September 5, 1884.] 



SCIENCE, 



191 



the Bible, especially the Old Testament, almost 

 by heart ; had read Bunyan's ' Pilgrim's prog- 

 ress ' scores of times, and ' Robinson Crusoe ' 

 still oftener ; went three times to church every 

 Sunday, and twice to Sabbath school ; and was 

 in the best trim for becoming a candidate for 

 the ministry, 

 to which, in 

 fact, he had 

 been secretly 

 -dedicated 

 from his 

 birth. The 

 family physi- 

 cian, howev- 

 er, refused to 

 permit him to 

 enter Prince- 

 ton seminary 

 after gradu- 

 ating from 

 college ; and 

 an accident 

 threw into 

 his lap a 

 commission 

 as sub-assist- 

 ant on the 

 -Geological 

 survey of 

 P e n n s ylva - 

 ilia, under 

 the direction 

 of Prof. Hen- 

 ry D.Rogers, 

 so that it was 

 only in the 

 autumn of 

 1841 that he 

 comm e n c e d 

 his theologi- 

 cal studies at Princeton, N.J. 



He early announced his intention not to 

 apply for ordination, but to spend his ministry 

 among the castaway people of the Alleghany 

 Mountains, with whose wretched spiritual con- 

 dition he had become acquainted in the course 

 of his geological surveys. To give himself a 



closer and deeper view into the character of the 

 descendants of the original immigrants to Penn- 

 sylvania, he sailed from New York to Liverpool 

 as a steerage passenger in 1844, walked through 

 England and around France with a knapsack 

 and blouse, visited the Waldenses of Dauphine 



and the Piet- 

 ists in Gene 

 va. crossed 

 the Jura on 

 foot, and mid- 

 dle Germany, 

 and spent 

 the winter 

 months with 

 Tholuck at 

 the universi- 

 ty at Halle, 

 returning in 

 a sailing-ves- 

 sel from Bre- 

 men to Phil- 

 adelphia the 

 folio win g 

 May. He 

 spent the 

 next two 

 3'ears in the 

 mountain - 

 districts of 

 the state, un- 

 til his natu- 

 rally vigorous 

 constitu t i o n 

 gave way. 

 under inces- 

 sant mental 

 excitement, 

 bodily fa- 

 tigue and ex- 

 posure. 



A long illness ensued ; but late in 1848 the 

 worn-out missionaiy became the salaried pastor 

 of an Orthodox-ConoTeo-ationalist church near 

 Boston, and -continued in that capacity three 

 } T ears, when, bidding farewell to his parish and 

 to theolog} T , he returned to his native place 

 and natural science, to commence life anew. 



