6 SCIENCE. 
fest genius of no ordinary cast.’ Some 
years later William wrote: ‘““* * * But 
by and by, my dear Henry, we shall, I 
trust, be able, shoulder to shoulder, to win 
a position in which we may enjoy ourselves 
in science and society, free from all anxiety 
and in a spirit of entire independence.”’ 
Again on a Christmas day several years 
later: ““My heart longs more than I can 
express for the coming time when we may 
all spend together, as in childhood, these 
festival days, and when we shall always be 
so near as not to feel the sense of separa- 
tion.’’ 
Both Henry and William struggled 
against many difficulties, the former in 
Pennsylvania and the latter in Virginia, to 
secure the legislation necessary to the exe- 
cution of a geological survey, and their ex- 
periences, as recounted in their correspond- 
ence, may serve to encourage those who are 
struggling towards similar results in more 
modern days. In 1841 Henry sent to 
William the complete verbatim report of 
the speech of one Senator at Harrisburg, 
one who in private conference had promised 
his support, which was as follows: ‘Mr. 
Speaker, I shall vote against this appropria- 
tion, on the ground of its unfairness to 
other sciences of like nature to this geology. 
The bill, sir, makes no provision for phre- 
nology, physiognomy, animal magnetism 
and the highly important science of water- 
smelling; it is partial and I shall vote 
against it.”” Both William and Henry had 
rare gifts of argumentative power and it 
was exceedingly uncommon for either to 
fail in carrying with them men whose 
support was needed. It was his eloquent 
earnestness and unselfish enthusiasm that 
brought to Professor Rogers the greatest 
success of his life, the establishment of the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
The first plan for the organization of this 
institution he drew up early in the year 
1846, several years before he left the Uni- 
[N.S. Vou. VI. No. 131.. 
versity of Virginia. In a letter to his 
brother Henry he says: ‘Eyer since I 
have known something of the knowledge- 
seeking spirit and the intellectual capabili- 
ties of the community in and around Boston, 
I have felt persuaded that, of all places in 
the world, it was the one most certain to 
derive the highest benefits from a polytech- 
nic institution.”’” When in 1860 he thought 
the time had come for an active prosecution 
of his scheme he was tireless in his labors, 
preparing and submitting plans and reports 
for the Legislature, delivering public ad- 
dresses on the importance of technical and 
scientific training, enlisting support from 
men of wealth and influence, becoming, in 
fact, himself the embodiment of the whole 
enterprise. It is unnecessary to say that 
the story of the last twenty years of his life 
is, in a large measure, the history of the 
first twenty years of the Institute. 
The frequent references in his corre- 
spondence to the intellectual and scientific 
activity of the time are extremely interest- 
ing. Toone accustomed to the quieter and 
more deliberative methods of the South in 
all matters of a literary or scholarly sort the 
intensity of life in Boston was something of 
a revelation. Henry Rogers was the first 
to taste of this and he wrote to his brother 
William as follows : 
“For a man of any brains whatever, Bos- 
ton has no peace or quiet; all is restless 
excitement and unproductive change of 
thought and of pursuit. The overworking 
of the brain here without the fruits of in- 
tellectual labor is appalling to a mind of 
contemplative tendencies. Often doI envy 
you and Robert your calmer studious at- 
mosphere. ”’ 
The active dissipation of mental en- 
ergy thus portrayed may not be entirely 
absent from the intellectual life of the 
‘Huf’ even to-day, but Professor Rogers 
was not frightened by its existence forty 
years ago and he speedily adapted himself 
