OBITUARY NOTICES. 
423 
cially, perhaps, the principles of science and of law than 
their practical applications. In the Patent Office, as else¬ 
where, he was a constant fountain of instruction to all.” 
In 1872 Professor Henry strongly recommended Mr. Tay¬ 
lor, without his knowledge, for a chair in one of our leading 
colleges, as one “ who from the clearness of his conceptions 
and the lucidness of his expositions has the elements of an 
excellent teacher.” 
Other occasions offered for the employment of Mr. Taylor 
as a teacher or professor, but he always shrank from assum¬ 
ing the duties of a public instructor and preferred the retire¬ 
ment and privacy of closet study and editorial impersonality. 
Mr. Taylor was one of the founders of the Washington 
Philosophical Society, which grew out of the Saturday Club 
just alluded to. He signed the call for the first meeting, re¬ 
questing Professor Henry to preside, March 12,1871, and on 
the organization of the Society, March 13, 1871, was elected 
a vice-president. This office he held until December 17,1881, 
when he was elected its fourth president. Between 1871 and 
1881 he had presided at forty-five meetings of the Society. 
His first paper was presented June 10,1871, “ On the Nature 
and Origin of Force,” and was published in the Smithsonian 
Report for 1870, which was issued late in 1871. At almost 
every meeting of the Society he either presented an original 
communication on astronomical, mathematical, or physical 
subjects, or discussed with freedom, clearness, and marked 
ability the papers of others. Among his most important 
addresses before the Philosophical Society was one in 1878 
on the “Life and Scientific Work of Joseph Henry.” This 
work was peculiarly agreeable to him as an ardent admirer 
and strong advocate of Henry’s policy, his warm personal 
friend and intimate associate, and of whom he speaks thus : 
“ Few lives within the century are more worthy of admira¬ 
tion, more elevating in contemplation, or more entitled to 
commemoration than that of Joseph Henry.” 
On the 5th of May, 1882, he made a report as chairman 
of a joint committee on the Philosophical, Biological, and 
60—Bull. Phil. Soe., Wash., Vol. 13. 
