ADDRESS OF HON. S. S. COX. 109 



genitor of chemistry. Was not astrology a theory, a poem, a dream ? 

 Yet it led up a ladder of stars to the sublimest of sciences. It was 

 said by one of my predecessors, (the Hon. Mr. WITHERS,) who 

 spoke this evening, that Professor HENRY was not a genius. In 

 the sense of a poetaster of a small coterie and of little fancy, he 

 was no genius. It was said his illumination came slowly and 

 through labor. Ah! so it did, perhaps, until he found the volume 

 that awoke and started his peculiar tendency and talent. He had 

 genius ; but he had the masterly genius to curb and control it, to 

 direct and glorify it. 



It has been said that at one time he was enamored of the drama 

 and was almost persuaded to make it his permanent occupation. 

 He had a friendship for Damon, and a morbid desire after the melan- 

 choly Dane. But he was disenchanted of this illusory ambition by 

 friends who knew his sedate and studious mind, to which an 

 academic course and the little volume on physics, which provoked 

 his curiosity, gave a useful and permanent bent. Then came, all 

 roseate and radiant, the blossom of that magnificent fruitage which 

 was the promise of a life rounded and full of cautious experiments 

 and philosophic deduction. 



What of fancy he had, he restrained by patience in details and 

 thoroughness in work. Glittering generalization he avoided, as he 

 did controversy. His plan of education for others was that which 

 he applied to himself. He began with the concrete. If indeed 

 LOCKYER has found Nature's inner secret, it is by his two thousand 

 photographs and one hundred thousand observations. If DRAPER 

 successfully controverts, it will be done by like patience and labor 

 in details. If HENRY succeeded in his grand inquisition, it was 

 by similar detailed labors. While measuring and weighing the 

 forces of nature he cautiously deduced his theory. He gathered 

 the efforts of others OERSTED, ARAGO, DAVY, and STURGEON 

 in his favorite domain of electro-magnetism, and made a sheaf 



