MEMOIR OP THOMAS SAY. XIX. 



lie soon became sensible, by the derangement of his digestive 

 organs, which resulted in dysenteric affections, that, proba- 

 bly, were the remote cause of the illness which carried him 

 to the grave. 



Another cause of indisposition, if not of disease, may have 

 been those habits of rigid abstemiousness, to which Mr. Say 

 addicted himself after his retirement to New Harmony. 

 The maxim of Seneca, that " We have a sufficiency when 

 we have what nature requires," how just soever in itself, 

 may, nevertheless, lead to harm, if we fail to inquire what 

 are the requisitions of nature, and if we neglect to supply 

 them. That the abstinence of Mr. Say, and his prototype, 

 Mr. Maclure, was carried to an injurious excess, we may 

 safely infer from the fact, that the expenditure for the daily 

 food of each, for a considerable time, amounted to no more 

 than the sum of six cents.* 



Although on the score of Mr. Say's literary acquirements 

 there may be a diversity of opinion, yet there can be but 

 one sentiment with regard to his industry, his zeal, and the 

 extent of his knowledge of natural history, particularly of 

 that class of zoology to which he was most attached, En- 

 tomology. His discoveries of new species of insects were, 

 perhaps, greater than ever had been made by a single in- 

 dividual, and it is to be regretted that many of them yet 

 remain in his cabinet undescribed.f The naturalists of 

 Europe, fully sensible of his rare qualifications, were not 



* This singular fact I had from Mr. Maclure's own letters. The folly 

 of some men, reputed philosophers, is sometimes very striking. Seneca 

 maintained that a little bread and water was all that nature required ; 

 as to clothes and lodging, says he, we may cover ourselves with the 

 skins of beasts, and with a few oziers and a little clay we may defend 

 ourselves against the vicissitudes of the weather. But did this illus- 

 trious moralist exemplify his own precepts ? Hear him : " If I do not 

 live as I preach, take notice, that I do not speak of myself, but of vir- 

 tue." Of what utility is theory without practice? On this head our 

 New Harmony philosophers were more consistent than the preceptor of 

 Nero, for they really enforced their own doctrines by their example. 



t This cabinet has been since entirely destroyed. 



