were as anxious for his return as he to share their poverty in. the 

 restoration of Virginia. Nor was he idle; with the aid of his 

 wife and daughters he was getting ready for publication a series 

 of school geographies. This done, he_ instructed the officers of 

 many European nations in the use of<fe torpedo/T/ic, 



When the Chair of Physics in the Virginia Military Insti- 

 tute was tendered him, he saw the way opened to serve the old 

 Commonwealth in the congenial field of Scientific Research, and, 

 by public addresses, to press upon the people the necessity of diver- 

 sified agricultural pursuits and of co-operative meteorological 

 work on land. In 1868, he was back in Virginia, making ready to 

 take up the physical survey of the State, in close friendship and 

 fellowship with all that were left of the great Virginians of the 

 olden time. He made his home in the little valley town of Lex- 

 ington, named in commemoration of that far-away hamlet, where 

 the first martyrs of the Revolution fell. Here, he and Lee, friends 

 and neighbors, trained the younger generation in the high duties 

 of citizenship till "God's finger touched them and they slept." 



Matthew Fontaine Maury was the embodiment of that type of 

 greatness and goodness which finds expression in an unquench- 

 able enthusiasm for service. His loyalty to duty and his service 

 to mankind, extending over a period of nearly fifty years, pro- 

 ject upon the page of history material and moral influences as 

 yet unrecognized. The records of his life are accessible and 

 await the inspired pen of a biographer equal to the task. To in- 

 terpret the spiritual value of one of the noblest lives ever launched 

 upon the tide of time is a challenge to genius. May Heaven-direct- 

 ed "winds and currents" bear this challenge to genius consecrated 

 to the high undertaking ! 



"His work is done ; 



But while the races of mankind endure, 

 Let his great example stand 

 Colossal, seen of every land, 



And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure ; 



Till in all lands and thro' all human story 



The path of duty be the way to glory.*' 



