Footnote 64:
The Charter of Privileges, granted and solemnly confirmed to the
freemen of Pennsylvania and territories belonging to the province, by
the proprietary, on the 28th of October, 1701, was, after being
approved and agreed to by the legislative body of the province,
accepted by them the same day; in lieu of the Frame of Government
originally stipulated between Mr. Penn and the Planters, in the year
1683. The first article of this charter provided for a full enjoyment
of the Liberty of Conscience, by all persons who should acknowledge
“One Almighty God, the Creator, Upholder, and Ruler of the World.” It
also declared to be capable of holding any office or place, under the
government, all persons professing faith in “Jesus Christ, the Saviour
of the World,” and who should, when required, attest their allegiance,
&c.
Footnote 65:
Incorporated with that edition of the _Laws of Pennsylvania_, which
was published in the year 1810, “under the authority of the
legislature,” with Notes and References, by Charles Smith, Esq. is an
article that bears a respectful testimony to the justice and clemency
of the founder of that state: It is an important and very interesting
_Note_ to an act of assembly passed the 1st day of April, 1784,
(entitled, “An act for opening the Land-Office, for granting and
disposing of the unappropriated Lands within this State,”) containing
“a connected view of the land-titles of Pennsylvania from its first
settlement to the present time.” In this document the learned editor
speaks of the integrity and virtuous policy manifested by Penn, with
respect to his conduct towards the Indian natives of the country, to
which he had acquired the dominion under his sovereign, in these
terms.
“William Penn, although clothed with powers as full and comprehensive
as those possesed by the adventurers from Portugal and Spain, was
influenced by a purer morality and sounder policy. His religious
principles did not permit him to wrest the soil, by force, from the
people to whom God and nature gave it, nor to establish his title in
blood; but, under the shade of the lofty trees of the forest, his
right was fixed by treaties with the natives, and sanctified, as it
were, by incense smoking from the calumet of peace.”
The note from which this extract is made, (and which comprizes 156
large 8vo. pages, printed on a small type,) forms a valuable treatise,
historical as well as legal, of the territorial rights of the former
proprietaries, and of the land-titles deduced from them by the
citizens of Pennsylvania.
-----
Matthias, the youngest son of Nicholas Rittenhouse, by Wilhelmina Dewees
his wife, was born at the paper-mills belonging to his family, near
Germantown,[66] in the county of Philadelphia and about eight miles from
the capital of Pennsylvania, in the year 1703. Having abandoned the
occupation of a paper-maker, when about twenty-nine years of age, and
two years after his father’s death, he then commenced the business of a
farmer, on a piece of land he had purchased in the township of
Norriton,[67] about twenty miles from the city of Philadelphia; his
brother Henry establishing himself in the same manner, in the adjoining
township of Worcester. In October, 1727,—about three years prior to
Matthias’s removal from the vicinity of Germantown,—he had become a
married man. His wife was Elizabeth William (or Williams) who was born
in 1704, and was daughter of Evan William, a native of Wales. Her
father, a farmer, dying while she was a child, she was placed under the
charge of an elderly English (or, more probably, Welsh) gentleman, in
the neighbourhood, of the name of Richard Jones; a relation of her
family. That truly respectable woman possessed a cheerful temper, with a
mind uncommonly vigorous and comprehensive: but her education was much
neglected, as is too often the fate of orphan children. Yet, perhaps, no
censure ought justly to be imputable to Mr. Jones, in this case; because
there were very few schools of any kind, in country situations, at that
early day.[68]
-----
Footnote 66:
Germantown was settled in the year 1682. It was so called by its
founders, a small colony of Germans from the Palatinate, mostly from
the vicinity of the city of Worms, who are said to have been converted
while in their own country, to the principles of the people called
Quakers, by the preaching of William Ames, an Englishman. Germantown
is now a populous village, of considerable extent; and by reason of
its proximity to the capital, this place furnishes an agreeable
residence to many respectable families from thence. See also Note 62.
Footnote 67:
This township derives its name (which it gave also to Mr.
Rittenhouse’s patrimonial farm and his original observatory,) as does
likewise the neighbouring town of Norriston, the county-town of the
(now) county of Montgomery, from the respectable Pennsylvania family
of Norris; of which Isaac Norris, Esq. was eighteen times chosen
Speaker of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, during the term of
half a century from the time of his first election, in the year 1713.
