EULOGY ON PROFESSOR ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE. 99 



even in the midst of tliis labor we find our late colleague actively coop- 

 erating in tbe great. enterprise of the British Association to determine 

 by contemporaneous observations, at widely separated points, tbe fluctu- 

 ations of tbe magnetic and meteorological elements of the globe. This 

 cooperation, in which no doubt a feeling of national pride mingled itself 

 with bis ardor for the advancement of science, consisted primarily in the 

 establishment of an observatory, to which the trustees of Girard Col- 

 lege contributed a full series of instruments, combining all the latest 

 improvements, and which was supported by the American Philosoph- 

 ical Society, and a number of liberal and intelligent individuals. The 

 observations which were here continued at short intervals, both by day 

 and night, for five years, form a rich mine of statistics, from which, 

 until within the last few years of his life, the professor drew a highly 

 interesting series of results, without exhausting the material. In addi- 

 tion to these observations, he made during his summer vacations a 

 magnetic survey of Pennylvania. 



He was not destined to remain long in his old position in the uni- 

 versity. Before he had become fairly settled in it and had renewed 

 his familiarity with its duties, he was called in November, 1843, on 

 the occasion of the death of Mr. Hassler, Superintendent of the United 

 States Coast Survey, to fill the important sphere of public duty thus 

 rendered vacant. His appointment to this position was first suggested 

 by the members of the American Pliilosophical Society, and the nomi- 

 nation fully concurred in by the principal scientitic and literary institu- 

 tions of the country. In this movement he himself took no part, and 

 indeed regarded the position as one not to be coveted; for while it 

 opened a wide field for the exercise of talent and the acquisition of an 

 enviable reputation, it involved responsibilities and presented diifi- 

 culties of the gravest character. Professor Bache was not one of those 

 who, abounding in self-confidence, imagine themselves equal to every 

 exigency, or who seek the distinctions and emoluments of office without 

 any regard to the services to be rendered or the duties to be discharged. 

 On the contrary, though early and continued success must have tended 

 to increase his self-esteem, each new position to which he was called 

 was entered upon with feelings of solicitude rather than of exultation. 

 He rightly judged that the proper moment for self-congratulation is not 

 at the beginning of an arduous and precarious enterprise, but at the 

 time of its full and successful accomplishment. Nor can it be necessary 

 to add that this characteristic contributed largely to his success. In 

 civil service as in the camp, the leader to whom all look with confidence 

 is not he who, with blind and arrogant self-reliance, disdains caution as 

 unworthy of courage, but he who, sensitively alive to the dangers to 

 be encountered, exerts every faculty in calling to his aid every resource 

 which may tend to secure victory or facilitate retreat. 



With whatever misgivings Professor Bache may have undertaken 

 the task to which he was assigned, it may be truly said that no living 



