Endmatter

INDEX.

― 386 ―

― 387 ―

INDEX

A.

Abbot, Francis E., 54, 107, 123 147; letters to, 55, 76, 100, 108, 123, 140.

Accuracy in statement, 300.

æsthetic judgments, 324.

Agassiz, 43, 367.

Aim in life, 300 n.

Altruism, 186.

American Academy of Arts and Sciences, chosen Fellow of, 42; contributions to, 42; discussions in, 71. American Association for the Advancement of Science, 88.

Animal plants, 353, 354.

Annihilation, 276.

Astronomy, early interest in, 7, 14. “Atlantic Monthly,” 83.

Aristotle, 177, 286.

Art, 190, 197, 198.

Aryans, the, 222.

Ashfield, 84, 88, 89, 95, 345.

Atheism, 133.

Audiences, 207.

Authority, 113, 229.

Anthropology, 257-265. See Darwin. Axioms, 108, 109, 295, 296.

B.

Bacon, Lord, 30, 364 n.

Bain, Alexander, 178, 179, 197, 202, 369.

Beale, Lionel, 204.

Beautiful, the, 194-198, 277, 281, 325. Bees, economy and symmetry of cells of, 42; architecture of, 42.

Belief, 96, 100-103, 129, 130, 141, 204206, 342.

Biology, 296.

Blind, memory of the, 266, 267.

Botany, 14 n., 347, 354.

Brown, Addison, recollections, 28. Burden of proof, science acknowledges none, 203, 320.

C.

Calvinism, 114, 118, 206.

Cambridge, 2, 99.

Cary, Professor G. L., recollections, 26, 27.

Causation, 73, 108.

Character, ideals of, 210.

Cheever, Professor D. W., recollections, 27, 28.

Childhood, 39 209.

Clarke, Isaac Edwards, recollections, 13. Clarke, Mrs., letter to, 8, 11.

Classics, small knowledge of the, 19, 20, 23.

Classification, 43, 292.

Clifford, Professor, 356.

Club, the, 39, 40, 174, 362.

Cognition, 124-133.

Colors, 268, 273, 274, 277-281, 304, 314-316.

Comte, 166, 186, 211.

Conception, 59, 129.

Conscience, 180, 196, 288, 289. Consciousness, 111, 128, 129. Cosmogony, 16, 177.

Cowlicks, 334.

Creation, 111.

Curtis, George William, 89, 144, 166. Cutler, Professor Elbridge J., 199 n.

D.

Darwin, Charles, 30, 220, 239, 253, 303; correspondence with, 230-236, 240-246, 304-318, 331-338. Darwinism, 206, 219, 229, 345, 363 n. Death, 86, 237, 275.

Dennett, Professor, 225, 383.

“Descent of Man,” 205, 220, 248, 333. Discussion, advantage of, 124, 300, 355. Disinterestedness, 208.

Dreams, 299 327, 372.

Duty, 114-118, 297.

Duty of belief, 342.

Dwight, Dr. Thomas, 359 n.

E.

Earnestness, 290.

Education, 120, 168, 212-215, 216.

Elections, reforms in, 146-152.

Ellipse and Hyperbola, Properties of Curvature in, 42.

Ellis, Rev. Rufus, 254, 255; recollections, 19-21, 297-299.

Emerson, R. W., 30, 87, 143, 147.

Emery, Woodward, 272; recollections, 283, 284, 359.

Empiricism, 270, 271. See Experience- Philosophy.

Ends of life, 274-277.

England and English genius, 218, 219, 220, 253.

Europe, voyage to, 239.

Eyebrows, use of, 332, 338.

Evidence, 96, 103, 342.

Evolution, 85 n, 368.

Evolution by natural selection, 237. See Natural Selection.

Evolution of Self-Consciousness, 46, 253-

Experience-philosophy, the, 46, 124, 129, 270, 271, 289, 381. See Positivism, Knowledge, Utilitarianism.

F.

Faith, 103, 381.

Farrar, Mrs. John, quoted, 225.

Feeling, 194, 252,326.

Fichte, 293.

Final causes, 226, 286, 287, 292.

Fisher, George H., recollections, 25, 26; letters to, 28, 32, 33.

Fiske, John, 340.

Freedom, 74.

Free-will, 70-75, 110, 241-246.

French genius, 220.

G.

Galileo, 218, 229.

Genius, 216, 217, 324, 325.

“Genesis of Species.’' See Mivart. Geology, 176.

Geometry, 356.

Gestures, 304, 305, 331, 332, 337. Gilfillan, Dr. Thomas, recollections, 15, 16, 348, 349; quoted, 346.

God, 96, 133-135, 297.

Godkin, E. L., 174; letter to, 257. Good resolutions, 322.

Gould’s Astronomical Journal, 232.

Gray, Professor Asa, 286, 331, 367.

Greatest good of the greatest number, 300 n.

Green, N. St. J., 32, 358.

Gurney, Professor E. W., 33, 34, 53, 87, 107, 137, 189, 192, 212, 218, 302; recollections, 361-383.

H.

Habit, 282.

Hamilton, Sir William, 30, 55-63, 82, 120, 214, 363-366, 369, 370.

Happiness, 210, 282, 322.

Hare’s Electoral Scheme, 148-152. Harvard College, 2, 148, 157.

Heat, 177.

Hegel, 179.

Helmholtz, 278, 280.

Hoar, E. R., quoted, 148.

Holland, Henry W., recollections, 214, 215.

Holmes, John, 247.

Holyoke, Mount, 9, 346, 350.

Howard, Miss Catherine L., 90; letters to, 91, 94, 119; recollections, 120-122.

Human agency, 240-246.

Human progress, 226-228.

Huxley, Professor, 235, 249.

Hypothesis, 206.

I.

Ideas, fixed, 170, 179.

Idealism, 132, 270, 271.

Ideation, 312, 314.

Imagination, 323-327, 354.

Immortality, 65, 86, 101, 102, 121, 122, 134, 135, 237, 285, 297, 381.

Indefinite, the, 80.

Infinite, the, 57, 80-82.

Inheritance, 167-169, 257-263.

Innervation, 314.

Insanity, 291, 292.

Intuition, 105, 106, 126-128, 195-197, 324.

Ireland, Miss Catherine I., letter to, 53.

Irony, 293-295.

J.

James, Dr. William, 532, 333. James, Henry, 358, 359/

Jugglery, 11, 178, 256, 319, 381.

K.

Kant, 106, 164.

Kepler, 323, 324.

Knowledge, 73, 77, 104, 124-133, 141, 204-206, 300, 352, 356, 381. See Experience-Philosophy, Positivism.

