a. 
36. ae Life and Character of Nathaniel Bowditch. 
ing back, for he had nothing to conceal. He lived openly, and 
talked freely, of himself, and of his doings, and of every thing 
that was uppermost in his mind. He never hesitated to speak 
out what he thought on all subjects, public and private, and he 
avowed his opinions of men and things with the utmost freedom 
and: unconcern. It seemed to me that he never had the fear of © 
man before his eyes, and that it never checked, in the least, the 
free and full utterance of his sentiments. 
Dr. Bowditch was perfectly fair and just in the estimate which 
he formed of his own capacities and gifts.. He did not, on the 
one-hand, overrate his talents; nor, on the other hand, did he, as 
some do, with a sort of hackshanded humility, purposely under- 
value his powers, in order to enjoy the pleasure of being contra- 
dicted by those about him and-told that he was really a much 
greater man than he seemed willing to admit. Asan illustration 
of this, let me mention a little conversation of his. “People,” 
said he, “are very kind and polite, in mentioning me in the same 
breath with La Place, and blending my name with his. But 
they mistake both me and him; we are very different men. I 
trust I understand his works, and can supply his deficiencies, and 
correct his errors, and render his book more intelligible, and re- 
cord the successive advanceraents of the science, and perhaps ap- 
pend some improvements. But La Place was a genius, a discov- 
erer,an inventor. And yet Thope I know as sauch about panthers 
matics as Playfair! ae 
I have been informed by a pontlanss of Susien, that soon ates 
his return from Europe a few years since, he happoted, in a con- 
versation with Dr. Bowditch, to mention to him incidentally, the 
high estimation in which he and his labors were held by men of 
science abroad, and told him that he had often heard his name 
spoken of in terms of the strongest commendation by persons in 
the most elevated walks of society in England. * Dr. Bowditch,” 
says my informant, “seemed to be sensi 
ment, so much so that I saw the tears g) isten in his eyes. But 
he immediately remarked that however flattering such testimo- 
-nials might be, yet the most grateful tribute of commendation he 
had ever received was contained ina letter from a backwoodsman 
of the een who wrote to him to point out an error in his Trans- 
2 a Céleste. ‘It was an actual error,’ said 
the ime ‘which which had escaped my own observation, The : 
