DISCOURSE OF DR. .1. C. WELLIXG. 195 



tunity, from "the forlorn and shipwrecked brother," who had 

 already tailed in the voyage of life, to the adventurous young 

 mariner who sought hi- counsel and guidance for the successful 

 launching of his .-hip from its ways. Many are the young men, 

 who, in all parts of the land, could rise up to-day ami call him 

 blessed, I'm- the blessing he brought to them by the kind word 

 -pul, en and tin' kind deed done, each in its season. 



Unselfishness was a fundamental trait in the character of Pro- 

 fessor Henry, and he made the same trait a fundamental oik. 1 in 

 hi- conception of the philosopher's high calling. The work of sci- 

 entific inquiry was with him a labor of love, not simply because he 

 loved the labor, hut because he hoped by it t<> advance the cause 

 of truth and promote the welfare of man. lb- never dreamed of 

 profiting by any discovery he made. He would not even have his 

 salary increased, so tenaciously did he hold to the Christ-like privi- 

 lege of living among men "as one that serveth." This was a 

 crown which he would let no man take from him. To the Govern- 

 ment he freely gave, in many spheres of public usefulness, all the 

 time he could spare from his official duties. And it was in one of 

 tie.-' subsidiary public labor-, a- chairman of the Light-House 

 Board, that he contracted, as he believed, the disease which carried 

 him to the grave. 



A sense of rectitude presided over all his thoughts ami act-. 

 He had so trained his mind to right thinking, and his will to right 

 feeling and right doing, that this absolute rectitude became a part 

 of his intellectual as well as moral nature. Hence in his methods 

 nt' philosophizing he was incapable of sophistical reasoning. He 

 sat at the feet of nature with as much of candor as of humility, 

 never importing into his observations the pride of opinion, and 

 never yielding to the -eductions of an overweening fancv. He 

 was sober in his judgments. He made no hasty generalizations. 

 His mind seemed to turn on "the poles of truth." 



I could not dwell with enough of emphasis on this crowning 

 grace of our beloved friend if I should seek to do full justice to 

 my conception of the completeness it gave to his beautiful character. 

 But happily for me I need dwell upon it with only the less of 

 emphasis because it was the quality which, to use a French idiom, 



