JOSEPH HENRY. 355 



one day, in chasing a runaway rabbit, he crawled through the 

 broken foundation wall of the village church, and then, at- 

 tracted by a glimmer of light, made his way up into the vesti- 

 bule of the building. Here stood a bookcase containing the 

 village library. The boy took down a volume, which happened 

 to be Brooks's Fool of Quality, a novel with a moral purpose, 

 and soon became deeply interested in the story. He afterward 

 spoke of this as the first book he ever opened voluntarily. Re- 

 turning again and again by the underground passage, young 

 Joseph regaled himself at will upon the fiction in the library. 

 After a time access to the books in the legitimate way was pro- 

 cured for him by Mr. Broderick, who seems to have been a 

 kind employer. 



When about fourteen years of age young Henry returned to 

 his mother's house in Albany. As at this time he manifested 

 little inclination for learning, temporary employment was 

 found for him by his uncle with a silversmith, but this arrange- 

 ment soon came to an end by the failure of his employer. He 

 now developed a great fondness for the theatre. Besides see- 

 ing all the plays he could, he obtained entrance behind the 

 scenes and learned the methods of producing stage effects. 

 Joining a society for debating and amateur theatricals, called 

 the Rostrum, he soon distinguished himself by his ingenuity 

 in stage management, and became president of the society. 

 Having from lack of employment plenty of time on his hands, 

 he wrote a comedy for the Rostrum and dramatized a tale 

 of more serious character. While occupied with such matters, 

 his active mind struck the trail that led it to the road it 

 was destined to pursue. He was kept at home a few days 

 by a slight illness, and chanced to take up an elementary 

 book of science belonging to a Scotchman who lodged in his 

 mother's house. It was Lectures on Experimental Philoso- 

 phy, Astronomy, and Chemistry, intended chiefly for the use 

 of Young Persons, by G. Gregory. The style of the book 

 suggesting queries about common things and afterward giv- 

 ing the answers to them was stimulating to a vigorous mind. 

 This volume was preserved in Henry's library until his death, 

 and the effect it had upon him is attested by the following 

 inscription which he put upon its fly leaf: "This book, al- 

 though by no means a profound work, has, under Providence, 

 exerted a remarkable influence upon my life. It accidentally 



