208 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



knowledge must be the studies lie had thought so irksome, he at 

 once determined to repair as far as possible his loss of time by 

 taking evening lessons from two of the professors in the Albany 

 Academy; applying himself diligently to geometry and mechanics. 

 And here shone out that strength of will which enabled him to rise 

 above the harassing obstacle of the res angusta domi. As soon as 

 he felt able (although yet a mere boy), he managed to procure a 

 position as teacher in a country school, where for seven months suc- 

 cessfully instructing boys not much younger than himself, in what 

 he had acquired, he was enabled by rigid economy to take a regular 

 course of instruction at the Albany Academy. Again returning to 

 his school-teaching, he furnished himself with the means of com- 

 pleting his studies at the Academy ; where learning that the most 

 important key to the accurate knowledge of nature's laws is a famil- 

 iarity with the logical processes of the higher mathematics, he 

 resolutely set himself to work to master the intricacies of the dif- 

 ferential calculus. 



Having finished his academic course and passed with honor 

 through his examinations, he then through the warm recommen- 

 dation of Dr. T. Romeyn Beck — the distinguished principal of 

 the Academy, obtained a position as private tutor in the family of 

 General Stephen Van Rensselaer.* As this duty did not exact 

 more than about three hours a day of his attendance, he ai)plied 

 his ample leisure (having in view the medical profession) — partly 

 to the assistance of Dr. Beck in his chemical experiments, and partly 

 to the study of anatomy and physiology, under Doctors TuUy and 

 Marsh. 



His devotion to natural philosophy which had only grown and 

 strengthened with his own growth in knowledge, led him constantly 

 to repeat any unusual experiment as soon as reported in the foreign 

 scientific journals ; and to devise new modifications of the experi- 

 ment for testing more fully the range and operation of its funda- 

 mental principles. 



Communications to the Albany Institute. — The "Albany Insti- 

 tute" was organized May 5th 1824, by the union of two older 



♦Presiding officer of the original Board of Trustees of the Albany Academy. 



