44 Life and Charade)^ of Nathaniel Bowditch. 



The disease of which Dr. Bowditch died was found, by a post 

 mortem examination, to be a schirrus in the stomach, a disease 

 of the same type with that which caused the death of Napoleon 

 Buonaparte. For four weeks previous to his death, he could take 

 no solid food, and hardly swallowed any liquid. He suffered, 

 however, but little from hunger, but constantly from thirst; and 

 the only relief or refreshment he could find, was in frequently 

 moistening his lips and mouth with cold water. His frame was 

 consequently exceedingly attenuated, and his flesh wasted away. 

 At intervals his sufferings were so intense, that, as he said, the 

 body at times triumphed over the spirit ; but it was only for a 

 moment ; and the spirit resumed again and retained its natural 

 and legitimate sovereignty. 



He was buried, as he had lived, privately, and without parade 

 or show, on the quiet morning of the Lord's day.* His funeral 

 was attended only by his family and two others ; yet, in the per- 

 son of the Chief Magistrate, I fancied I saw the Spirit of the 

 Commonwealth doing homage to the talents and virtues of her 

 illustrious son. As the hearse passed along through the silent 

 streets, bearing that precious dust to its last resting-place, the 

 snow-flakes fell upon it, the fit emblems of his purity and worth. 

 And many a wet eye, in the city of his adoption, and in the place 

 of his nativity, and elsewhere, wept for him, and many a heart 

 blessed his memory, and mourned that a friend, and a benefac- 

 tor, and a good man, had departed. 



He has built his own monument, more enduring than marble ] 

 and in his splendid scientific name, and in his noble character, 

 has bequeathed to his country the richest legacy. The sailor 

 traverses the sea more safely by means of his labors, and the wid- 

 OAv's and the orphan's treasure is more securely guarded, in con- 

 sequence of his care. He was the Great Pilot who steered all 

 our ships over the ocean ; and, though dead, he yet liveth, and 

 speaketh, and acteth, in the recorded wisdom of his invaluable 

 book. The world has been the wiser and the happier that he 

 has lived in it. 



He has left an example full of instruction and encouragement 

 to the young, and especially to those among them who are strug- 

 gling with poverty and difficulties. He has shown them that 



* " Funus, sine imaginibns et pompS, per laudes sc meraoriam virtutum ejus ce- 

 lebre fuit." — Tacitus, Ann. Lib. 11. § 73. 



