ADDRESS OF PROF. S. NEWCOMB. 443 



At the age of fifteen he returned to Albany, and, urged by his 

 imaginative taste, joined a private dramatic company, of which he 

 soon became the leading spirit. There was every prospect of his 

 devoting himself to the stage when, at the age of sixteen, accident 

 turned his mental activities into an entirely different direction. 

 Being detained in-doors by a slight indisposition, a friend loaned 

 him a copy of Dr. Gregory's lectures on Experimental Philosophy, 

 Astronomy, and Chemistry. He became intensely interested in the 

 field of thought which ,this work opened to him. Here in the do- 

 main of Nature were subjects of investigation far more worthy of 

 attention than anything in the ideal world in which his imagination 

 had hitherto roamed. He determined to make the knowledge of 

 this newly opened domain the great object of his life, but did not 

 confine himself to any narrow sphere. He devoted himself imme- 

 diately, Avith great ardor, to study. During the three years follow-^ 

 ing he was successively English teacher, pupil of various masters, 

 and a student at the Albany Academy. At about eighteen years 

 of age he was recommended by Dr. Beck to the position of private 

 tutor in the family of the patroon. He found this situation to be 

 a very pleasant one, and was treated with great consideration by the 

 family of Mr. Van Rensselaer. His duties required only his 

 morning hours, so that he could devote his entire afternoons to 

 mathematical and physical studies. In the former he went so far 

 as to read the Micanique Analytique of La Grange. 



His delicate constitution now suffered so much from confinement 

 and study that at the age of twenty-two he accepted an invitation 

 to go on a surveying expedition to the western part of the State. 

 In this work his constitution was completely restored, and he 

 returned home with a health and vigor which never failed him 

 during the remainder of his long and arduous life. Soon after his 

 return he was elected a professor at the Albany Academy. Here a 

 new field was opened to him. It is one of the most curious features 

 in the intellectual history of our country that after producing such a 

 man as Franklin it found no successor to him in the field of science 

 for half a century after his scientific work was done. There had 

 been without doubt plenty of professors of eminent attainments 

 who amused themselves and instructed their pupils and the public 