Mr. Norris held many public offices in Pennsylvania with great
reputation and honour. He is represented as having been “an ornament
to his country;” and this gentleman, who died in the year 1735, then
held the Chief-Justiceship of the Province.
Footnote 68:
In the year 1683, Enoch Flower undertook to teach English in the town
of Philadelphia. Six years afterwards, originated the Friends’ Public
School in the same town, then in its infancy; and in 1697, this school
was incorporated, on the petition of Samuel Carpenter, Edward Shippen,
Anthony Morris, James Fox, David Lloyd, William Southby, and John
Jones, in behalf of themselves and others. In the year 1708, this
corporation was enlarged and perpetuated by a new charter, under the
name of “The Overseers of the Public School, founded in Philadelphia,
at the request, cost, and charges of the people called Quakers.” It
was further extended in the year 1711; when the three first named
gentlemen, together with Griffith Owen, Thomas Story, Richard Hill,
Isaac Norris, Samuel Preston, Jonathan Dickinson, Nathan Stanbury,
Thomas Masters, Nicholas Waln, Caleb Pusey, Rowland Ellis and James
Logan, were appointed Overseers.
As this was the earliest considerable school established in
Pennsylvania, as well as the first institution of the kind, in the
province, the names of its promoters deserve to be held in
remembrance, among the Patrons of learning and useful knowledge in
this country.
From this view of the origin of schools in the capital of
Pennsylvania, it will be perceived, that the means of acquiring even
the rudiments of literary instruction must have been difficult of
access in country places, for some considerable time after the periods
just mentioned. This is one of the most serious grievances to which
the settlers in new and unimproved countries are subjected.
-----
The extraordinary natural understanding of this person, so very nearly
related as she was to the subject of these memoirs, seemed to the writer
to merit particular notice; and the more especially, for a reason which
shall be hereafter mentioned.
By this wife, Matthias Rittenhouse had four sons and six daughters;[69]
three of whom died in their minority. The three eldest of the children
were born at the place of their father’s nativity; the others, at
Norriton. Of the former number was DAVID, the eldest son, the subject of
these memoirs.—He was born on the 8th day of April, 1732.[70]
-----
Footnote 69:
Margaret, who intermarried with Edward Morgan; Esther, with the Rev.
Thomas Barton; David, the subject of these Memoirs; Andrew, who died
in his minority; Anne, who intermarried with George Shoemaker;
Eleanor, who intermarried with Daniel Evans; Benjamin, yet living;
Jonathan, who died in his minority; and Mary and Elizabeth (twins,) of
whom the latter died in her minority, unmarried: Mary, who is living,
has been twice married, but without issue; her first husband was
Thomas Morgan. David had no sons; and two of his three brothers having
died young and unmarried, the only persons, descended from our
philosopher’s father, Matthias, who now bear the name of Rittenhouse,
are the surviving brother of David, namely, Benjamin, and his sons.
Benjamin has been twice married; first, to a daughter of General John
Bull; and, secondly, to a daughter of Colonel Francis Wade: By both
marriages he has male issue; and, as it is believed, two of the sons
by the first wife are married.
Footnote 70:
“There is,” says a late ingenious writer,[70a] “a strong propensity in
the human mind to trace up our ancestry to as high and as remote a
source as possible.” “This principle of our nature,” he observes,
“although liable to great perversion; and frequently the source of
well-founded ridicule, may, if rightly directed, become the parent of
great actions. The origin and progress of individuals, of families,
and of nations, constitute Biography and History, two of the most
interesting departments of human knowledge.”
The pride of ancestry is, indeed, “liable to great perversion,” and is
too frequently “the source of well-founded ridicule:” yet the
experience and the history of mankind, in every age and country, have
shewn, that it is connected with and derived from principles of our
nature, which are not only laudable in themselves, but such as, if
“rightly directed” and properly applied, become eminently useful to
society.
Footnote 70a:
See a “Discourse delivered before the New-York Historical Society, at
their anniversary meeting, December the 6th, 1811: By the Hon. De Witt
Clinton, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society.”
-----
This son was an infant, when his family removed to Norriton and engaged
in the business of farming; and his father appears, early, to have
designed him for this most useful and very respectable employment.
