104 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



Never was trustee so free from suspicion of personal enrichment. 

 He died as he had lived, with little incumbrance from the dross of 

 the world. Those learned men who have spoken will recall some 

 of his experiments which showed how the metals could penetrate 

 each other; he cared more for this than to fill his own coffers with 

 them, howsoever precious.* He was content with the golden key 

 to the enchanted chambers of science. In all his discoveries and 

 with a name whose emphasis was worth millions in speculation, 

 there was not in his heart a commercial inclination. He was too 

 proud to patent his thoughts. They were the property of mankind, 

 made sacred by the seal of Omniscience ! He had his own exceed- 

 ing great reward in their meditation and diffusion. His modest 

 salary, limited by his own choice, supplied his modest wants; and 

 his services in the Light-House Board from first to last were gratu- 

 itously rendered. He planted the vineyard and others had the fruit 

 and drank the wine thereof. MORSE, GRAHAM, BELL, EDISON, 

 and others gave to the mysteries which he unshadowed, definite, 

 practical, paying results; but, to use his own words, he never thus 

 compromised his independence. He was hungry and thirsty for 

 knowledge, but not for ease and luxury. To prostitute his knowl- 

 edge for gain was inexpressible profanation. Not all the bonanzas 

 from the Sierras could tempt him from his rectitude. Without 

 money and without price, he gave what he acquired. To make 

 merchandise in his grand temple and out of his sacred calling was 

 to touch with sacrilegious hands the ark of the covenant he had 

 made as a high priest of nature. His good name was better than 



* Another investigation had its origin in the accidental observation of the 

 following fact: A quantity of mercury had been left undisturbed in a shallow 

 saucer with one end of a piece of lead wire, about the diameter of a goose-quill, 

 and six inches long plunged into it, the other end resting on the shelf. In this 

 condition it was found after a few days that the mercury had passed through the 

 solid lead, as if it were a siphon, and was lying on the shelf still in a liquid 

 condition. The saucer contained a series of minute crystals of an amalgam of 

 lead and mercury. Letter of Professor Henry, concerning researches at Princeton, 

 December 4, 1876. 



