If; 6 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF JOSEPH HEXRY. 



American i^reclecGSSors were FranldiuandEuinford; that all tlirec were 

 what we call self-made men; that all three, after having ijroved then- 

 talents for original investigation in i)hysics, were called in their mature 

 years to duties of administration and the conduct of affairs. There are 

 interesting parallels to be drawn from their scientific work, if one had 

 time to trace them. 



Xot often is a great man of science a good man of business. IIexrv's 

 friends at Princeton, Avho besought him not to abandon the peaceful 

 academic life vrhich he was eujoying and the quiet pursuits which had 

 given him fame, were surprised when in another sphere he developed 

 equal talents for organization and administration. We have seen how 

 he always developed the talent to do wisely and well whatever he un- 

 dertook. Ilis well-poised spirit, at once patient and masterful, asserted 

 itself in the trials he encountered in the early years of the Institution, 

 and gave assurance that he could deal with men as well as with the 

 for(!es of nature. 



Again, not often is a man of science free from the overmastering in- 

 fluence of his special i)ursuit. More or less his "nature is subdued to 

 what it works in, like the dyer's hand." IS^ow, Henry's mind was uu- 

 colored by the studies of his predilection. His catholic spirit comes out 

 in his definition of science: "Science is the knowledge of the laws of 

 l)henomena, whether they relate to mind or matter." It appears in his 

 choice of the investigations to be furthered and memoirs to be published 

 by the Institution. These nowhere show the bias of a specialist. 



Then, he was a careful, painstaking man, very solicitous — perhaps 

 nnduly anxious— about the particulars of everything for which he felt 

 responsible. Therefore he was sometimes slow in making up his mind 

 on a practical question. May we here condescend to a trivial anecdote 

 of his early boyhood, which he amusingly related to one of us many 

 years ago and pleasantly recalled at one of our latest interviews. It 

 goes back to the time when he was first allowed to ha^e a pair of boots, 

 and to choose for himself the style of them. He Avas living with his 

 grandmother in the country, and the village Crispin could oifer no 

 great choice of patterns; indeed, it was narrowed down to the alterna- 

 tive of round toes or square. Daily the boy visited the shop and pon- 

 dered the alternatives, even while the manufacture was going on, until 

 at length the shoemaker, who could brook no more delay, took the 

 dilemma by both horns and produced the most remarkable pair of 

 boots the wearer ever had; one boot round-toed, the other square-toed. 