L.

Langdell, Professor C. C., 22, 23, 246, 307.

Language, 236, 240-246.

Laws of the universe, 132. of nature, 177.

Law School, 33.

Leaves in plants, uses and origin of arrangement of, 42, 234.

Lectures, University, 2, 15 7—159, 174, 175, 200-204, 207, 208, 212-215.

Lesley, Professor J. P., letters to, 38, 67, 75; recollections, 64-67; mentioned, 53, 54, 88, 145, 166.

Lesley, Mrs. J. P., her Memoir of Mrs. Lyman quoted, iS, 19; recollections, 34-36, 139, 345; letters to, 37, 42, 157) 164, 175, 215; mentioned, 143, 192, 302, 360.

Letter-writing, 28, 344.

Lewes, G. H., 341.

Life, 177, 204, 274-277, 281, 283, 287. 296.

Light, experiments in regard to, 255.

Light, 279.

Living according to nature, 328-330.

Logic, 214; reform in, 162, 163.

Lowell, James Russell, 41 n., 83, 107, 316, 318, 332.

Lowell, Mrs. Charles R., 21, 40, 41 n.

Lyman, Mrs. Joseph, 18, 19, 34, 38 n.

M.

Maine, Sir Henry, 340; “Ancient Law,” 367.

Manners, 341.

Mansel, 61, 85 n.

Marriage, 351.

Martineau, Rev. James, 85,175, 179. Materialism, 66, 178.

“Mathematical Monthly,” Contributions to, 41, 42.

Mathematicians, 54, 67.

Mathematics, Wright’s study of, 15, 23, 28, 45, 75, 254, 356, 363 n.

Maudsley, 327.

Maxims, 352.

Memorial Hall, dedication of, 267.

Memory, 124, 201, 265-267, 321, 347, 362

Mental photograph, 299 n.

Metaphysics, 84, 120, 204, 275, 299 n.

Migration, 346.

Mill, J.S., 30,82,84,101, 120, 130, 131, 142, 152-156, 165, 166, 211, 216, 223, 224, 250, 251, 257-265, 356, 370.

Mill River, 9, 10.

Miracle, 43, 176, 356, 357.

Mivart, St. George, 219, 224, 226, 230, 237.

Modern ideas of morality, 171.

Modern types of moral excellence, 169-174, 181-185, 186-190.

Molasses candy, why it grows white from working, 91-94.

Moral greatness, 171, 181-185.

Moral nature, the, 178-185.

Moral sense, 118.

Morality, 46, 97-99, 180-185, 281. See Utilitarianism.

Mother Goose, The Philosophy of, 39, 39 294, 295.

Mount Desert, 44 n., 46, 84, 89, 357.

Müller, Max, 162, 244.

Myers, James J., 230; recollections, 199, 200.

Mysticism, 288, 295, 296, 328.

N.

“Nation, The,” list of contributions to, 85.

Nature, 37, 153, 177, 328-330.

Natural selection, 71, 191, 202, 222, 226, 230, 235m 237, 240 n., 332-336, 351,

Nautical Almanac, 2, 31, 70, 86, 122, 137, 376, 377.

Nebular hypothesis, 46, 176.

Necessary beliefs, 129, 130.

Necessity. See Free-will.

Newcomb, Professor Simon, recollections, 70, 71; letter to, 71. Newspapers, 169, 170.

Newton, 229.

Nomenclature, proposed new, 71-73. See Ideation, Synthems.

Northampton, 3, 9, 10, 99, 350,357,-360.

Norton, Charles Eliot, 55, 137, 139, 219, 360; recollections, 82-84, 89, 90; letters to, 84, 87-89, 97, 99, 107, 114, 148, 169, 191, 220; his sketch of Wright, 1, 11, 17; death of Mrs. Norton, 236.

Norton, Miss Grace, 95, 137, 139; letters to, 95, 152, 157, 178, 186, 200, 226, 236, 254, 269, 272, 284, 300, 330, 338, 341, 343-345, 354.

Norton, Miss Jane, 95, 137, 139, 359; letters to, 99, 135, 142, 144, 165, 207, 249, 256, 265, 302, 321, 330, 349; her death, 353.

Norton, Miss Sara, letter to, 353.

Noumena, 104, 131, 132.

O.

Object. See Subject.

Optics, 255, 269, 277-281.

Occam, William of, 219, 370.

Old age, 209.

“Origin of Species,” the, first reading of, 43, 367; discussions of, 71, 367; mention of, 236, 368.

Orthodoxy, 285 n.

P.

Passion, noble, 181.

Peirce, Professor Benjamin, 122.

Perception, 269-272, 312, 314.

Perry, John T , recollections, 26.

Phenomena, 131, 132. See Noumena.

“Philosophical Discussions” referred to, 1, 30, 42, 46, 67, 202, 212, 226, 234, 237, 253, 347.

Philosophy, 27, 100, 141, 167, 179, 203.

Phonantographs, 355.

Physical theory of the universe, a, 46.

Phyllotaxis, 42, 42 n., 66, 232-236.

Plato, 30, 299 n., 328.

Pleasure, 195-198.

Poetry, 10, 11, 12, 299 n., 348.

Points about an Axis, most Thorough Uniform Distribution of, 42.

Political economy, 172-174, 186-188.

Politics, 171-174, 192, 193. See Women, rights of; Elections, reforms in.

Positivism, 95-97, 102, 103, 140-142, 145-147. See Experience-Philosophy, Knowledge, Utilitarianism.

Posthumous reputation, 355.

Post mortem examination, 359 n.

Postulates in science, 108.

Power, the supreme, 109-113.

Preaching, 103, 135, 140.

Prejudice, the way to meet it, 135, 136.

Prismoidal formula, 41; extension of, 41.

Probability, 294.

Property, 172-174, 186-188. Psychozoölogy, 248.

Psychology, advice as to the study of, 119, 120.

Putnam, Lieut. Win. Lowell, 48.

Q.

Quincy, Mrs. Josiah P., recollections, 21, 40, 41.

R.

Radicalism, religious, 147.

Reading, 303.

Realism, 162, 328.

Relations, knowledge of, 104.

Religion, 97-99,100, 103, 114-118, 141, 142, 170, 185, 189, 190, 227.

Responsibility, 241.

Reverence, 206, 228.

Rowing, 273.

Rowse, Mr., 247.

Runkle, President John D., 41; recollections, 122, 123, 137 n., 142.

S.

Salter, Charles, 191, 199, 200. Scepticism, 152, 178, 381.

