360 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



Aware that his illness was fatal, he yet felt lulled by that strange 

 flattery of disease when unattended with a painful wasting, into 

 the thought that he might probably survive the approaching warmer 

 weather; and fully prepared for death, with the sense of life still 

 strong within him, he planned what might yet be accomplished. 



But with occasional alternations of more favorable symptoms, 

 with the uraemia steadily increasing, his strength slowly declined: 

 and as he lay at noon of the 13th of last May, [1878,] with grow- 

 ing difficulty of breathing surrounded by loving and anguished 

 hearts his last feeble utterance was an inquiry which way the 

 wind came. With intellect clear and unimpaired, calmly that pure 

 and all unselfish spirit passed away; leaving a void all the more 

 real, all the more felt, that the deceased had reached a good old age, 

 and had worthily accomplished his allotted work. 



PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER. 



Of Henry's personal appearance, it is sufficient to say, that his 

 figure, above the medium height, was finely proportioned ; that his 

 mien and movement were dignified and imposing; and that on 

 whatever occasion called upon to address an assembly, 



V "With grave aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed 

 A pillar of state: deep on his front engraven 

 Deliberation sat, and public care." 



His head and features were of massive mould; though from the 

 perfect proportion of his form, not too conspicuously so. His 

 expansive brow was crowned with an abundant flow of whitened 

 hair; his lower face always smoothly shaven, expressed a mingled 

 gentleness and firmness; and his countenance of manly symmetry 

 was in all its varying moods, a pleasant study of the mellowing, 

 moulding impress of long years of generous feeling, and a worthy 

 exponent of the fine and thoughtful spirit within: wearing in 



1 



it should therefore be an indispensable test of membership in an Academy 

 strenuous in maintaining its exalted function. "It is not social position, popu- 

 larity, extended authorship, or success as an instructor in science which entitles 

 to membership, but actual new discoveries; nor are these sufficient if the repu- 

 tation of the candidate is in the slightest degree tainted with injustice or want 

 of truth. Indeed I think that immorality and great mental power exercised in 

 the discovery of scientific truths, are incompatible with each other; and that 

 more error is introduced from defect in moral sense than from want of intellec- 

 tual capacity." (Same Proceedings, p. 129.) 



