Miscellanies. 221 



acter, with men of science abroad, is indebted to no one individual — with the ex- 

 ception, perhaps, of Dr. Franklin — so much as to him. 



Dr. Bowditch was born on the 26th of March, 1773, at Salem, in the State of 

 Massachusetts. In his education, he had no other advantages than those afforded 

 by the common town schools, which at that period were comparatively meagre, 

 and inadequate to the great purposes of disciplining and storing the mind with 

 knowledge. 



At the usual age, he was placed as a clerk, or apprentice, in the store of a mer- 

 chant in Salem ; and while in that situation, it is said, he used to employ his leisure 

 time in his favorite science of Mathematics, and various practical subjects connected 

 with' it. 



His attention was directed, at an early age, to the Principia of his great master, 

 Newton. But, as this work was published in the Latin language, which he had 

 not then learned, he was obliged to begin his reading of it, by asking some of the 

 Cambridge students, during their vacations at Salem, to explain it to him in Eng- 

 lish. He soon discovered, however, that his own knowledge of the subject, with 

 the aid of the mathematical processes and diagrams on the pages of the Principia, 

 enabled him to comprehend the reasoning contained in the modern and technical 

 Latin of the work, more readily than he could do with the help of the superior 

 knowledge which the University students possessed of the Latin of Cicero and Vir- 

 gil ; and he was soon convinced that his shortest course would be to acquire a 

 knowledge of the language for himself; which by great perseverance he accom- 

 plished, and was enabled to read any work of science in it. And thus he was an- 

 other instance, like that of the ancient Greek writer, who relates of himself that 

 during his residence at Rome, he obtained a knowledge of the language of the 

 Romans, by his knowledge of the subjects which they discussed in it. He after- 

 wards learned French, for the purpose of having access to the treasures of French 

 mathematical science ; and, at a late period of his life, he acquired some knowledge 

 of the German language. 



A little circumstance connected with his study of Newton's Principia, will not 

 be uninteresting to the learned and the unlearned. The Latin copy of it, which 

 Dr. Bowditch used, was presented to him by a mercantile friend in Salem, who 

 made no pretension to science, and would never have thought of opening the work ; 

 but he had preserved it, in his little library of popular works, as a book, that pos- 

 sibly might one day be of use to some person. By a remarkable coincidence of 

 circumstances, the volume came to the knowledge of Dr. Bowditch ; and his friend, 

 upon being requested to lend it, with great liberality presented it to him — the man 

 who, above all others in the country, was the best able to make the most advanta- 

 geous use of it. So far as great effects may be justly said to flow from small causes, 

 what important consequences may have followed from the preservation of this single 

 and apparently worthless volume, by an individual who could make no use of it ! 

 Dr. Bowditch sometimes alluded to this occurrence; and, on the occasion of present- 

 ing a copy of his La Place to a friend, who declined taking it because he was no bet- 

 ter able to read it than his mercantile friend could the Principia, delicately insisted 

 upon its acceptance ; and, in the last resort, reminded his friend, that if not useful 

 to him personally, it might, perhaps, be placed in the hands of some one, to 

 whom it might be valuable, as the copy of the Principia had been to himself. 



Dr. Bowditch did not remain long in the situation of a merchant's clerk. His 

 mathematical talent, in a town eminently distinguished for nautical enterprise, 

 could not fail of being called into exercise, in connection with the art of naviga- 

 tion ; and a large portion of the well known skill of the navigators of Salem may 

 justly be considered as the fruits of the instruction which may be traced, directly 

 or indirectly, to his scientific acquirements. He was, besides, a practical naviga- 