Science, 113, 141, 176, 203, 229, 256, 356.

Sedgwick, Miss Sara, letters to, 246, 316.

Selfishness, 186, 208, 343, 344. Semitics, the, 222.

Septem, the, 366, 367.

Serviceableness, 287.

Sex, 85 n., 153, 257-264, 268, 336. Shakespeare, 299 n.

Shattuck, George O., 284.

Sheldon, Professor David S., Chauncey’s teacher, 13, 14, 368, 374.

Slaves, fugitive, 38, 50, 51.

Sleep, 276.

Solar system, 176.

Socrates, 152, 185, 293, 295, 299 n., 300, 332, 335, 380.

Sophocles, Professor, 302, 308-312.

Sorrow, 86, 237, 252.

Space and time, philosophy of, 55-63, 76-82, 103-107.

Space-perception, 269, 305.

Spencer, Herbert, 61, 340, 345. Spontaneity, 339, 343 n., 345.

Stephen, Leslie, 250, 251.

Stewart, Dugald, 119.

Style of writing. See Wright, Chauncey. Subject and object, 270, 271.

Suffrage. See Woman's Suffrage. Suicide, 342.

Sympathy, 179.

Synthems, 293 n.

T.

Taine, M., 253.

Teaching, 140. See Wright, Chauncey.

Teleology, 263, 269, 285, 286.

Tennyson, 299 n.

Terms, use of, 112.

Time, 176. See Space.

Thayer, James B , 1, 2, 13, 29, 30, 33, 43 n., 142, 192, 357; letters to, 29, 357.

Theology, 67-70, 96, 109.

Thomson, Sir William, 67, 177, 212.

Topographical drawing, 216.

Tranquillity, 209.

Travelling, 164.

Trowbridge, Professor John, 318. Truth, 300-302, 325, 326, 356.

U.

Unconditionally limited, the. See Indefinite.

Unconditionally unlimited, the. See Infinite.

Unconscious selection, 240-246.

Uses in natural selection, 332-338.

Utilitarianism, 46, 178, 185, 222-224, 228, 282, 287-291.

Utility, the principle of, 192-198.

V.

Vacations, 43 n., 338, 339.

“Vestiges of Creation,” 368, 368 n.

Virtue, 282.

W.

Walker, Dr. James, 363 n.

Walker, Mrs. Mary, 38, 49, 50, 359, 372.

Walking, 251.

Wallace, Alfred, 176, 191, 202, 219, 333.

War of the Rebellion, 47-50, 211.

Ware, Darwin E., letter to, 37; recollections, 43-46, 363 n.

Ware, Professor William R., 53, 307, 353.

Warner, J. B., recollections, 213.

Wealth. See Property.

Weather predictions, 74.

Whewell, Dr., 364 n., 366.

Whitney, Professor W. D., 240 n., 244.

Williston Seminary, 19.

Winds and the Weather, 83, 366.

Winlock, Professor Joseph, 369, 369 n.

Wishes, 322.

Woman’s suffrage, 151, 257, 263-265.

Women, rights of, 152-156, 159-164.

Words, “good” and “bad,” 112, 113; ambiguities, 275.

Wright, Ansel, 3, 4, 236.

Wright, Ansel, Jr., 13; letters to, 52.

Wright, Chauncey, birth, ancestry, and family, 1-4, 12, 13; Class-Book Life, 4-7, 14 n., 19 n., 23 n.; his first name, 5, 373; school-days, 5-7, 13-15, 18, 19, 21; first letter, 8; early habit of writing verses, 10-12, 348; wit, 10 n.; youthful studies and speculations, 7, 10, 14-17, 347, 354; temperament, characteristics, personal habits, 57,10, 14, 15, 17, 18, 21, 22, 25-28, 31, 34-36, 43-46, 50, 51, 53, 64-66, 70, 83, 89, 90, 95, 120-123, 137-139, 199, 200, 214-216, 220, 239, 246-249, 250, 251, 283, 284, 320, 371-383; personal appearance, 24, 25, 44, 45, 382; love of children, 35, 36, 39, 142, 372, 383; leaves school, 18; employed in his father’s store, 18, 20, 21; scholarship, 19, 20, 22, 23; college life, 21-30; becomes a computer on the Nautical Almanac, 2, 30, 31; his habits of work on the Almanac, 31, 122, 199, 200, 376, 377; his means of support, 31, 33; essays read before his club, 39, 40; teaches at Professor Agassiz’s School, 2, 42, 366; invited to lecture at Harvard College, 157, 158; becomes an instructor in the College, 212; visits and travels, 37, 43 n., 84, 88, 89, 95, 142, 152, 164, 165, 175, 217, 218, 239, 240, 246, 247, 272, 273, 284, 302, 345, 346; habits of study and reading, 15, 22, 45, 375, 376; habits of writing, 100, 378; powers as a thinker, 45, 230, 231, 321, 362, 363, 382; mental

development, 45, 46, 363, 364 n., 364-374; his sketch of his brother, Lieutenant Wright, 47 n.; health, 50, 137-139, 199, 249, 371; his appreciation of women, 383; as a teacher, 212-215, 377, 383; intercourse with younger men, 379, 380; style of writing, 225, 378; account of his visit to Mr. Darwin, 247-249, see Darwin; powers as an observer, 338 n.; death, 357-359; post mortem examination, 359; burial, 360; estimate of his intelligence by Professor Gurney, 374-383.

Wright, Elizabeth Boleyn, 4.

Wright, George F., 12, 13; letter to, 16; death of, 85; letter to his wife, 86.

Wright, Lieutenant Frederick, 13; letters to, 48-52.

Writing, 355.

Writing-machine, 350.

Wyman, Professor Jeffries, 271.

Endnotes

¹ “Men of enterprise, of good sense, and truly Christian men: they combined industry and prudence, patient labor and economy.” —Rev. Dr. Allen's “Second Century Address delivered at Northampton, Oct. 29, 1854.

²A friend tells me: “Mr. Wright was always a pleasant man in his family, and very indulgent to his children, giving them more than they asked for, fond of joking with them, and allowing them the largest liberty in that way. George [the oldest son] liked to practise little tricks and catches upon his father, who always took them kindly,—for instance, getting his father to stand in a chair, and telling him that when he should ask him the third time to come down he would certainly come, whether he wanted to or not. Mr. Wright good-naturedly stood in the chair, and George called upon him twice to come down: he didn’t come down, — and he waited in vain for a third call.”

³Of Mrs. Wright, a friend says: “Chauncey’s mother, unlike him, had dark hair and eyes and a dark skin: she was a quiet woman, and, as ---- says, hadn’t a particle of fun in her.”

