46 



Obituary of Prof. Z. Thompson. 



Legislature in relation to international literary and scientific ex* 

 changes ; and in pursuance of his appointment he presented the 

 exchange system in its clearest light, so that it commended itself 

 to the " approbation of every benevolent mind." The preparation 

 of the report of "Proceedings and Instructions," which, by the 

 way, was beautifully printed in a pamphlet of 80 pages, reflected 

 great credit upon Mr. Thompson, and upon the State, and it is 

 greatly to be deplored that the historical interest which was then 

 awakened throughout the State by the visit of the founder of 

 the system of exchanges, and by the labors of such men as Prof. 

 Thompson, Hon. Hiland Hall, of Bennington, Henry Stevens, of 

 Barnet, Daniel P. Thompson, of Montpelier, Prof. James D. But- 

 ler, then of Norwich, Yt., and others, should so soon and so 

 thoroughly have subsided and become almost extinct. 



In June, 1850, Prof. Thompson delivered, upon invitation, an 

 address at Boston before the Boston Society of Natural History, 

 in which he made the announcement that "what he had accom- 

 plished in the business of Natural History, he had done without 

 any associates engaged in like pursuits, without having any access to 

 collections of specimens, and almost without books.' 1 ' 1 In that ex- 

 cellent address, (which was printed by his devoted friend and 

 neighbor, Chauncey Goodrich, Esq., in 1850, in a pamphlet of 

 32 pages,) he illustrated the importance and difficulties of a 

 thorough cultivation of natural history in country places, insist- 

 ing that a habit of observation and comparison of objects of 

 natural history could be as quickly acquired in the country 

 as in the city, and urging that the study of natural history 

 should be more generally taught in our common schools and 

 colleges, for the obvious reason that such a study " would refine 

 and improve the moral sensibilities of our people, and sharpen 

 and invigorate their intellectual powers." 



In these labors, beset with the difficulties so freely confessed 

 before his audience at Boston, on the occasion of the delivery 

 of the last mentioned address, he passed his quiet life. At one 

 time he was a teacher of science ; at another time he was prose- 

 cuting his researches in natural history ; and then he might 

 be found preaching in his modest and reverential manner the 

 sublime doctrines of the Christian creed which he had adopted ; 

 and, whether in or out of the pulpit, he was always seen and 

 known as the industrious, patient, humble and exemplary disci- 

 ple of Him who was born in the manger and died on the cross. 

 Prof. Thompson thus won friends not " in single spies but in bat- 

 talions," friends who knowing the anxieties he felt to see the 

 wonders of the great exhibition at London, in 1851, gladly put 

 into his purse that "material aid" of which teaching and preach- 

 ing and authorship had not gathered a superabundance. Chiefly 

 through the kindness of friends, which he has beautifully ac- 



