x 
204 Memoir of Rev. John Prince, LL. D. 
scandal or gossip. During his long ministry, I do not believe that 
he has ever been even suspected of widening a breach by tale-bear- 
ing, of raising a laugh at another’s expense, or of uttering a syllable 
to the disparagement of a single member of the community. All 
the notices he took, and all the circumstances he related, in which 
other men were concerned, were only such as could be made to 
point a general moral, and illustrate a principle of human nature 
without affecting any individual injuriously. What I have now said 
will commend itself to bis friends as a true and accurate feature of 
his character, and it strikingly illustrates his judgment and p.udence, 
the integrity of his mind, the tenderness of his feelings, and his strong 
sense of justice towards all men. 
His passion for knowledge, receiving a particularly strong bias from 
the manual occupation to which he served an apprenticeship, inclined 
him, with peculiar interest, to the pursuit and cultivation of the sev- 
eral branches of experimental natural philosophy. On the 10th of 
November, 1783, just four years from the day of bis ordination, 
when 32 years of age, he communicated to the scientific world, his 
improved construction of the Arr Pump. His letter giving the first 
account of it, addressed to President Willard, of Harvard College, 
may be seen in the first volume of the Memoirs of the American 
Academy. The present generation can form no conception of the 
interest awakened by this admirable invention, not only in this coun- 
try, but throughout Europe. His name was at once enrolled among 
the benefactors and ornaments of modern science, and on that roll 
it will remain inscribed until science itself shall be mo more. The 
philosophical journals of the day emulated each other in praising the 
scientific research and profoundness of reasoning displayed in the 
construction. The American philosopher was allowed to have sur- 
passed all former attem pts in the same department. His name is 
recorded, by an eminent writer, in connection with that of the fa- 
mous Boyle, among “ who have improved the ——— of 
science and of whose | S we are now reaping the benefit.” e 
machine is still called, a way of distinction, “the American Air 
Pump,” and its figure was selected to represent a constellation in 
the heavens, and imprinted upon celestial globes. 
nicer iin namlaiinentnipillioa 
on, 1799, vol. 1, p. 44-54. Rees’ Cyclop , Art. Air Pump. Analytical Re- 
pe July, 1789. Nicholson’s Journal, v we L. eg, oy 
Ameri 
erican Air Pump is to be found in Dobson’ s Supplement to the Encyclopedia 
Brittannica, Art. Pneumatics. 