⁴ This name, by which he was so generally and so familiarly called, even by friends who were not intimately acquainted with him, was not a family name: it was selected by his parents because they happened to like it.

⁵ A friend writes from Northampton: “Chauncey first went to school to a Miss Burt, with whom he was a great favorite, — he was such a good, gentle little boy. She used to teach the children to repeat hymns, but could not get Chauncey to learn them, or the alphabet, or any thing out of a book. He would sit still and listen to his mates, and after a time the teacher was surprised to find that he was learning all that she was teaching the others. In this way, he had learned some thirty hymns before he had mastered the alphabet. . . . His aunt tells me that he was the best little boy she ever saw. The only mischief she ever knew him to be guilty of was upsetting a pan of sq.uash prepared for pies: it was on an upper shelf, and he was curious about the contents of the pan, and, in pulling it down to look in, it went all over him from head to foot. He said not a word to any one, but took off his jacket, and hid it away in a loft, cleansed himself and his trowsers as well as he could, and went to his father and asked for a new jacket. His father expressed a mild surprise, but gave him the jacket.”

⁶ His wit also may properly enough be mentioned here: many will remember the excellent quality of it. Since I have been preparing this book, I have accidentally, at a public table, overheard a saying of his quoted as Charles Lamb’s, — his description of that bookish creation, a lad. “A lad,” he said, “is a boy with a man’s hand on his head.” Some of his friends will remember that he had a favorite amended reading of certain lines in Shakespeare, after the manner of the commentators.

⁷A much-quoted passage in “As You Like It,” he insisted, is manifestly corrupt, and yet needs only an astonishingly simple transposition to bring it right. It should read, —

“And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds . . . stones in the running brooks,
Sermons in books, and good in every thing.”

⁸In his Class-Book “Life,” he says, in a passage which immediately follows that I have already quoted: “In the higher English and Classical branches of the Northampton High School, I came under the care of a most kind and zealous teacher, Mr. David S. Sheldon, now a Professor in Iowa College. I was inspired by him with a zeal for natural history, which I have also since lost. I tramped in his company and under his guidance through most of the wilds of Northampton, collecting, preparing, and naming specimens of plants, bugs, birds, and reptiles. We drew into our pursuits nearly the whole school, and founded a museum of natural history, which, I think, is still in existence. My private collection of plants was partly destroyed by fire a few years before I went to college, but not till my whole interest had perished, never to rise from its ashes.”

⁹Dr. Thomas Gilfillan, of Northampton.

¹⁰ At this time, for a single year, the deputy-sheriff was keeper of the county jail, and lived in the jailer’s house, then at the lower end of Pleasant Street.

¹¹ Here the philosopher had his doubts. After saying “except a few,” he inserted “may be” with a caret.

¹² This spelling preserves the local boyish pronunciation of comets.

¹³ “Bashfulness and apathy,” says Mr. Emerson, “are a tough husk, in which a delicate organization is protected from premature ripening.”

¹⁴ Edward Everett.

¹⁵ In the Class-Book, Chauncey gives a brief account of the end of his school-days and the beginning of his college life, which is, I believe, inaccurate as to some of the dates.

¹⁶ Mrs. Josiah P. Quincy, of Quincy.

¹⁷ At Cambridge, about ten years later.

¹⁸ He was at his graduation the twenty-seventh scholar in a class of eighty-eight.

¹⁹ “At the close of our course” he says in the Class-Book, “the world was deprived of the results of my learning, as embodied in my Commencement part, by an accident, which for a time disabled me as to my power of walking. When I recovered, I limped from Holworthy to the Nautical Office; and I have remained in its employments to the present time (July 24, 1858).”

²⁰ George H. Fisher, now a member of the bar in Brooklyn, N. Y.

²¹ John T. Perry, now editor of the “Cincinnati Gazette.”

²² This was at the beginning of the Sophomore year.

²³ Chauncey’s chum in the Junior year at Mass. 28.

²⁴ Addison Brown, now a lawyer in the city of New York. Brown entered Sophomore, coming to Cambridge from Amherst College.

²⁵ The classes then recited in two divisions made alphabetically.

²⁶ The electives then began with the Junior year.

²⁷ This refers to a custom, now long discontinued. While there was a six weeks winter vacation, ending about the first of March, it was the habit of the college authorities to give leave of absence to such students as needed it, from Thanksgiving (the last Thursday of November) for the rest of the winter term. By this means, many students were able to command a solid three months for teaching in the country district schools.

²⁸ Situated at that time in the low land behind the “Old Church.”

²⁹ This probably refers to a college “condition.”

³⁰ Ware was an intimate friend, from whose recollections of Chauncey I shall repeatedly quote. They were room-mates at Cambridge in 1856, and were companions in several summer journeys.

³¹ Mary Walker was an escaped fugitive slave, who had been aided by Mrs. Lesley in her flight. She lived with Mrs. Lyman, in Cambridge; and after Mrs. Lyman left Cambridge, in 1861, Chauncey lodged at Mary Walker’s house. After her death, he continued until his own death at the house of her daughter. Mary Walker’s “instructions” have to do with those secret agencies of communication between the slaves and the North, which used to be known as the “underground railroad.”

³² Professor Lesley is unable to recall the proposition to which reference is here made.

³³ I find it preserved just as he wrote it, — a rough draft in lead-pencil, in the half-filled sheets of a college blank book. He had been drawn to the observation of children, as he intimates, by seeing often the little daughter of Mrs. Lesley at Mrs. Lyman’s. The reader will probably be interested in seeing one or two passages of it: —

“If the venerable mother of nurses,” he says, “had, in addition to her motherly tenderness and sympathetic appreciation of the juvenile mind, been endowed with dialectic powers, she might, in her protest against these abusive tamperings with her classic songs, have reasoned thus:

‘ I do not aim to make a man of a child, for that is the work of Providence, but do I not know what a child is, and what are its wants, better than you, O most audacious Mrs. Science, and do I not believe in spite of your theories that the satisfaction of its natural wants is the best way to further the work of nature? . . . What is good taste to a child, — nay, what is the difference between the sensible and absurd, —before the discriminating powers are excited? Are not contrasts the means by which discrimination is provoked? Is not the pleasing most distinctly realized in the ugly, the true in the false, and the sensible in the absurd? I venture timidly into your own province, when I assert that the imitative dispositions of children, the perpetual make-believe and play of their tender years, and their ability to discriminate at the first dawn of intelligence the serious from the comic, are the means by which their common sense is nourished and the abstraction of meanings effected. Banish not then the grotesque, but set it off with the beautiful, that by the contrast the beauty of the beautiful may be realized. Tell them impossible stories, that the limits of the possible may be known. Talk nonsense and baby-talk, that good sense and correct language may be acquired. But in all this do not dissimulate: guard with religious care that first discrimination of intelligence, the earnest from the make-believe.’”—“It is wise,” he says, later on, “instead of directing the tasks of children and neglecting their sports, to direct the sports, and let the tasks take care of themselves.” — I wish it were practicable to quote the whole paper.

