232 LIFE OF PROFESSOR CHESTER DEWEY. 



lal history with great zeal ami entlinsiasni; while lie was equallj' 

 earnest in giving instruction in tlie severer i)ortions of the broad depart- 

 ment for whose cultivation in the college he was made responsible. He 

 fitted up a laboratory, and commenced making collections for the illus- 

 tration of botany, mineralogy, and geology. This was accomplished 

 mainly by personal labor and exchanges with those engaged in similar 

 pursuits in our own and other countries. These labors gave the initial 

 impulse to the cultivation of the natural sciences in Williams College, 

 and laid the foundations ot its now large and valuable illustrative collec- 

 tions. 



In 1827, Dr. Dewey resigned the chair which he had so long held. 

 The friends of education in Western MaJ^sachusetts had been im[)ressed 

 with the necessity of providing more systematic and vigorous instruction 

 for young men preparing for college and immediate business i)ursuits. 

 An opportunity for ])ublic service of this sort of more immediate useful- 

 ness, as it seemed to him, than was afforded by his college chair, was 

 found in the establishment of a gymnasium at Pittsfield. He removed 

 to Pittsfield, where he had previously been engaged as professor of 

 chemistry in the Medical College, and became principal of this institution. 

 He remained in Pittsfield nine years, at the same time occui)ying the 

 chair of chemistry in the medical colleges in Pittsfield and in Woodstock, 

 Vermont. At the end of this period he removed to Eochester, Xew 

 York, and took charge of the collegiate institute in that city. This 

 institution, in connection witli Professor Is. W. Benedict, he conducted 

 with high success for fourteen years. In 1850, at the establishment of 

 the University of Ilochester, he was elected professor of chemistry and 

 natural history in that institution, and continued to discharge the 

 duties of that chair for a little more than ten ^ears. He retired from 

 active duty at the ripe age of seventy-six. It was during the period of 

 his connection with the university that I first became acquainted with 

 Dr. Dev>'ey personally and in the work of instruction. 



In attempting an estimate of the services and worth of our venerated 

 friend, we are naturally led first to speak of him as a teacher. In his 

 chosen profession he was an enthusiast. His whole life was absorbed in 

 obtaining knowledge and imparting it to others. In the street, in the 

 social circle, in the i)rolessor's chair, he was always the teacher. No 

 person could come within the sphere of his influence without carrying 

 away some new fact or thought, or being inoculated with new love for 

 moral or natural truth. In accunuilatiug knowledge he seemed always 

 to have in mind the idea of imparting it to others. In his mind new 

 truths seemed to fall spontaneously into the form best adapted for 

 presentation to the learner. He always (X)nceived of nature and man as 

 belonging to a coumiou system, related to each other iu every part, and 

 designed to illustrate a common moral purpose. This naturally led him 

 to estimate new investigations and discoveries to be important mainly 

 as they served to set forth the moral dignity of man, to promote his 



