240 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 
three sons, still resides in Covington. He was for several years alone in 
the practice of his profession. He was afterwards the partner of 
Gen. J. W. Finnell, and subsequently, for many years, up to the time of 
his death, the partner of Hon. James Pryor. He was a lawyer of 
ability, and we can but repeat the estimate put upon him by one who 
knew him in that relation. He gave careful and assiduous attention 
to business, and was faithful to all professional trusts which were com- 
mitted to hts keeping. In business he was a pleasant man to be in 
contact with, so just, so honest, so correct, so minute, so straightfor- 
ward, so intelligent, that what he said might be relied on implicitly. 
But Mr. Chambers’ tastes were never in harmony with his profes- 
sion, and its details and worry were to him irksome and unpleasant. 
He was naturally fond of reading and study. His library and scien- 
tific investigations afforded him a satisfaction that was more congenial 
to his nature than the wranglings of the court room. His information 
in all the range of general literature, and more especially in the depart- 
ments of modern scientific research was broad and accurate. He was 
a profound student, and had a consuming passion for the study ot 
nature, especially in the fields of entomology and botany. ‘There was 
no higher authority in this country or in Europe than he, on the sub- 
ject of the Micro-lepidoptera, those most exquisitely beautiful micro- 
scopic forms that he has so graphically and accurately described. He 
was never compelled by the res angusta domi to the uncongenial 
drudgery of pursuits that were merely for the purpose of money getting, 
but with Cicero, he firmly believed that,—“ Hst animorwm ingeniorwm- 
que nostrorum naturale quoddam quasi pabulum consideratio contem- 
_platioque nature’’—*“that the study of nature is the true food of the 
human understanding.” 
Force has had its conquests, reason has had its victories superior to 
force, but genius accompanied by persistent effort, has accomplished 
through the sciences much that has elevated the human race to its pres- 
ent high estate. Nature gives a bias to one pursuit, the mind yields 
to it, yields heartily, yields wholly, gives up every power toit. Thisis 
genius ; the mind follows its instincts, works according to its laws, 
seeks its success in the channel marked out for it by nature. It is native 
power, taste, fully and faithfully improved. It is the only genius to 
which the world owes anything great or good. That erratic thing called 
genius, which affects to be singular, and aims to be great without 
labor, is not genius, but presumption ; conceit, with nothing of genius 
but its eccentricity. He was a genius in its truest sense. He was a true 
