Memoir of Rev. John Prince, LL. D. 211 



He was consulted by colleges, academies, and lyceums, in all parts 

 of America, with reference to the collection of philosophical appa- 

 ratus and libraries, and for nearly half a century was employed to 

 select and import books and instruments for public institutions and for 

 literary and scientific individuals. His letter-books contain corres- 

 pondences held with the colleges at Cambridge, Providence, Bruns- 

 wick, Dartmoutli, Williamstown, Middlebury, Amherst, Burlington, 

 Schenectady, Lexington in Kentucky, Greenville in Tennessee, and 

 Charleston in South Carolina, and with academies or similar insti- 

 tutions in Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Leicester, Monson, 

 Westfield, Onondago, Byefield, and many other places. His agency 

 in thus providing and diffusing the means of knowledge has been of 

 incalculable service to the country. At some of our public institu- 

 tions the most beautifully constructed philosophical instruments may 

 be found, which are the work throughout of his own hands. 



Besides descriptions of improvements contrived by him in the in- 

 struments of science, his letters contain equally minute accounts of 

 the manner in which he used and worked them in the various ex- 

 periments to which they were capable of being put ; and some- 

 times he indulges in trains of philosophical speculation, in which his 

 mind gives itself up to the guidance of his fancy and the impulses of 

 his benevolent affections. The following curious reverie of his im- 

 agination illustrates the tone and spirit of his philosophy. It is 

 from a letter written to a scientific and personal friend in Virginia, 

 July 23, 1782, and is appended to a description of the great tele- 

 scope of Herschel, then recently constructed. 



" It is said the king took great pleasure in walking through this 

 enormous tube before it was mounted. This may not enhance his 

 greatness in the opinion of some any more than his visit to Sam. 

 Whitehead's brewery, which Peter Pindar so ludicrously celebrates. 

 But there is a point of view in which I think it will appear to be a 

 more laudable act than that of a king marching through the ranks 

 of his disciplined army. This instrument was for the improvement 

 of science, and that for the destruction of mankind. And is it not 

 a more laudable ambition too ? for while the general, with his military 

 machine, is, by barbarous deeds, adding a few acres more to his 

 master's dominions, the philosopher is, without any expense to hu- 

 manity, discovering new worlds. Oh, when will the lime come 

 when men will have no greater ambition than to improve the dignity 

 and happiness of human nature, when the weapons of war shall perish 