³⁴ It was to her that the poet, her husband's brother, addressed this beautiful sonnet: —

“Through suffering and sorrow thou hast passed,
To show us what a woman true may be:
They have not taken sympathy from thee,
Nor made thee any other than thou wast;
Save as some tree, which, in a sudden blast,
Sheddeth those blossoms that are weakly grown,
Upon the air, but keepeth every one
Whose strength gives warrant of good fruit at last:
So thou hast shed some blooms of gayety,
But never one of steadfast cheerfulness;
Nor hath thy knowledge of adversity Robbed thee of any faith in happiness,
But rather cleared thine inner eyes to see How many simple ways there are to bless.”

³⁵ This paper is printed also in the “Philosophical Discussions,” p. 296. In the “American Naturalist” for June, 1876, Vol. X. p. 326, a short paper was printed, at the instance of Professor Goodale of Harvard College, entitled “A Popular Explanation (for those who understand Botany) of the Mathematical Nature of Phyllotaxis. By the late Chauncey Wright.” To this article the following note is appended: “This article was prepared by Mr. Wright several years ago, at Professor Gray’s suggestion. In its manuscript form, it has been found of much interest and value to the botanical students in Harvard College. It is here reprinted, without change, from Mr. Wright’s notes.” The substance of the paper before the Academy, as I am informed by Professor Goodale, was incorporated in the English translation of Sach’s “Lehrbuch der Botanik.”

³⁶ This extract from Mr. Ware’s letter is preceded by a little sketch of the vacation journeys to which he refers. “In 1857,” he says, “you and Chauncey and I were a fortnight together among the Franconia Mountains of New, Hampshire, and again in the following year. Those days in retrospect are bright with sunshine. You will remember how we passed them, — taking long walks, climbing the mountains, following up the courses of mountain streams, and bathing in the icy waters of secluded rocky basins fed by waterfalls, and sometimes, in the afternoon, strolling into the woods, or in some quiet nook, in the shade of trees, reading aloud in turn the one poet, Shakespeare, we had brought with us.

“In 1860, we spent with Chauncey a vacation at Mount Desert. The little steamer that now carries so many to Bar Harbor then had only three or four passengers besides ourselves, and stopped only at Southwest Harbor. We had learned the secret, however, before we started, that not at South-west Harbor, but at Bar Harbor, was the place for the true worshipper ; and so, on landing from the boat, we took a wagon, and were conveyed directly there. At Roberts’s, — then the only house that received strangers, — we stayed a week or ten days, furnished with the most meagre accommodations, and a fare of little besides fish, berries. and milk. I remember no other permanent visitors then at this place. Some of the time we were on the water, but more we spent in climbing the mountainous island, and exploring the grand sea-coast.

“In the following year, Chauncey, Gurney, and I passed a vacation together in excursions on foot among the Berkshire Hills. Chauncey and I walked from Pittsfield to Stockbridge, where Gurney joined us. About Lenox, Stockbridge, and thence to Bash Bish Falls, we had many a pleasant jaunt.”

³⁷ These details, which are of interest as explaining some letters which will be inserted under their proper dates, I take from a brief sketch of this brother, written by Chauncey in 1865. From this account, I will add one or two passages which are worthy of attention here for the moderation and just feeling with which they are expressed, and for the light which they throw on Chauncey’s own character.

“Accustomed from boyhood to responsible duties, his character was not less mature than that of most New England youths at twenty-two. His predominant feelings in volunteering for the war, though controlled and concentrated by a sense” of duty, — such as had become a settled habit of his life, — were still those of a young man with whom sympathy with his fellows and an enthusiasm for a great popular movement made the path of duty appear more attractive and the sacrifice less burdensome. The novelty of so great a change in life had, also, doubtless a considerable influence in determining him to take this step; but, in every subsequent step, the sense of duty was uppermost, — that plain, every-day, enduring habit which had become a second nature with him. . . .

“On his second furlough, at the end of two years’ service in the Twenty-seventh, he returned to his home on a short visit. These years had wrought great changes in him. His character had reached maturity: a weightier sense of the responsibilities to which he was about to return appeared in his bearing and conversation, and by a natural association of feeling made the last parting from his friends seem sadder and more tender than any former one had been. Apprehensions of new dangers to be encountered, were heightened by a deeper sense of the value of the life again offered to the cause which had ennobled it.”

³⁸ It was one of the results of the war that Mrs. Walker and her family were reunited. This happened through the efforts of a high official who accompanied General Sherman in his memorable visit to Raleigh in 1865, and who in a short stay of two hours in that city found time personally to make certain inquiries which resulted in so much happiness to this excellent woman. Her mother had died; but her children were found, and they afterwards joined her at Cambridge.

³⁹ This was a fugitive slave who, coming into our lines, had become the servant of Lieutenant Wright, and been brought to Northampton. Chauncey’s father had sent him to Cambridge to take care of the invalid.

⁴⁰ The reference is to an article on “Natural Theology as a Positive Science” in the “North American Review” for January, 1865; Philosophical Discussions, p. 35.

⁴¹ Since this was written, Professor Newcomb has been appointed Superintendent of the Nautical Almanac.

⁴² Vol. I. p. 272, January, 1858.

⁴³ A full list of these contributions is as follows: — Vol. I. No. 9, p. 278, “Mill on Hamilton.”
20, p. 627, “McCosh on Intuitions.”
22, 27, p. 20, “Mill on Comte.”
55, p. 724, “Spencer’s Biology.”
60, p. 804, “Martineau’s Essays.”
23, 72, p. 385, “Masson’s Recent British Philosophy.”
24, 80, p. 27, “Mansel’s Reply to Mill.”
90, p. 231, “Ennis on the Origin of the Stars.”
102, p. 470, “The Reign of Law.”
25, 116, p. 238, Note to “Mathematics in Court.”
26, 148, p. 355, Bledsoe’s “Philosophy of Mathematics.”
XIII. 335, p. 355, Two Notes on Mr. C. S. Peirce’s Review
of Berkeley.
XVI. 412, p. 351, Notice of Mill, from the paragraph beginning, “The standing of Mr. Mill,” to the end.
XVIII. 467, p. 381, Lewes’s “Problems of Life and Mind.”
XX. 503, p. 113, Two Notes in answer to a request for
information about books relating to
the theory of Evolution.
505, p. 146, “Sir Charles Lyell.”
508, p. 208, Note on Bastian.
512, p. 277, “McCosh on Tyndall.”
518, p. 379, “Speculative Dynamics.”
520, p. 405, “Who are our Ancestors?” p. 409, Note on Professor Winlock.
XXI. 522, p. 9, Two Notes on Sir Henry Maine and the
“Greatest Happiness” principle.
524, p. 43, Blackwell’s “Sexes in Nature.”
532, p. 168, “German Darwinism.”

