17 



genius, and makes a work, like the Catena, doubly 

 difficult. I have no fears of the ultimate judgment 

 which will be passed upon the work. All that I 

 dread is the indisposition to dig deep into the mines 

 of thought the too fatal propensity to regard poetry 

 solely as the vehicle of pleasure, a pleasure obtained 

 without effort, and not as it is the vehicle of instruc- 

 tion united to pleasure, the pleasure that flows from 

 rich thoughts richly expressed, to the mind and heart, 

 that spring to their work, and are patient in spirit. 



Now, is it not wonderful that a mind so wedded to 

 the exact sciences, and so deeply versed in their hid- 

 den mysteries, should at the same time have found a 

 wing so strong to soar in the regions of poesy, and 

 have been so well sustained in his flight ? A mathe- 

 matician, bold, original, profound, and a poet who had 

 at command the most proper word for the most proper 

 place, blended in one, and so blended, that the depth 

 in either was as clear as the stream that wells up from 

 some huge rock, on the bosom of which there is not 

 so much as a single ripple. May it not be, as Wilson 

 expresses it, "that poetry and science are identical." 



To cap the climax, Professor Alexander was almost, 

 if not quite, as deeply read in theology and Church 

 history as he was in mathematics and general litera- 

 ture. It is not common for a layman to push his 

 inquiries into this region of thought; nor is it com- 

 mon for him to succeed, if he does. But there was 

 nothing common in the mental calibre of our deceased 

 friend. He prepared and published a tabular state- 

 ment of the points of doctrine, in which the several 

 systems of religious belief meet and diverge ; and I 

 hazard nothing in saying, that this remarkable exhi- 

 bition of the powers of condensation and accurate dis- 

 crimination would have been worthy of any Prelate 



