JOSEPH WHARTON, Sc.D, LL.D. 

 {Read November 5, iQog.) 



The unceasing activity of Joseph Wharton's career of eighty- 

 two years came to a close on January 11, 1909, and at that period 

 so much was written on his personal character and business achieve- 

 ments that, for the records of The Philosophical Society, it seems 

 desirable to dwell more exclusively on the intellectual side of his 

 striking personality. 



In men like the immortal founder of this Society — like Jefferson 

 and Morse and Edison — there is a many-sidedness that makes for 

 physical success in life, as well as for attainment in those branches 

 of learning which commonly yield but little gain to their professors. 

 The shrewdness of a man of affairs, able to shift for himself, quick 

 at seizing opportunities of profit and learned in the free-masonry of 

 trade, is mingled in such rare examples with those qualities of 

 mind which make for academic contemplation and the power to 

 assimilate knowledge, use it, and give it forth in clear and con- 

 vincing utterance. 



There may be points of contrast in the two dissimilar human 

 species, but we usually associate distinct personal traits with each. 

 The professor is a sedentary person, who makes his somewhat 

 meagre living by devotion to the library, and meditative pursuits; 

 the man of business is an active spirit whose busy life affords no 

 time for picking up useful knowledge. These two opposing orders 

 of men have so little in common that it is a source of wonder when 

 their qualities unite in a single individual. He is a marked man who 

 is blessed with such many-sidedness, and he has invariably become 

 a leader amongst his kind. 



And such, in his degree, was Joseph Wharton. To use a phrase 

 of trade, his "business head" was marvellous. His keen eye 

 seemed to see physically just what events would flow from given 

 causes. He could apparently look through an entanglement of 



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