Accordingly, as soon as the boy arrived at a sufficient age to assist in
conducting the affairs of the farm, he was occupied as an husbandman.
This kind of occupation seems to have commenced at a very early period
of his life; for it is ascertained, that, about the fourteenth year of
his age, he was actually employed in ploughing his father’s fields.[71]
-----
Footnote 71:
It is not this occupation that, in itself, usually attaches to those
who follow it, the idea of clownishness: but it is the ignorance that,
unfortunately, too generally characterizes persons employed in it,
which, by an association of ideas, is apt to derogate from the
worthiness of the employment itself. If the profession of husbandry be
an honourable one, and every rational consideration renders it such,
then one of the most important operations in conducting the great
business of the agriculturist, cannot be destitute of dignity. To
follow the plough is not a servile labour: it is an employment worthy
of a freeman; and if the person, thus engaged, be a man of native
talents, aided by some improvement of mind, scarcely any occupation
can afford him greater scope for philosophic reflection.
While, therefore, the reader contemplates the celebrated Rittenhouse,
such as he was in his maturer years; and then takes a retrospective
view of the embryo-philosopher in the period of his youth, directing
the plough on his father’s freehold; let it be recollected, that the
sovereigns of a mighty empire, in the Eastern world, occasionally
guide this truly important machine with their own hands, in honour of
agriculture: let him recal to his mind, that, in the proudest days of
the Roman republic, consuls, dictators, senators, and generals, were
not unfrequently called forth from the actual occupancy of this
implement of husbandry, by the voice of their country; and, seizing
either the civil or the military helm of its government, with hands
indurated by the toils of the peaceful field, have by the wisdom of
their counsel, or by their valour, supported the tottering fabric of
the state and saved the commonwealth: let them remember, in fine,
that—
“In ancient times, the sacred plough employ’d
The kings and awful fathers of mankind;”[71a]
and that WASHINGTON, himself, the pride and boast of his age as well
as country, disdained not to engage himself, personally, in
agricultural pursuits.
Footnote 71a:
Thomson’s Spring.
-----
At that period of our future Philosopher’s life, early as it was, his
uncultivated mind, naturally teeming with the most prolific germs of yet
unexpanded science, began to unfold those buds of genius, which soon
after attained that wonderful luxuriance of growth by which the
usefulness and splendour of his talents became eminently conspicuous.
His brother Benjamin relates,[72] that, while David was thus employed at
the plough, from the age of fourteen years and for some time after, he
(this informant,) then a young boy, was frequently sent to call him to
his meals; at which times he repeatedly observed, that not only the
fences at the head of many of the furrows, but even his plough and its
handles, were covered over with chalked numerical figures, &c.[73]—Hence
it is evident, that the exuberance of a sublime native genius and of
almost unbounded intellectual powers, unaided by any artificial means of
excitement, were enabled, by dint of their own energy, to burst through
those restraints which the corporeal employments of his youth
necessarily imposed upon them.
-----
Footnote 72:
This gentleman was commissioned by Governor Mifflin, in the year 1791,
to be one of the associate judges of the court of common pleas, in and
for the county of Montgomery: but his tenure of this office was
afterwards vacated, by his removal to Philadelphia.
Footnote 73:
“Astronomy,” says Mr. B. Rittenhouse, in the letter before referred
to, “appeared at a very early day to be his favourite study; but he
also applied himself industriously to the study of opticks, the
mechanical powers,” &c.
-----
During that portion of his life in which this youthful philosopher
pursued the ordinary occupations of a husbandman, which continued until
about the eighteenth year of his age, as well as in his earlier youth,
he appeared to have inherited from healthful parents a sound
constitution, and to have enjoyed good health.
It was at this period, or rather about the seventeenth year of his age,
that he made a wooden clock, of very ingenious workmanship: and soon
after, he constructed one of the same materials that compose the common
four-and-twenty hour clock, and upon the same principles. But he had
exhibited much earlier proofs of his mechanical genius, by making, when
only seven or eight years old, a complete water-mill in miniature.
