ADDRESS OF PROF. S. NEWCOMB. 469 



This sufficed, not only to satisfy the wants of a simple mode of life, 

 but, with the aid of the accommodations allowed him in the build- 

 ing, to dispense a hospitality to a wide circle of friends and aximirers 

 as pleasant to the recipiente as if it had won the title of princely. 

 Although not drawing a salary from the Government, and entitled 

 therefore to compensation for any services rendered, his numerous 

 public services were entirely gratuitous. It must however be said 

 to the credit of our Government that after his death Congress voted 

 his family a small compensation for his twenty-five years of admin- 

 istrative service in the offices of member and president of the Light- 

 House Board. 



One of his interesting traits of character, and one which power- 

 fully tended to make the Smithsonian Institution popular and 

 useful, was a certain intellectual philanthropy which showed itself 

 m ceaseless efforts to make others enjoy the same wide views of 

 nature which he himself did. He was accessible to a fault, and 

 •ever ready to persuade any honest propounder of a new theory that 

 he was wrong. The only subject on which the writer ever had to 

 express to him strong dissent from his views was that of the practi- 

 cability^ of convincing « universe-makers '?- of their ' errors. They 

 always answered with opposing arguments, generally in a tone of 

 arrogance or querulousness which deterred even the modest Henry 

 from replying further; but he still considered it a duty to do what 

 he could toward imbuing the next one of the class who addressed 

 him, with correct notions of the objects of scienti'fic theories. 



It IS hardly necessary to say that in Professor Henry's mental 

 composition were included a breadth of intellect, clearness of philo- 

 sophic insight, and strength of judgment, without which he could 

 never have carried out the difficult task which his official position 

 imposed upon him. His mental fiber was well seen in the stand 

 which he took against the delusions of spiritualism. On no subject 

 ^as he more decided than on that of the impossibility and absurdity 

 of the pseudo-miracles of the mediums, who seemed to him to 

 claim no less a power than that of overruling the laws of nature 

 An intellectual person yielding credence to their pretensions 

 seemed to him to be in great danger of insanity. An old and 

 respected friend, who had held a prominent position in the 



