ADDRESS. 1 



BY THE REV. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE, D.D. 



It is seldom that a man goes away, whose place is not soon and easily 

 filled. He may be a little wiser, a little better, a little stronger than others ; 

 but others come so near him in his special function that they soon replace 

 him. Only occasionally can we use the poet's words, and say, 



" Nee viget quicquam simile aut secnnduin." 

 " No one like him, no one near him." 



But we must say so now. Our friend, who has left us, filled a place no one 

 else can occupy. In that department of intelligence in which alone man 

 seems emancipated from human liability to error, in which, with sure foot, 

 he can advance step by step, along the path of the creative mind, our 

 brother stood among us alone. In this sphere he was able to speak as one 

 having authority ; and who was there who could question or criticise ? What 

 a singular and strange gift was this mighty function of his intellect ! It was 

 born with him. He seemed able, from the very first, to read, with easy facil- 

 ity, the problems of mathematics which others could only solve with labor. 

 As a classmate I remember that our teacher in mathematics, the good and 

 strong man who has just preceded him, George Ripley, never ventured 

 in the recitation room to do more than ask one question of Peirce ; and then 

 allow him to demonstrate in his own way, as he pleased. It is not for me, 

 however, to speak of his accomplishment and attainment on this great line 

 of thought. I leave the task to others, who will tell us how he has explored 

 these regions of mystery alone, and has gone sounding along the dim and 

 perilous ways untrodden before ; how he has furnished new methods of dis- 

 covery for those who shall follow him, and stated some results which thus 

 far no critic has yet seemed able either to accept or to deny. But that which 

 I most feel now, as I stand here with you to say our brief farewell to this 

 noble friend and brother, is, that, on these cold peaks of primeval thought, 

 where he stood alone with the eternal Laws of Nature, he saw no blind 



1 Spoken at the funeral in Appleton Chapel, Saturday afternoon, Oct. 9. 