Mr. Rittenhouse’s father was a very respectable man: he possessed a good
understanding, united to a most benevolent heart and great simplicity of
manners. The writer long knew him; and, from his early acquaintance with
the character, the appearance, and the habits of this worthy sire of an
illustrious son, he had long supposed him to have been inclined to the
religious principles of the society called Friends, although he had been
bred a Baptist:—but a circumstance which shall be noticed hereafter,
will evince the liberality of this good man’s opinions, in the
all-important concern of religion. Yet, with truly estimable qualities,
both of the head and heart, old Mr. Rittenhouse had no claims to what is
termed genius; and therefore did not, probably, duly appreciate the
early specimens of that talent, which appeared so conspicuous in his son
David. Hence, he was for some time opposed to the young man’s earnest
desire to renounce agricultural employments; for the purpose of devoting
himself, altogether, to philosophical pursuits, in connexion with some
such mechanical profession as might best comport with useful objects of
natural philosophy, and be most likely, at the same time, to afford him
the means of a comfortable subsistence. At length, however, the father
yielded his own inclinations, in order to gratify what was manifestly
the irresistible impulse of his son’s genius: he supplied him with money
to purchase, in Philadelphia, such tools as were more immediately
necessary for commencing the clock-making business, which the son then
adopted as his profession.
About the same time, young Mr. Rittenhouse erected on the side of a
public road, and on his father’s land in the township of Norriton, a
small but commodious work-shop; and, after having made many implements
of the trade with his own hands, to supply the deficiency of many such
as were wanting in his purchased stock, he set out in good earnest as a
clock and mathematical instrument maker.
From the age of eighteen or nineteen to twenty-five, Mr. Rittenhouse
applied himself unremittingly, both to his trade and his studies.
Employed throughout the day in his attention to the former, he devoted
much of his nights to the latter. Indeed he deprived himself of the
necessary hours of rest; for it was his almost invariable practice to
sit up, at his books, until midnight, sometimes much later.
It was in this interval and by these means, that our young philosopher
impaired his constitution, and contracted a pain in his breast; or
rather, as he himself described that malady to the writer, “a constant
heat in the pit of the stomach, affecting a space not exceeding the size
of half a guinea, attended at times with much pain;” a sensation from
which he was never exempt, during the remainder of his life. About this
time, he retired from all business, and passed several weeks at the
Yellow Springs, distant but a few miles from his place of residence. He
there bathed and drank the waters; and from the use of this chalybeate,
he appeared to have derived some benefit to his general health, though
it afforded little alleviation of the pain in his breast.
A due regard to the sacredness of historic truth demands, that some
circumstances which occurred while Mr. Rittenhouse was yet a youth, and
_one_ which it is believed had a very considerable influence on his
subsequent pursuits and reputation, should now be made known. Because
the writer of these memoirs conceives he ought not to be restrained, by
motives which would appear to him to arise from a mistaken delicacy,
from introducing into his work such notices of his own father, long
since deceased, as do justice to his memory; while they also serve to
elucidate the biographical history of Mr. Rittenhouse.
In the year 1751, when David Rittenhouse was about nineteen years of
age, THOMAS BARTON, who was two years elder than David, opened a school
in the neighbourhood of Mr. Matthias Rittenhouse. It was while Mr.
Barton continued in that place, supposed to have been about a year and a
half, that he became acquainted with the Rittenhouse Family; an
acquaintance which soon ripened into a warm friendship for young Mr.
Rittenhouse, and a more tender attachment to his sister, Esther.
Two years afterwards (in 1753), the personal attractions and fine
understanding of the sister rendered her the wife of Mr. Barton; who,
for some time before, had officiated as one of the tutors in the then
recently-established Academy, afterwards College, of Philadelphia; now
the University of Pennsylvania. In this station, he continued until the
autumn of 1754; when he embarked for England, for the purpose of
receiving episcopal ordination in the church, and returned to
Pennsylvania in the early part of the following year.
The very intimate connexion thus formed between Mr. Barton and a sister
of Mr. Rittenhouse (who was two years elder than this brother),
strengthened the bands of friendship which had so early united these
young men: a friendship affectionate and sincere, and one which never
ceased until Mr. Barton’s death, nearly thirty years afterwards;
notwithstanding some difference of political opinions had arisen between
these brothers-in-law, in the latter part of that period, in consequence
of the declaration of the American independence.
