PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 229 



to deliver a presidential address before the Society he so much 

 loved, and that he wished to speak as became an humble patron 

 of Science, believing fully in her hig-h mission, and at the same 

 time as an humble Christian, believing fully in the fundamental 

 truths of Revelation. That he was not able to fulfil this purpose 

 will be as much a source of regret to you as it is to me, but when 

 I compare the valediction which it was in his heart to utter, with 

 the peaceful end which came a few months later to crown his days 

 with the halo of a finished life, I console myself with the thought 

 that no last words of his were needed to seal on our hearts the 

 lesson taught by his long and splendid career. Being dead he 

 yet speaketh. 



It is, indeed, the shadow of a great affliction which his death 

 has cast upon our Society, but the light of his life pierces through 

 the darkness, and irradiates for us all the paths of duty and labor, 

 of honor and purity, of truth and righteousness, in which he 

 walked with an eye that never blenched and a foot that never 

 faltered. We shall not see his face any more, beaming with 

 gladness and with the mild splendor of chastened intellect, but 

 we shall feel his spiritual presence whenever we meet in this hall. 

 We shall never hear his voice again, but its clear and gentle tones, 

 as from yonder chair he expounded to us the mysteries of nature, 

 will re-echo in the chambers of memory with only a deeper import, 

 how that he has gone to join the "dead but sceptred sovereigns 

 who still rule our spirits from their urns." 



