that recourse to him which it 

 was always easy to gain, have seen the mild seriousness of a somewhat 

 abstracted and grave mien change into a winning smile, sure precursor 



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