PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 335 



here, recall with what unpretentious readiness he communicated 

 from his rich stores of well-digested facts, observations— whether 

 initiatory or supplementary, on almost every topic presented to 

 our notice ; how apt his illustrations and suggestions in our 

 spontaneous discussions; and with what unfailing interest we 

 ever listened to his words of exposition, of knowledge, and of 

 wisdom : utterances which we shall never hear again ; and which 

 unwritten and unrecorded, have not been even reported in an 

 abstract. 



Range of information. — It was not alone in those physical 

 branches of knowledge to which he had made direct original con- 

 tributions, that the mental activities of Henry were familiarly 

 exercised and conspicuously exhibited. There was scarcely a 

 department of intellectual pursuit in which he did not feel and 

 manifest a sympathetic interest, and in which he did not follow 

 with appreciative grasp its leading generalizations. Holding 

 ever to the unity of Nature as the expression and most direct 

 illustration of the Unity of its Author, he believed that every 

 new fact discovered in any of nature's fields, would ultimately 

 be found to be in intimate correlation with the laws prevailing in 

 other lields — seemingly the most distant.* To his large compre- 

 hension, nothing was insignificant, or unworthy of consideration. 

 He ever sought however to look beyond the ascertained and iso- 

 lated or classified fact, to its antecedent cause ; and in opposition 

 to the dogma of Comte, he averred that the knowledge of facts 

 is not science, — that these are merely the materials from which 

 its temple is constructed by sagacious and attested speculation. 



Among his earlier studies, Chemistry occupied a prominent 

 place. The youthful assistant in the laboratory of his former 

 instructor and ever honored friend. Dr. T. Romeyn Beck, and 

 later, himself a teacher of the art and knowledge to others, a 

 skilful manipulator, an acute analyst and investigator of re-ac- 

 tions, he seemed at first destined to become a leader in chemical 

 research. Like Newton, he endeavored to bring the atomic 

 combinations under the conception of physical laws ; believing 

 this essential to the development of chemistry as a true science. 

 He always kept himself well informed on the progress of the 

 more recent doctrines of quantivalence, and the newer system of 

 nomenclature. 



He had also paid considerable attention to geology ; with its 

 relations to palgeontology on the one side, and to physical geog- 

 raphy on the other. 



Familiar with the details — as well of astronomical observation 



* " A proper view of the relation of science and art will enable liim 

 [the reader] to see that tlie one is dependent on the other ; ai.d that each 

 branch of tlie study of nature is intimately connected with every other." 

 {Agricultural Report for 1S57, p. 419.) 



109 



