8 



Holy Ghost and received by Faith into the heart of each individual, and 

 he rested his own soul thereon with sincere and deep felt emotions. Dur- 

 ing his eventful life he was ever an attentive observer of the signs of the 

 times, being a great reader of newspapers and other periodicals. In these 

 Le had noticed so many associations for the reformation of the evils in hu- 

 manity, skilfully organized and vehemently recommended, and after all, 

 superseded by their original projectors, that while he did not oppose 

 schemes, which, devised by man, relied on the organization of his fellow 

 men for the attainment of reformation, he was not disappointed when 

 these attempts failed ; and he persevered in the old way of presenting to 

 his hearers the necessity of a prompt and persevering dependence on the 

 power of personal and revealed religion to regulate the «iifections and the 

 daily life. 



But it v.'as as a professor that Dr. Mitchell displayed the most energy and 

 accomplished the greatest results. Until 1825 he presided over the depart- 

 ment of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. During this period the doc- 

 trine of Fluxions, now called the Calculus, was introduced into the College 

 curriculum, and the degree of attainment in other branches of Mathematics 

 was elevated considerably. In 1825, when Dr. Olmsted accepted a situation 

 in Yale College, Dr. Mitchell was transferred to the chair thus vacated and 

 left his own to be filled by Dr. Phillips. The pursuit of Natural Science 

 had alwa^'^s been a delightful employment with Dr. Mitchell. Even 

 while a Professor of Mathematics he had frequently indulged his taste for 

 Botany by pedestrian excursions through the country around Chapel Hill. 

 After he took upon himself instruction in Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geol- 

 ogy he extended and multiplied these excursions, so that v.dien he died lie 

 was known in almost every part of North Carolina, and he left no one be- 

 hind him better acquainted with its mountains, vallies, and plains, its^ 

 liirds, beasts, bugs, fishes, and shells, its trees, flowers, vines, and mosses, 

 its rocks, stones, sands, clays and marls. Although in Silliman's Journal, 

 and in other periodicals less prominent but circulating more widely nearer 

 home, he published many of his discoveries concerning North Carolina, 

 yet it is to be regretted that he did not print more, and in a more perma- 

 nent form. It would doubtless have thus appeared that he knew and per- 

 haps justly estimated the worth of many facts which much later investiga- 

 tors have proclaimed as their own remarkable discoveries. But the infor- 

 mation he gathered was for his own enjoyment, and for the instruction jf 

 his pupils. On these he lavished, to their utmost capacity for reception, 

 the knowledge that he had gathered by his widely extended observations, 

 and had stored up mainly in the recesses of his own singularly retentive 

 memory. 



