106 PROCEEDINGS OF THE REGENTS. 



benefit of his impaired health, and partly to attend a meeting of the 

 American Oriental Society, of which he was an active member. On 

 his return to Washington, in November, he rapidly declined, and on 

 Tuesday, the 29th of that month, expired, without pain, at the age 



of 49 years. . ..... 



Professor Turner was not only distinguished for his abilities as a 

 scholar, his extraordinary capacity for labor, his great power of grasp- 

 ing the generalization of the science to which he was devoted, but 

 his private life was marked by singular purity. His manners were 

 simple and cordial; his conversation lively and instructive. He was 

 modest, without reserve; he was unobtrusive, but always ready to im- 

 part his affluent knowledge whenever the occasion seemed to call for 

 it. The death of such a man is a loss to science and the country. I 

 move the adoption of the following resolution: 



Resolved, That this Board have learned with deep regret of the 

 death of Professor W. W. Turner, a scholar of rare gifts and large 

 acquirements, whose abilities and learning have in many ways been of 

 great value to the Smithsonian Institution. As a philologist, he had 

 but few equals; as an earnest laborer in the pursuit of knowledge, he 

 was a high example to American students. As a public officer, he 

 was upright, conscientious, and prompt in the discharge of every duty. 

 His social virtues endeared him to his friends in no common measure. 

 By his death American scholarship has sustained a heavy loss, this 

 Institution has been deprived of an efficient collaborator, and the com- 

 munity at large of a virtuous and distinguished citizen. 



On motion of Hon. J. G. Berret, it was 



Resolved, That a copy of this resolution, with the introductory 

 remarks, be transmitted to the family of the deceased. 



The resolutions were adopted. 



Professor Felton then addressed the Board as follows: 

 I have also, Mr. Chancellor, to call the attention of the Board to 

 the death of an honorary member of the Smithsonian Institution — the 

 beloved and illustrious Washington Irving, the most venerated repre- 

 sentative of American literature. He was born April 3, 1783, in New 

 York, and died at his residence, at Sunnyside, on the banks of the 

 Hudson, November 28, 1859, in the 77th year of his age. His literary 

 career extends over a period of more than half a century. For many 

 years he has stood undoubtedly at the head of American literature. 

 He enjoyed only the common opportunities of education in his youth; 

 but the oldest universities of England and America honored themselves 

 by conferring their highest honors on him in his manhood. At an 

 early age he commenced the study of the law. His health failing, he 

 travelled two years in Europe, and resuming his professional studies 

 on his return, w r as admitted to the bar. Not finding the practice of 

 the profession congenial to his tastes, he relinquished it, and became 

 a partner in a mercantile house with his brother. But he was not 

 destined to remain long in the career of trade; the failure of the 

 house in the crisis that followed the peace of 1815 turned his attention 

 to literature as a permanent pursuit. He had already shown by the 