⁴⁴ Mr. Runkle’s house was at Brookline, and about three miles from Cambridge. Chauncey’s visits were made during the years 1866 and 1867.

⁴⁵ Mr. Abbot was at this time a Unitarian clergyman at Dover, New Hampshire. The allusion is to difficulties which arose out of a growing divergence between the opinions held by him and those commonly held by his denomination. These controversies culminated in litigation of a very interesting character, of which an account may be found in the case of Hale v. Everett, 53 New Hampshire Reports, p. 1.

⁴⁶ After anxious consideration, I think it best to speak of this subject openly and fully.

⁴⁷ In the fall of 1868, Professor Gurney, his most intimate companion, was married. Mr. Gurney had removed from Little’s Block in 1863, yet he continued to see much of Chauncey until near the period which we have now reached.

⁴⁸ In the summer of 1868.

⁴⁹ President Runkle writes: “On July 1, 1866, the whole of the work upon the Lunar Ephemeris was given to Chauncey and myself. We divided this work evenly between us. As nearly as I now remember, Chauncey did his work the first year. The second year, he fell behind, and I helped him out. The third year, he delayed his work till late, and then told me that he could not do it, and gave up the contract.”

⁵⁰ A request that Chauncey would contribute an article on “The Religious Aspects of Positivism” to a volume which it was then proposed to publish.

⁵¹ See p. 199.

⁵² Mr. Norton’s place at Cambridge, then occupied by Professor Gurney.

⁵³ Mr. J. J. Myers, a graduate at Cambridge in the class of 1869.

⁵⁴ Elbridge Jefferson Cutler, Assistant Professor of Modern Languages at Cambridge, from 1865 to 1870. He had been made a full Professor just before his death, in 1870. Mr. Cutler had been a friend of Wright’s ever since they were together in College; they were also members of the same Club. Professor Cutler had already become known outside of the College by his poems, which gave promise of an excellent future; within the College, his loss was deplored as that of one of the most brilliant and successful of its younger teachers. — Ed.

⁵⁵ See p. 191.

⁵⁶ Philosophical Discussions, p. 97.

⁵⁷ North American Review, July, 1875; Philosophical Discussions, p. 267.

⁵⁸ Ante, p. 119.

⁵⁹ Mr. J. B. Warner, a graduate at Cambridge in the class of 1869.

⁶⁰ Mr. Henry W. Holland, of Cambridge.

⁶¹ Descent of Man, Vol. II. c. xix. p. 319, note (Appleton’s ed., N. Y., 1871). The article is referred to in this book more than once.

⁶² Mr. Dennett, one of the editors of the “Nation,” and also at that time the Assistant Professor of Rhetoric at Harvard College, had made certain shrewd criticisms on Chauncey’s style in the “Nation,” of November 10, 1870 (Vol. XI. p. 315). I give a part of it below: —

“Mrs. John Farrar speaks of a ride which she once took with her husband and Mr. Bailey, the Astronomer-Royal, in the course of which the two scientific men amazed her by talking for an hour together perfectly good English, of which she understood not a syllable. ‘The effect was very curious,’ she says, ‘of hearing people converse in English without being able to comprehend what they said.’ We suspect a majority of the readers of the present number of the ‘North American’ will, once in a while, have much the same feeling in reading Mr. Chauncey Wright’s review of Wallace’s ‘Theory of Natural Selection.’ The subject, too, is one more interesting to the general reader than any other in the whole range of science; and the dabbler in science may properly be condoled with on the difficulties which Mr. Wright’s style interposes between the amateur student of Darwin and what even an amateur student easily perceives to be a very acute and able discussion of Mr. Wallace’s arguments. That the style is evidently a good one, if the reader were only master of the writer’s vocabulary, and that the essay is in many places intelligible even to the uninstructed, will increase, rather than diminish, our supposed reader’s regrets and aggravate his botheration of mind. ... It is fair again, inasmuch as we have said what we have about Mr. Wright’s style holding his reader off from his subject-matter, to admit freely the difficulty, while suggesting the propriety, of an observance, whenever possible, of Joubert’s precept for metaphysicians, that they should not, as too many of them have done, put common thoughts into metaphysical language, but should study, as almost none of them have done, to put their metaphysical thought into the language of common people. The day will be a good one for thought, literature, and instruction, when — decency being saved — the very last is seen of the practice, once prevalent and avowed, of writing for special classes and schools and coteries. By which general remark, we certainly mean no impertinence to authors like Mr. Wright.”

⁶³ The Genesis of Species: North American Review, July, 1871; Philosophical Discussions, p. 126.

⁶⁴ Mr. Darwin, in his first letter, had expressed much interest in Wright’s remarks on phyllotaxis in the article sent him. He stated also certain difficulties in the subject that had embarrassed him from his want of familiarity with mathematics, and expressed the hope that Wright would publish something more on the subject.

⁶⁵ Wright had referred to this in his last letter as a possibility.

⁶⁶ The Uses and Origin of the Arrangements of Leaves in Plants: Philosophical Discussions, p. 296.

⁶⁷ The death of Mrs. Charles Eliot Norton in Europe, in February, 1872.

⁶⁸ Evolution by Natural Selection: Philosophical Discussions, p. 168.

⁶⁹ On June 3, Mr. Darwin had written, thanking Wright for a copy of his article on “Evolution by Natural Selection,” which “he had read with great interest.” “Nothing,” he says, “can be clearer than the way in which you discuss the permanence or fixity of species. ... As your mind is so clear and as you consider so carefully the meaning of words, I wish you would take some incidental occasion to consider when a thing may properly be said to be effected by the will of man. I have been led to the wish by reading an article by your Professor Whitney versus Schleicher. He argues that, because each step of a change in language is made by the will of man, the whole language so changes; but I do not think that this is so: a man has no intention or wish to change the language. It is a parallel case with what I have called ‘unconscious selection,’ which depends on men consciously preserving the best individuals, and thus unconsciously altering the breed.”