Mr. Barton was a native of Ireland, descended from an English family; of
which, either two or three brothers settled in that kingdom, during the
disastrous times in the interregnum of Charles I. Having obtained very
considerable grants of land in Ireland, this family possessed ample
estates in their then adopted country. Hence, flattering prospects of an
establishment there, in respect to fortune, were held out to their
descendants. Through one of those untoward circumstances, however, by
means of which the most unexpected revolutions in the affairs of
families and individuals have been sometimes produced, the expectations
of an independent patrimony which our Mr. Barton’s father had
entertained, were speedily dissipated. Nevertheless, this gentleman, who
was the eldest son of his family, was instructed in the rudiments of a
classical education in the vicinity of his family residence in the
county of Monaghan, under the direction of the Rev. Mr. Folds, a
respectable English clergyman; and at a suitable age, he was sent to the
university of Dublin, where he finished his academical education.
Entirely destitute of fortune, but possessing a strong intellect, stored
with useful and ornamental learning as well as an ardent and
enterprizing spirit, this young adventurer arrived in Philadelphia soon
after he had completed his scholastic studies.
The writer’s principal design, in presenting to the public view these
slight sketches of the early history of the late Rev. Mr. Barton, shall
be now explained.
When Mr. Rittenhouse’s father established his residence at Norriton, and
during the minority of the son, there were no schools in the vicinity at
which any thing more was taught, than reading and writing in the English
language and the simplest rules of arithmetic. Young Mr. Rittenhouse’s
school-education, in his early youth, was therefore necessarily bounded
by these scanty limits of accessible instruction: He was, in truth,
_taught_ nothing beyond these very circumscribed bounds of literary
knowledge, prior to the nineteenth year of his age; though it is
certain, that some years before that period of his life, he began to be
known—at least in his own neighbourhood—as a mathematician and
astronomer, in consequence of his cultivation of the transcendent genius
with which heaven had endued him.
Under such circumstances as these, the familiar intercourse between
David Rittenhouse and his young friend Barton, which commenced when the
age of the former did not exceed nineteen years, could not fail to prove
highly advantageous to the mental improvement of both. The one possessed
a sublime native genius; which, however, was yet but very imperfectly
cultivated, for want of the indispensable means of extending the bounds
of natural knowledge: the other had enjoyed the use of those means, in
an eminent degree, and thus justly acquired the reputation of a man of
learning. A reciprocation of these different advantages, as may be well
supposed, greatly promoted the intellectual improvement of both.
It will be readily conceived, that Mr. Barton’s knowledge of books must
have rendered even his conversation instructive to Mr. Rittenhouse, at
so early a period of his life. But the former so greatly admired the
natural powers of his young friend’s mind, that he took a delight in
obtaining for him access to such philosophical works, and other useful
books, as he was then enabled to procure for his use; besides directing,
as far as he was capable, the course of his studies.
After Mr. Barton’s removal to Philadelphia and while he resided in that
city, his means of furnishing his friend with books, suitable for his
instruction, were greatly enlarged; an advantage of which he most
assiduously availed himself: and it is supposed to have been about this
time, that a small circulating library was established in Norriton, at
the instance of Mr. Barton, zealously seconded by the co-operation and
influence of Mr. Rittenhouse.
Finally, when Mr. Barton returned from England, in the year 1755—at
which time Mr. Rittenhouse was yet but twenty-three years of age, he
brought with him a valuable addition to his friend’s little library;
consisting, in part, of books which he himself had commissioned Mr.
Barton to purchase for him.[74]
-----
Footnote 74:
The zeal and attention with which our young philosopher pursued his
early studies, and such mechanical objects as are more intimately
connected with those branches of natural philosophy to which he was
most devoted, will appear from the following extract of a letter,
addressed by him to Mr. Barton, on the 20th of September, 1756, being
then little more than twenty-four years of age; viz. “I have not
health for a soldier,” (the country was then engaged in war,) “and as
I have no expectation of serving my country in that way, I am spending
my time in the old trifling manner, and am so taken with optics, that
I do not know whether, if the enemy should invade this part of the
country, as Archimedes was slain while making geometrical figures on
the sand, so I should die making a telescope.”
-----
No doubt can be entertained, that Mr. Rittenhouse derived the great and
extraordinary faculties of his mind from nature; and it is equally
evident, that for some years after he arrived to manhood, he possessed
very slender means of improving his natural talents: Nay further, it is
well known to those who were long personally acquainted with him, that
after his removal to Philadelphia, when he was eight-and-thirty years of
age, a period of life at which the place of his residence, and the
condition of his pecuniary affairs, united in placing within his reach
much that is dear to science,—even then, his long continued professional
employment and the various public stations he filled, in addition to
frequent ill health, deprived him of a large share of those advantages.
