NOVEMBEH 12, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



681 



due time he took to wife the daughter of John 

 Allen, a woman of sprightly mind and ar- 

 tistic temperament, with, like himself, strong 

 religious convictions. (J.) Peter, the eldest 

 son, was born in 1819. 



Ninety years ago, parents were not afflicted 

 as now with grievous anxiety respecting the 

 health of their children, and boys, especially 

 eldest sons, found themselves scaling the 

 heights of Parnassus at a tender age. Young 

 Peter was sent to the best school in Philadel- 

 phia, where he applied himself so well that 

 when eight years old he gained the prize for 

 an examination in Bonnycastle's algebra. At 

 home, the father drilled his children in geog- 

 raphy, mechanics, literature, statistics and 

 above all in the accurate use of language, so 

 that Lesley could well say in later years: 



He started us in our careers equipped for seeing, 

 thinking and describing what we felt to be useful 

 and beautiful as what we believed to be true. 



Professor Lesley was a nervous, excitable 

 youth and his health gave way frequently, but 

 then, as in after life, he exhibited remarkable 

 recuperative power. After many interrup- 

 tions, he was graduated from the University 

 of Pennsylvania in 1838 but with health so 

 broken that he could not begin study for the 

 ministry, as he had intended. By advice of 

 Dr. Dallas Bache, he sought and obtained 

 from Professor H. D. Rogers the position of 

 assistant on the geological survey, which he 

 retained until the close of the work in 1841. 

 The letters during this period show the strange 

 combination of temperaments which made 

 him so delightful a companion in later years. 

 The keen observer of actual conditions and 

 the impressionist artist struggle for suprem- 

 acy, while at times a philosopher of medieval 

 type bursts in with abstruse discussions. A 

 curious grouping in a lad of twenty, which 

 gives to his letters an incomparable charm. 

 These letters tell much of his associates on the 

 survey; one shows that geologists then had 

 the same burden as now : 



I got a lecture on geology from W[help)ey], 

 who complains bitterly that the landscape is 

 ruined to him because he looks down on a valley 

 and can't help saying, there's No. 7 — that next 



liill is No. G, etc. In fact geology destroys all 

 poetry and one can not be an Arcadian, as long 

 as he knows what formation he's standing on and 

 what one he is looking at. 



The survey came to an end, Lesley entered 

 Princeton Seminary, graduated in 1844, was 

 licensed to preach and went to Europe to make 

 a pedestrian tour. Returning, he spent two 

 years as colporteur among the Pennsylvania- 

 Germans and then went to Boston to com- 

 plete the Pennsylvania geological map for 

 Rogers. In 1848 he assumed the pastorate 

 of a congregational church at Milton, Mass., 

 and early in the following year he married 

 Susan Inches, daughter of Judge Lyman, of 

 Northampton, Mass. 



According to all accounts, the young couple 

 began married life with very little to encour- 

 age their friends. They had bad prospect of 

 health and worse prospect of pecuniary sup- 

 port, for Lesley's position as clergyman was 

 precarious, owing to his theological views. 

 They were wholly contrasted in temperament; 

 she calm and loving quiet, he restless and 

 loving excitement. But their friends erred. 

 The marriage in 1849 was the beginning of 

 an ideal life, which ended only with his death 

 in 1903. They lived happily in Milton for ■ 

 three years amid most attractive surround- 

 ings. The letters during this period show how 

 broad their social relations were, for they tell 

 of Channing, Desor, J. Freeman Clarke, Les- 

 quereux, Edward Everett Hale, Agassiz, 

 Emerson, Lyell and a host of others in sci- 

 ence, literature and theology, who were enter- 

 tained in the hospitable little house at Milton. 



In 1852 Lesley entered the employ of the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad Company with his 

 office in Philadelphia, and in August of that 

 year the young couple removed to that city, 

 where for forty-one years they were increas- 

 ingly influential. He soon became secretary 

 of the Iron Masters' Association and librarian 

 of the American Philosophical Society. In 

 1863, the railroad company sent him to 

 Europe to study methods of hardening the 

 surface of rails and to investigate the Bes- 

 semer process. During a stay of three months 

 he found opportunity to renew old acquaint- 



