312 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
published in 1841, indicates the nian : Felix qui potutt rerum cognoscere causas. 
There was no great "Unabridged" at that time, and Espy was always unhappy 
until he found out the meaning of things. He therefore applied himself to the 
study of Greek, and soon became master of that language. Says Capt. Erseyis : 
" Espy could not write a ten-line advertisement in good and graceful English; 
but he was accustomed to note down his thoughts in Greek and afterwards would 
translate them into his vernacular. He corresponded with the great Arago, in 
Greek, as he did with other learned men in Europe " 
He was also a student of nature. Long before he knew why, young Espy 
began to study the mystery of the slowly moving clouds as they gathered their 
forces together in elemental warfare ; but he found he could come no nearer to a 
true answer to his question than did the prophet from the storm that roared 
around the cave in Horeb. Failure, however, did not deter him. If the storm 
would not call back in answer to him from the clouds, he could reach up to them 
by means of Franklin's messenger, the kite; and when the strongest cords were 
broken in his adventurous attempts, leaving only blistered and lacerated hands, 
he bound his emissary by means of strong wire reeled on a windlass. 
Espy was a most patient collector of data, and facts were the basis and sup- 
port of all his theories. He was patiently industrious in*acquiring facts by obser- 
vation and comparative experiment. In hundreds of fields, then vacant, now 
covered with houses, in and around Philadelphia, he studied the laws which gov- 
ern the winds, the causes of the storms, and determined upon those artificial 
means by which rain may be produced. But the time was not yet ready for him. 
When he went to Washington, asking of Congress a paltry $5,000 a year for five 
years, that he might be enabled to extend his experiments and enlist the aid of 
others over a larger area than Philadelphia's back lots, he was met with jibes and 
ridicule. Senator Preston, of South Carolina, said Espy was a madman, too 
dangerous to be at large, and the Senator would vote a special appropriation for 
a prison in which to confine him. Espy was in the Senate gallery at the time. 
Wounded to the quick, he came down and found his way back to Philadelphia. 
Gathering heart once more, he went to New York and put a small advertise- 
ment in the ^w«/«^ Post announcing a lecture at Clinton Hall, in which he 
would show how rain could be produced. Espy expected to meet a crowd of 
I, GOO people. The audience was a Miltonic one, "fit though few," for hardly a 
score of persons were present. Among them were William Cullen Bryant, and, 
as Espy afterwards found, his life-long friend, adviser, pupil and lover, Capt. 
Samuel Erseyis. Espy went through his lecture ; then submitted to a running 
fire of question, and, these answered, frankly confessed his disappointment. . 
CUnton Hall had cost him $18. There was a hotel bill to be paid, and he had 
but $5 in the world with which to pay this vast and impossible sum. He had in. 
stock five sets of lectures, price, $5 a set, that was all. 
There was a pause of a moment or two after which Capt. Erseyis promptly 
subscribed $25 for the course, put the money into Espy's hands, and was imme- 
diately followed by Bryant and nearly all of those present, until his pockets were- 
