XX. MEMOIR OF THOMAS SAY. 



backward in acknowledging his merits, for we find his name 

 in the noble list of Foreign Members of the Linnean Society 

 of London, and that of the Zoological Society of the same 

 capital ; an enviable distinction, which our countryman must 

 have justly valued, when he reflected that the former is re- 

 stricted to the number of fifty, and the latter to five-and- 

 twenty. 



We have merely noted, in a cursory way, Mr. Say's in- 

 dustry and zeal ; details would be superfluous, as the variety 

 and extent of his labours amply testify to these points. 



Of his moral character we are now to speak, but so many 

 delightful recollections rush forward at once, that we hardly 

 know which has the claim to precedence. Those who had 

 the best opportunities of knowing him, his venerable mother,* 

 and his affectionate sister, speak in such unqualified terms 

 of his domestic virtues, that his value as a son and a brother 

 must have heen beyond all eulogy. His disposition was so 

 truly amiable, his manners were so bland and conciliating, 

 that no one, after having once formed his acquaintance, could 

 cease to esteem him. A remarkable feature in his character 

 was his modesty, which, leading to habits of retirement, in 

 some respects unfitted him for the intercourse of society, ex- 

 cept that of his private friends, where, it may be said, he was 

 truly at home, and where he was the idol of every heart. 



A diffidence of his own powers was a perpetual barrier to 

 advancement in life, as it is known that he declined a pro- 

 fessorship of natural history, offered him by the trustees of 

 one of our learned institutions, on the score of his supposed 

 inability to lecture in an acceptable manner. And on the 

 death of Dr. Baldwin, the botanist and historian to Major 

 Long's first expedition, Mr. Say refused the situation of 

 Journalist, offered to him by the commander, alleging his 

 want of qualification for that responsible employment. This 

 distrust of his own acquirements led, in some instances, to 



* This respectable old lady, who died not long after the delivery of 

 this discourse, was Mr. Say's step-mother. 



