206 The Smithsonian Institution 



rors, sufficiently accurate for good astronomical work, with 

 apparatus entirely of his own making. 



in. 



THE career of which an outline has now been presented is 

 full of suggestions for those who have under consideration 

 the theory of educational methods. Still more instructive is 

 it to the student of heredity ; all the more so because there 

 exists in this case a somewhat unusual opportunity for the 

 examination of the sources whence has doubtless been de- 

 rived the power of this sturdy and potent intellect. 



It often happens in America, that " smelting-pot of the 

 nations," as Froude has called it, that among the ancestors 

 of any individual are included not only several European 

 races, but the residents of a number of different colonies, 

 almost as distinct in mental characteristics and tendencies, in 

 early days, as the several European nations. In this case it 

 is not so. Mr. Langley's forefathers all came, in the first 

 instance, to Massachusetts, mostly in the early part of the 

 seventeenth century, and in Massachusetts their descendants, 

 with few exceptions, remained until the end of Colonial days. 

 The names of nearly one hundred and fifty of them are 

 known, and they bear for the most part old English sur- 

 names with a slight intermingling of Welsh, and one which 

 has a French sound. All are characteristic of Boston, and 

 of the neighboring towns which are now actually or practi- 

 cally absorbed in it. 1 The mingling, in this case so potent 



1 The names, for which, for the most part, Hayward, Hills, Howell, Kettell, Langley, 

 I am indebted to the antiquarian knowledge Ludkin, Lynde, Mather, Mayo, Phillips, 

 of Mr. A. Howard Clark, are the following : Pierce, Pierpont, Pratt, Reynn, Shapleigh, 

 Allen, Anderson, Bachelder, Baker, Boyls- Sheperdson, Smith, Sprague, Stalham, Sum- 

 ton, Bradish, Branson, Call, Clap, Clark, ner, Sweetser, Thompson, Tufts, Upham, 

 Corbin, Cotton, Cross well, Davis, Deming, Waite.Ward, West, Wetherell, Wharff, White, 

 Dowse, Fosdick, Foster, Franklin, Goffe, Wigglesworth, Williams, Wise, Wood. 



