Life and Character of Nathaniel Bowditch. 29 



•with action. This was the doctrine and the practice of the great 

 father of inductive philosophy, as weU as of this his ilkistrious 

 pupil. '' That," says Lord Bacon, " will indeed dignify and ex- 

 alt knowledge, if contemplation and action may be more nearly 

 and strongly conjoined and united together than they have been, 

 — a conjunction like unto that of the two highest planets, Sat- 

 urn, the planet of rest and contemplation, and Jupiter, the planet 

 of civil society and action." And speaking of himself in ano- 

 ther place, he says, " We judge also that mankind may conceive 

 some hopes from our example ; which we offer not by way of 

 ostentation, but because it may be useful. If any one therefore 

 should despair, let him consider a man as much employed in civil 

 affairs as any other of his age, — a man of no great share of health, 

 who must therefore have lost much time, — and yet, in this under- 

 taking, he is the first who leads the way, unassisted by any mor- 

 tal, and steadfastly entering the true path, that was absolutely 

 untrod before, and submitting his mind to things, may somewhat 

 have advanced the design." 



In the management of all his affairs and transactions. Dr. Bow- 

 ditch was a man of great order and system, and he required it 

 of all with whom he had to do, or over whom he exercised any 

 control. He considered that there was a sort of moral virtue in 

 this, and he could not tolerate any thing like negligence or irreg- 

 ularity. He doubtless had himself acquired this habit from the 

 nature of his favorite study, which demands the undivided atten- 

 tion of the mind, and is peculiarly suited to form habits of exact- 

 ness and precision. He felt, too, that it was by a strict and 

 undeviating adherence to order and system, that he had been 

 enabled to accomplish so much in life, to unite the scholar with 

 the financier, the speculative with the practical man. It may 

 have been thought by some, that he carried this love of order 

 to an extreme, and sometimes visited too harshly the deviations 

 from the straight line of his directions. But he felt assured 

 that it was the way to effect the most work and do the greatest 

 good ; he knew that the habit could be easily formed in a short 

 time, and that it would then approve and recommend itself; and 

 therefore he would admit of no apology for infrac^tions of his rules. 



In the common sense of the word. Dr. Bowditch would not be 

 called a public man, although I have ventured to call him so ; 

 for though he twice held a seat in the Executive Council of 



