230 BULLETIN Of" THE 



A MEMOIR OP JOSEPH HENRY. 



A SKETCH OF HIS SCIENTIFIC WORK.* 



To cherish with affectionate regard the memory of the venerated 

 dead is not more grateful to the feelings, than to recall their ex- 

 cellences and to retrace the stages and occasions of their intel- 

 lectual conquests is instructive to the reason. Few lives within 

 the century are more worthy of admiration, more elevating in 

 contemplation, or more entitled to commemoration, than that of 

 our late most honored and beloved president — Joseph Henry. 



Distinguished by the extent of his varied and solid learning, 

 possessing a wide range of mental activit}^, so great were his 

 modesty and self-reserve, that only by the accidental call of 

 occasion would even an intimate friend sometimes discover with 

 surprise the fulness of his information and the soundness of his 

 philosophy, in some quite unsuspected direction. Remarkable 

 for his self-control, he was no less cliaracterized by the absence 

 of self-assertion. Ever warmly interested in the development 

 and advancement of the young, he was a patient listener to the 

 trials of the disappointed, and a faithful guide to the aspirations 

 of the ambitious. Generous without ostentation, he was always 

 ready to assist the deserving — by services — by counsel — by active 

 exertions in their behalf. 



In his own pursuits Truth was the supreme object of his re- 

 gard, — the sole interest and incentive of his investigations; and 

 in its prosecution he brought to bear in equable combination 

 qualities of a high oi'der; quickness and correctness of percep- 

 tion, inventive ingenuity in experimentation, logical precision in 

 deduction, perseverance in exploration, sagacity in interpreta- 

 tion, f 



* A large portion of tlie followino: discourse (inclinling nearly the wliole 

 of the section on the "Administration of tlie Smithsonian Institution,") 

 was necessarily omitted on the occasion of its delivery. 



t Henry's tiibute to I'eltier, seems peculiarly applicable to himself. 

 *'He possessed in an eminent degree the mental cliaiacteristics necessary 

 for a successful scientific discovei'er; an ima^nnation always active in 

 sugLiesting hypotheses for the explanation of the phenomena under inves- 

 tigation, and a logical faculty never at fault in deducing consequences 

 from the suggestions best calculated to bring them to the test of experi- 



4 



