THE SCIENTIFIC WORK 



OF 



JOSEPH HENRY.* 



BY 



WILLIAM B. TAYLOR. 



To cherish with affectionate regard the memory of the venerated 

 dead is not more grateful to the feelings, than to recall their excel- 

 lences and to retrace the stages and occasions of their intellectual 

 conquests is instructive to the reason. Few lives within the century 

 are more worthy of admiration, more elevating in contemplation, 

 or more entitled to commemoration, than that of our late most 

 honored and beloved president JOSEPH HENRY. 



Distinguished by the extent of his varied and solid learning, pos- 

 sessing a wide range of mental activity, so great were his modesty 

 and self-reserve, that only by the accidental call of occasion would 

 even an intimate friend sometimes discover with surprise the full- 

 ness of his information and the soundness of his philosophy, in some 

 quite unsuspected direction. Remarkable for his self-control, he 

 was no less characterized by the absence of self-assertion. Ever 

 warmly interested in the development and advancement of the young, 

 he was a patient listener to the trials of the disappointed, and a 

 faithful guide to the aspirations of the ambitious. Generous with- 

 out ostentation, he was always ready to assist the deserving by 

 services, by counsel, by active exertions in their behalf. 



In his own pursuits Truth was the supreme object of his regard, 

 the sole interest and incentive of his investigations ; and in its quest 

 he brought to bear in just allotment qualities of a high order; 

 quickness and correctness of perception, inventive ingenuity in 



* Read before the " Philosophical Society of Washington," October 26th, 1878. (Bui- 

 letin of the Phil. Soc. W. vol. ii. p. 230.) A large portion of the discourse (including 

 nearly the whole of the section on the "Administration of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion") was necessarily omitted on the occasion of its delivery. 



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