JAMES POLLARD ESPY. I gy 



love for teaching amounted to enthusiasm, and, although he 

 completed his law studies, he finally abandoned the idea of 

 choosing the law as his profession, and determined to follow 

 the bent of his inclination, and become a conscientious in- 

 structor of youth." To his latest years " he considered this a 

 noble profession, and even in old age was fond of drawing out 

 young students to talk over their lessons with him, both hear- 

 ing them and asking them questions." Either before or after 

 this the authorities differ he filled creditably and satisfac- 

 torily the position of principal of the academy at Cumberland, 

 Md., where he married Miss Margaret Pollard, who afterward 

 gave him her full sympathy and encouragement in his meteoro- 

 logical researches. She was physically delicate and, although 

 younger than her husband, died ten years before him. They 

 had no children. 



In 1817 Mr. Espy became a teacher in the classical depart- 

 ment of the Franklin Institute, a position in which, according 

 to Prof. Dallas Bache, he became known as " one of the 

 best classical and mathematical instructors in Philadelphia, 

 which at that day numbered Dr. Wylie, Mr. Sanderson, and 

 Mr. Crawford among its teachers. Impressed by the researches 

 and writings of Dalton and of Daniell on meteorology," Prof. 

 Bache continued, in a eulogy before the Regents of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, " Mr. Espy began to observe the phenomena 

 and then to experiment on the facts which form the ground- 

 work of the science. As he observed, experimented, and 

 studied, his enthusiasm grew, and his desire to devote himself 

 exclusively to the increase and diffusion of the science finally 

 became so strong that he determined to give up his school, 

 and to rely for the means of prosecuting his researches upon 

 :his slender savings and the success of his lectures, probably 

 the most original which have ever been delivered on this 

 subject. His first course was given before the Franklin Insti- 

 tute of Pennsylvania, of which he had long been an active 

 member, and where he met kindred spirits, ready to discuss the 

 principles or the applications of science, and prepared to ex- 

 tend their views over the whole horizon of physical and me- 

 chanical research. As chairman of the Committee on Meteor- 

 ology, Mr. Espy had a large share in the organization of the 

 complete system of meteorological observations carried on by 

 the Institute under the auspices and within the limits of the 



