DISCOURSE BY REV. S. B. DOD. 145 



to be for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men, he 

 kept steadily in view. His purity and simplicity of character foiled, 

 as no other armor could have done, the artifice of politicians who 

 sought to wield its influence for political ends. Professor Henry 

 kept it pure from any such taint, and thus saved it to the nation 

 and the world. 



In all his investigations Professor Henry allowed himself per- 

 fect freedom. He followed with simplicity of heart and firmness 

 of mind, whither the revelations of nature led him. He belonged 

 to no scientific cli(^ue, was no bigot nor partisan, but calm and 

 unbiased in his conclusions. ' • ' 



But the chief significance of his life to us as Princetonians, as 

 students, and as men, is that he was an humble, sincere, consistent 

 Christian. > i i 



The following extract from a letter written April 12, 1878, con- 

 tains a clear exposition of Professor Henry's views. I invite 

 your thoughtful attention to them; they are the well-weighed, 

 mature convictions uttered at the close of a long life of earnest 

 study of nature; and, written but a month before his death, we 

 may regard them as his last testament on this great theme: 



"We live in a universe of change; nothing remains the same 

 from one moment till another, and each moment of recorded time 

 has its separate history. We are carried on by the ever-changing 

 events in the line of our destiny, and at the end of the year we are 

 always at a considerable distance from the point of its beginning. 

 How short the space between the two cardinal points of an earthly 

 career, the point of birth and that of death; and yet what a uni- 

 verse of wonders are presented to us in our rapid flight through 

 this space. How small the wisdom obtained by a single life in its 

 passage; and how small the known when compared with the 

 unknown by the accumulation of the millions of lives through 

 the art of printing in hundreds of years. 



" How many questions press themselves upon us in these contem- 

 plations. Whence- come we? Whither are we going? What is 

 our final destiny? The object of our creation? What mysteries 

 of unfathomable depth environ us on every side; but after all our 

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