Memoir of Rev. John Prince, LL. D. 205 



His reputation was thus established among the first philosophers 

 and mechanicians of his age. He received the honorary degree 

 of Doctor of Laws from the very respectable college at Providence, 

 and was admitted to the several learned and philosophical societies 

 of the country. 



It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to do justice to Dr. 

 Prince's claims upon the gratitude of the scientific world. His mod- 

 esty and indifference to fame vi^ere so real and sincere, that it never 

 occurred to him to take pains to appropriate to himself the improve- 

 ments and discoveries he had made. 



Fortunately for the cause of science, his whole philosophical and 

 literary correspondence has been preserved. All his own letters, 

 and many of them are very elaborate and minute, containing full 

 discussions, and, frequently, drawings executed by the pen, were 

 carefully copied out into manuscript volumes. These manuscript 

 volumes, which are eleven in number, are the monuments of his 

 genius, and the only record, of his contributions to the cause of sci- 

 ence. It was his custom, when he had made an improvement in 

 the construction and use of a philosophical instrument, instead of 

 publishing it to the world, to communicate a full description of it, 

 by private letter, to the principal instrument makers in London. 

 During his whole life, down to March 19th, 1836, the date of his 

 last letter to Samuel Jones of London, he has, in this manner, been 

 promoting the interests of science, while his agency, to a very great 

 extent, has been unknown to the public. 



A long letter, occupying ten closely written pages, is found under 

 the date of Nov. 3d, 1792, addressed to George Adams, of London, 

 and containing a full description of an improved construction of the 

 Lucernal microscope. On the 3d of July, 1795, he wrote another 

 letter to Mr. Adams, describing still further improvements in the 

 same instrument. Without making any public acknowledgment 

 of his obligations to Dr. Prince, Mr. Adams proceeded to construct 

 Lucernal microscopes upon the plan suggested by him. Shortly 

 after the death of Mr. Adams, which occurred in the latter part of 

 1795, an article appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, signed by 

 John Hill, a distinguished cultivator of science, in which the impor- 

 tance of these improvements was shown at large, and illustrated by 

 a plate. The writer stated that he had procured his instrument 

 from Mr. Adams a short time before his death, and that Adams inti- 

 mated to him at the time, that he had been indebted for some im- 



