20 LIFE OF 



he was yet at the bar, that he was elected a member 

 of the Philosophical Society of Pennsylvania, on the 

 19th of April, 1805. 



At that time, it is now acknowledged, and from 

 thence until after the peace of 1814, that Association 

 seemed struck with an extraordinary apathy ; the 

 spirit which Franklin and Hittenhouse had infused 

 and kept alive, no longer stimulated its members. 

 Jefferson was, indeed, then President, but his resi- 

 dence was too far from Philadelphia, and being at 

 the head of the Government of the United States, he 

 had no leisure to attend to the calls of science; the 

 commerce of the world which our country for a long 

 time enjoyed, interrupted as it was by the orders and 

 decrees of the then two great powers of Europe, and 

 the short war which followed, engrossed the atten- 

 tion of our citizens ; literature and science were not 

 encouraged, their friends seemed to be folding their 

 arms in silent despair, and anxiously waiting for bet- 

 ter times. 



Those times at last arrived, and a new spirit was 

 felt in the passing breeze. Mr. Jefferson resigned 

 the Presidency, which he could not exercise at a dis- 

 tance from the society's hall, and recommended Dr. 

 Wistar for his successor. Wistar was elected in Jan- 

 uary, 1815, and Jonathan Williams, the nephew of 

 Franklin, and one of the most active and useful 

 members, was raised to a Vice President's seat, by 

 the side of Patterson and Barton. From that moment 

 the society began to revive ; a new and strong im- 



