372 EULOGY ON PROFESSOR ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE. 



and the revival of old associations, would be of service to him ; but, not- 

 withstanding an occasional manifestation of his wonted spirit of social 

 and intellectual enjoyment at the encounter of a friend of former times 

 or distinguished associate in the walks of science, he returned from a 

 sojourn abroad of eighteen months without having experienced any per- 

 manent abatement in the progress of his malady. He lingered for a short 

 time longer, and finally resigned his breath at Newport, Ehode Island, 

 on the 17th of February, 1867, in the sixty-first year of his age. 



It would be impossible to name an American distinguished on purely 

 scientific grounds to whom the enlightened sentiment of his own country- 

 men and of foreign nations has awarded more emphatic marks of ad- 

 miration and esteem. The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on 

 him by the principal universities of this country, and few of our leading 

 societies were willing to forego the honor of numbering him among their 

 associates. He was elected in succession president of the American 

 Philosophical Society, of the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, and, of the National Academy of Sciences established 

 by Congress. Nor were foreigners less forward iu acknowledging 

 his merit. He was a member of the Eoyal Society of London, 

 of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, of the Insti- 

 tute of France, the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh, the Eoyal and Impe- 

 rial Geographical Society of Vienna, the Eoyal Academy of Turin, the 

 Mathematical Society of Hamburg, the Academy of Sciences in the 

 Institute of Bologna, the Eoyal Astronomical Society of London, and 

 of the Eoyal Irish Academy of Dublin. In addition to these testimonies 

 of appreciation, several medals were awarded to him by foreign govern- 

 ments for his distinguished services in the Coast Survey and in the 

 cause of science generally. 



The life we have here sketched is eminently suggestive, both from a 

 philosophical and a practical point of view. It presents an unbroken 

 series of successful efforts, with no interruptions in its sustained and 

 constantly ascending course; all parts follow each other in harmonious 

 continuity ; and not only is each stage of its progress in advance of the 

 one which preceded it, but it furnishes the means of education for that 

 which succeeded. It is not merely curiosity, laudable as that might be, 

 but a sense of the importance of the inquiry, which prompts us to ask, 

 What were the mental and moral characteristics of the mind which pro- 

 duced such results ? And we say intentionally, the mind which produced 

 these results, for although it be true that accident has in many cases a 

 determining influence on the fortunes of an individual, it will be clear 

 from what precedes, or we shall have greatly failed in the task which 

 we proposed to ourselves, that the element of casualty had but little to do 

 with the success which crowned the life to which the question at present 

 relates. 



From long acquaintance with him and critical study of the events of 