⁷⁰ The accounts given by friends who saw him after landing in New York, and for some days afterwards, fully confirm the impression which this letter gives of the depression which attended the first hours of his return home.

⁷¹ A letter by Mr. Leslie Stephen on “The Late Stuart Mill,” in the “Nation,” for June 5, 1873 (Vol. XVI. p. 382).

⁷² Mr. Stephen had said: “It was his habit, I believe, to have every thing closely arranged in his head before putting any thing on paper. The actual writing was, therefore, extremely rapid. . . . Like some other distinguished writers, he was fond of taking long walks, during which his reflections were gradually moulded into a form fit for expression. Within the last year or two, he was still equal to doing thirty or forty miles a day without excessive fatigue.”

⁷³ Evolution of Self-Consciousness: North American Review, April 1873; Philosophical Discussions, p. 199.

⁷⁴ Wright had been surprised, one day in the horse-car, by seeing the large black letters of a title, printed on the dark-blue cover of a pamphlet, have the color of gold when the light struck them aslant; and he had endeavored to reproduce the appearance.

⁷⁵ The reference is to an article in the “Nation,” of May 14, 1874 (No. 463), on “Woman Suffrage in Michigan.” Some conversation with Wright relating to this article had been incorrectly reported to Mr. Godkin; who then wrote to him, in order to get at his views upon the points in question, and received this reply.

⁷⁶ The dedication of the Memorial Hall at Cambridge, on Tuesday afternoon, July 23, 1874.

⁷⁷ This refers to an amusing piece in the “New York World,” professing to be the account of the life and death of a positivist child.

⁷⁸ Chauncey uses this word here, not in its specific local sense, [e.g. ante, p. 64], as intimating the doctrine of the Trinitarian Congregationalists, — once the established church; but with the more general meaning expressed just before, where he speaks of his friends as conservative in their opinions. They were all Unitarians.

⁷⁹ In another place, Wright had said: “Syntheses; — synthems is a better word, which I borrow from the Greek to express the passive sense of syntheses, — as poem stands to poesis.”

⁸⁰ While Chauncey was on this visit at Mattapoisett, the daughter of his host secured the taking of what is called his “mental photograph;” and she has most kindly sent it to me. I am sure that Chauncey’s friends will thank her for the leave I have to print here this amusing paper, which is at the same time so characteristic. The patient, it will be remembered, while undergoing this process, is seated at a number of written questions, and writes his answers. “I remember Mr. Wright,” says Miss Shattuck, “perfectly as he wrote the answers, and seemed to take pleasure in thinking them out.

Your favorite color?
Ans. The complementary.

Your favorite flower?
Ans. The red, red rose.

Your favorite tree?
Ans. The Great Elm.

Your favorite object in nature?
Ans. Vistas of mountains.

Your favorite hour in the day?
Ans. 11 to 12 p. m.

Your favorite season of the year?
Ans. Days in June.

Your favorite perfume?
Ans. Incense of Havana.

Your favorite style of beauty?
Ans. The animated.

Your favorite poets?
Ans. Shakespeare and Tennyson.

Your favorite prose authors?
Ans. Stuart Mill and Charles Darwin.

Your favorite character in romance?
Ans. Plato’s Socrates.

In history?
Ans. The real Socrates.

Book to take up for an hour?
Ans. The one one feels inclined to read.

What book (not religious) would you part with last?
Ans. The one no one would care to borrow.

August 9, 1874.

What epoch would you choose to have lived in?
Ans. The most modern.

Where would you like to live?
Ans. In the most familiar place.

What is your favorite amusement?
Ans. Metaphysics.

What is your favorite occupation?
Ans. Mathematical problems.

What trait of character do you most admire in man?
Ans. The disposition to be just.

What trait of character do you most admire in woman?
Ans. Thoughtful sympathy.

What trait of character do you most detest in each?
Ans. Brutality and vanity.

If not yourself, who would you rather be?
Ans. Nobody.

What is your idea of happiness?
Ans. Undisturbed, easy occupation.

What is your idea of misery?
Ans. Distracted ennui.

What is your dream?
Ans. Of flying.

What is your favorite game?
Ans. Solitaire.

What do you believe to be your distinguishing characteristics?
Ans. Ignorance and modesty.

If married, what do you believe to be the distinguishing characteristics of your better-half? Ans. To wish to be married to another man, and therefore unhappy.

What are the saddest words in the world? Ans. Those beginning with D, — as death, debt, diseases, dishonor, and all the d—d dises.

What is your aim in life? Ans. To secure the most trustworthy means of happiness.

What is your motto? Ans. The greatest good of the greatest number.

⁸¹ The passage referred to begins at line 109 in Ribbeck’s edition of the play.

⁸² As to the correctness of his results, there must, of course, be a variety of opinion; this is a matter which has to do with premises, as well as methods of reasoning. But, if I may judge from my own case, those who differ from Wright can hardly have a wholesomer exercise than to read him.

⁸³ Wright’s correspondence with Mr. Darwin may well draw attention to his powers as an observer. A friend who saw much of him speaks of “the personal observation and investigations of the facts of science which he was all the time carrying on with great interest during his later years, and of which there is but little direct expression in what he wrote for publication. Perhaps,” it is added, “the notices of him have hardly emphasized the mention of his great abilities in this direction sufficiently to give an adequate impression of them.”

⁸⁴ The celebration of the taking command of the American army by General Washington, at Cambridge, July 3, 1775.

⁸⁵ A Note in the “Nation” of July 1, 1875, at p. 411.

⁸⁶ Chauncey was fond of humorously deifying “Spontaneity.” The reader of Plutarch may recall a passage from the “Life of Timoleon,” where it is said: “And having built a chapel in his house, he there sacrificed to Good Hap as a deity that had favored him, and devoted the house itself to the sacred genius.” Mr. Clough, in his revision of the earlier translations of Plutarch, appends at the word “Good Hap” this note: “Automatia in Greek; almost equivalent to spontaneousness. . . . His instinctive and apparently unreasoning decisions had been attended with such happy results as to make him unavoidably refer them to something out of himself, to some preternatural guidance.”

⁸⁷ The Nation, September 9, 1875; Philosophical Discussions, p. 398. This was his latest printed article.

⁸⁸ The Conflict of Studies: North American Review for July, 1875; Philosophical Discussions, p. 267.

⁸⁹ See p. 14.

