Dr. Porter's Address. n 



roses, as well as in the thunders of the law. St. 

 Paul says that the natural comes first and then the 

 spiritual, and a neglect of this cardinal principle has 

 been the occasion of immense mischief in human 

 culture. A thorough knowledge of the lower world 

 of nature alone can prevent or cure tendencies to 

 vagiie and wild speculation in the higher spheres of 

 philosophy and religion. 



The death of Schweinitz, at the age of 54, occurred 

 on the 8th of February, 1834, and a memoir of his 

 life and scientific labors was prepared and read by 

 Mr. Walter R. Johnson before the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and published by 

 him (with a portrait) at the request of the Academy. 



Although Shakespeare does say : 



"The evil that men do lives after them;" 



and then adds, by way of contrast, 



" The good is oft interred with their bones;" 



it has not been so here. Among the brethren of his own 

 community, in this very town of Bethlehem where 

 he was born, the seed sown by Schweinitz has con- 

 tinued to produce fruit of the same kind and in the 

 same realm of cryptogamic botany in which he 

 labored. Of this a striking testimony is afforded by 

 the superb works on our Fresh-water Algae, from 

 the pen and pencil of the late Rev. Francis Wolle, 

 which have won for him such an enviable place in 

 the annals of American science. 



In like manner the example and influence of Muh- 

 lenberg survived in the chief field of his activity, and 

 there is perhaps no county in the United States,,whose 



