Memoir of William C. Redfield. 369 



Various other contributions to. science of our departed fi'iend 



must, for want of space, be passed by with hardly a notice. Such 



, are his pubhshed meteorological essays* — his reports of meteor- 



. ological observations, which contain many original hints of much 



value — his paper on tlie currents of the Atlantic — and his re- 

 searches in geology, which occapied much of his attention during 

 the latter years of his life — all of which speak the skilful ob- 

 server, the judicious philosopher, the lover of science, the lover 

 of his country and of his kind. Three distinguishing marks 

 of the true philosopher met in William C. Redfield — originality 

 to devise new things ; patience to investigate ; and logical powers 

 to draw the proper conclusions. The impress of his originality 

 he left, in early life, upon the village where he resided ; he after- 

 wards imprinted it still deeper on his professional business, as 

 naval engineer; and most of all on his scientific labors, his ob- 

 servations, and his theories, ^'Patient thought" was the motto 

 of Newton, and in this attribute, Redfield was eminently distin- 

 guished. In collecting facts bearing upon his main purpose, and 

 in submitting them to severe and long continued comparison, he 

 has illustrated this quality in its highest forms, as his laborious 

 investigation of the phenomena of hundreds of storms, most fully 

 evince. Originality to invent without patience to investigate, 

 leads to hasty and wild speculations; but united they lay the 

 deep foundations for a severe logic. His powers of reasoning 

 have always appeared to me to be of high order, and he has 

 been fitly characterized by another eminent writerf on the laws 

 of storms, as the *' clear-headed" Redfield. Opinions which 

 he had thus formed, after an extensive and patient investigation 

 of the facts, and a severe process of reasoning,' he held with 

 great tenacity. But though firm, he was not obstinate. Ohsti- 

 '^dcy we define to be an unyielding adherence to our opmions be- 

 cause We have adopted iliem: firmness^ a similar adherence to 

 our opinions, because we believe them to be right. 



Few men have given more signal proofs of an original inhe- 

 rent love of knowledf^e. Whether we contemplate the appren- 





tice-boy after the toils of the day, seeking for knowledge by the 

 dim light of an open fire ; or the father of a young family, through 

 dark scenes of domestic affliction and mournful bereavements, still 

 adding largely year by year to his intellectual stores; or the 

 i^an of business in the whirl of the great metropolis, loaded with 

 Onerous and responsible cares, giving every interval of leisure, 

 and the seasons chiefly employed in pleasure or repose to the 

 study of the laws of nature ; or if permitted, as has been my 

 privilege, to be a guest at the house fitted up to be the retreat 

 of his old a^e, we see the library, the collections of natural his- 



* Originally prepared for Blunt's Coast Pilot. f Reid. 



SECOND SERIES, VOL, XXIV, NO, 72. — NOV*, 1857. 



47 



