STEPHEN ALEXANDER. 605 



The property of the elder Alexander at the time of his death was 

 considerable in amount, but to some extent in an unavailable form, 

 consisting largely of lands scattered through the States of New York 

 and Vircrinia. After the settlement of the estate his widow therefore 

 found herself, not poor exactly, but in embarrassed circumstances, 

 with a meagre income, and obliged to observe a careful economy. 



The writer has met with no account of young Alexander's child- 

 hootl and youth. Judging from his subsequent character and phy- 

 sique, it may be presumed that he was delicate rather than i-obust ; 

 not noisy, boisterous, nor fond of athletic sports, but rather quiet, 

 gentle, and studious. He must have had good school advantages, 

 and he must have been bright and somewhat precocious, for he 

 completed his academic course in Union College, and graduated with 

 high honor in 1824, before he was quite eighteen years old. 



After graduation he was engaged in teaching for several years, 

 most of the time at Chittenango, N. Y. Whether he was engaged 

 elsewhere I have not been able to ascertain certainly, though I am 

 disposed to think that in 1830 and 1831 he was connected with 

 the Albany Academy. At all events his mother and family moved 

 to Albany in 1829, where his cousin (father's sister's son), Professor 

 Henry, was then beginning his distinguished career ; and during the 

 next two or three years they were associated together in numer- 

 ous astronomical observations, as appears from letters and papers in 

 the possession of the family. In 1830, Professor Henry married 

 IMiss Alexander, and the double relationship thus established shaped 

 the whole life and fortune of his much loved younger cousin and 

 brother-in-law. 



In 1832, Professor Henry accepted the chair of Natural Philosophy 

 in the College of New Jersey, and removed to Princeton with his wife 

 and family. Professor Alexander came with them, and entered the 

 Theological Seminary ; but the next year he was appointed a Tutor 

 in the College, a year later he was made adjunct Professor of Mathe- 

 matics and in 1840 he received the chair of Astronomy. This chair 

 he retained until 1876, though in the long period intervening the 

 style and duties of his professorship were frequently modified. For 

 many years he taught mathematics and astronomy, and later, giving 

 up the mathematics, he taught natural philosophy and astronomy, 

 but astronomy always and chiefly. In 1876, at the age of seventy, 

 he was retired, receiving from the College, as Professor Emeritus, a 

 suitable provision for his declining years. The remainder of his life 

 he spent mostly at Princeton, in dignified quiet, — busy always with 