⁹⁰ This is the last of the letters to Miss Jane Norton. I preserve, upon a later page, Chauncey’s expression of admiration for this gracious and noble woman. She died in May, 1877.

⁹¹ Mr. Henry James.

⁹² The examination was made by Dr. Thomas Dwight, of Boston. Dr. Dwight informs me that the membranes of the brain were much congested, and there were appearances which indicated that a certain amount of congestion had existed for some time; but the cause of death was not ascertained. He adds: “The brain weighed fifty-three and a half ounces, which is above the average, but not remarkable. The frontal portion was uncommonly developed. In studying the arrangement of the convolutions, I found an anomaly, of which there was at the time but one instance recorded in literature; namely, a bridge of brain tissue extending over one of the chief fissures, that of Rolando. Whether it is of any real significance, our knowledge does not permit us to say, but it was certainly remarkable. . . . The anomaly was observed in the brain of a Dr. Fuchs, who was a clinical professor at Göttingen. He was, of course, an educated and intelligent man, but I am not aware that he was in any way remarkable. The case was described by Rudolf Wagner, in a work of which I think the title is Vorstudien zu einer wissenschaftlichen Morphologie und Physiologie des Menschlichen Gehirns. It is in two thin quarto volumes, and contains good plates: it is at the Boston Public Library. Hetchl, of Vienna, in the Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift, of October 13, 1877, describes six additional cases which he has observed, and alludes to two by Teré, one of which he considers doubtful. The arrangement of the convolutions in the temporal and parietal lobes of the brain of Mr. Wright was remarkably simple.”

⁹³ Mr. Gurney, having graduated with Wright in 1852, was a tutor in the College from 1857 to 1863; Assistant Professor of Latin from 1863 to 1867, of Philosophy from 1867 to 1868, and of History from 1868 to 1869; from 1869 to the present time he has been the University Professor of History. From 1869 to 1876, he was also Dean of the College.

Mr. Gurney sends the letter in a rough draft, and with some expressions of misgiving as to the form of it. Illness and much occupation, he says, “have caused this letter to drag along, until it has lost all unity, and become a somewhat unwieldy mass of reminiscences and reflections, with many repetitions; yet I have neither the time nor the spirit to recast and rewrite it. The rheumatism, I dare say, has got into the joints of what I have written.” And he goes on to give me a very wide power of amendment. Although I quote this, out of justice to Mr. Gurney’s own literary conceptions, I feel sure that the reader will thank me for making no considerable changes.

⁹⁴ See pages 39 and 40.

⁹⁵ In a letter of Mr. Darwin E. Ware, from which I have already quoted, he says: “The lateness of the development of Chauncey’s tastes and powers in the direction of philosophy, considering the aptitude he afterwards displayed, is quite remarkable. While in college, mathematics, the physical sciences, and natural history absorbed nearly all his attention. In these, he was recognized in the class as without a peer or rival. His capacity for philosophy, I think, was not then suspected by others, or even, as I believe, by himself: there were those in his class who showed a deeper interest in metaphysical studies. The notes of Sir William Hamilton contained in Dr. Walker’s edition of Reid, that was used as a college text-book, tempted here and there a fellow-student to go further, and examine whatever of Hamilton’s writings were then accessible. Late in the Senior year, I remember that Hamilton’s essay on the ‘Philosophy of the Conditioned,’ published in 1829, in the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ was to him an unknown chapter in the history of speculation. A few years after, he was not more familiar with the simplest problems in geometry than with the whole of Hamilton’s philosophy down to the nicest attenuations of definition that pervade it.

“The only subject related to philosophy in the course of the college exercises, which, as I remember, deeply interested Chauncey, was the question given out by Dr. Walker as the subject for a forensic, —whether the faculties of men and animals differ in kind or degree. Dr. Walker was then the Professor of Philosophy, and preached in the college chapel. His powerful influence was on the side of the transcendental school. It shows how normal to Chauncey’s mind was the philosophical system he afterwards espoused, developed, and taught as a master, that, in harmony with it, and notwithstanding the instruction given him in recitations, lectures, and sermons by a revered teacher, he, with the greatest earnestness, maintained that this difference was one of degree, and not of kind.

“I think his interest in philosophy was not greatly aroused until after 1856. For in this year, while we roomed together, he was reading Whewell’s ‘History of the Inductive Sciences,’ and was deep in the Novum Organum of Bacon, whose aphorisms concerning the province of science and the interpretation of nature were constantly in his speech.”

⁹⁶ The Winds and the Weather: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I. p. 272, January, 1858.

⁹⁷ On a photograph of this little company, the following lines were written: —

“Foederis en juvenes socios sancti aspice septem;
Quod placet his fas est, quod placet hi faciunt.”

It is unnecessary to say that the motto was hardly a serious one. There was another reading, not wholly approved,— “quiddam placet hi faciunt.” This had the merit, such as it is, of hinting powerfully at the slang English phrase, — then a familiar one, — of which the last line was an adaptation. Ante, p. 343.

⁹⁸ The first English edition appeared in 1859. On February 12, 1860, Chauncey says that he has just finished reading the book. Ante, p. 43.

⁹⁹ The first English edition of the “Ancient Law” was published in 1861.

¹⁰⁰ Mr. Sheldon, his teacher at Northampton, had discussed this book with his pupils; and it may be surmised that Chauncey retained the unfavorable estimate of it to which he was then accustomed.

¹⁰¹ Professor Winlock, Director of the Observatory at Cambridge, died no less suddenly than Wright, and but a few months earlier. The same number of the “Nation” (June 17, 1875) which contained a sketch of Winlock by Wright had in it, also, Mr. Lowell’s sonnet: —

“Shy soul and stalwart, man of patient will
Through years one hair’s breadth on our Dark to gain,
Who, from the stars he studied not in vain,
Had learned their secret to be strong and still,
Careless of fames that earth’s tin trumpets fill;
Born under Leo, broad of build and brain,
He watched, while others slept, in that hushed fane Of Science, only witness of his skill:
Sudden as falls a shooting-star he fell,
But inextinguishable his luminous trace
In mind and heart of all that knew him well.
Happy man’s doom! To him the fates were known
Of orbs dim-hovering on the skirts of Space,
Unprescient, through God’s mercy, of his own.”

It is startling to think of Wright’s reading these lines not three months before his own most sudden death. One who recalls certain points of resemblance between the two men, and the nature of Wright’s own astronomical calculations, finds an application of the sonnet to him in more respects than one.

¹⁰² The maxim, “Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.”

¹⁰³ An exception should also be made of his sense of touch, which was hardly, if at all, less delicate and quick than his sight.