The vast stock of knowledge which, under such untoward circumstances, he
actually acquired, is therefore an additional proof of his native
strength of intellect.
But, wonderful as a kind of intuitive knowledge he possessed really was,
his mental powers would probably have remained hidden from the world,
they would have been very imperfectly cultivated, at best, had not an
incident apparently trivial, and which occurred when our Astronomer was
a young boy, furnished what was, in all probability, the very first
incitement to an active employment of his philosophical as well as
mechanical genius.
Mr. Rittenhouse’s mother having been already noticed somewhat
particularly, the reason for this being done shall be here stated: it is
connected with the incident just now referred to. This valuable woman
had two brothers, David and Lewis Williams (or William), both of whom
died in their minority. David, the elder of these, pursued the trade of
a carpenter, or joiner. Though, like his nephew and namesake, he was
almost wholly an uneducated youth, he also, like him, early discovered
an unusual genius and strength of mind. After the death of this young
man, on opening a chest containing the implements of his trade which was
deposited at Mr. M. Rittenhouse’s, (in whose family it is presumed he
dwelt,) a few elementary books, treating of arithmetic and geometry,
were found in it: With these, there were also various calculations and
other papers, in manuscript; all, the productions of David Williams
himself, and such as indicated not only an uncommon genius, but an
active spirit of philosophical research. To this humble yet valuable
coffer of his deceased uncle, Mr. Rittenhouse had free access, while yet
a very young boy. He often spoke of this acquisition as a treasure;
inasmuch as the instruments of his uncle’s calling afforded him some
means of exercising the bent of his genius towards mechanism, while the
books and manuscripts early led his mind to those congenial pursuits in
mathematical and astronomical science, which Were ever after the
favourite objects of his studies.[75]
-----
Footnote 75:
It is observable, that, in like manner, an accidental circumstance
seems to have given the first impulse to the philosophical researches
of that eminent mathematician, Colin Maclaurin, the friend and
disciple of Newton. His biographer, Mr. Murdoch, relates, that “his
genius for mathematical learning discovered itself so early as at
twelve years of age; when, having accidentally met with a copy of
Euclid in a friend’s chamber, in a few days he became master of the
first six books, without any assistance: and thence, following his
natural bent, made such a surprising progress, that very soon after we
find him engaged in the most curious and difficult problems.”
It is not ascertained at what age Rittenhouse obtained access to his
uncle Williams’s little collection of books and papers; though it was,
probably, before his twelfth year. But it is to be observed, that at
the early age of twelve, Maclaurin had been a year at the University
of Glasgow, where he was placed under the care of one of the most
eminent and learned professors of the age; while Rittenhouse, for some
years after that period of life, had his time occupied in agricultural
pursuits, and was almost entirely uneducated.
One particular in which similar merit attaches itself to these two
distinguished philosophers, is, that all their more serious studies
were directed towards objects of general utility.
Having introduced the name of Maclaurin more than once into these
Memoirs, the author of them cannot refrain from presenting to his
readers the following epitaph upon that great mathematician. It is
attributed to the late Dr. Johnson: the delicacy and chasteness of the
sentiment, as well as the classical purity of the language, certainly
render it a specimen of this species of composition worthy of the pen
of that justly-admired writer.—
H. L. P. E.
Non ut nomine paterno consulat;
Nam tali auxilio nil eget;
Sed, ut in hoc infelici campo,
Ubi luctus regnant et pavor,
Mortalibus prorsus non absit solatium:
Hujus enim scripta evolve,
Mentemque tantarum rerum capacem,
Corpori caduco superstitem crede.
---
The writer of the _Adversaria_, in a respectable periodical
publication,[75a] observes, that “it would not be easy to do justice
to this elegant and nervous sentence, in English.” But, as he has
given a very good prose translation of it into our language, the
subjoined versification of this was attempted by a young lady, at the
request of the writer of these memoirs:—
Not to perpetuate his father’s praise,
For no such aid his lofty fame requir’d,
Did filial piety the marble raise;
But other thoughts the friendly deed inspir’d.
Here, in this tearful vale, where sorrow dwells
And trembling mortals own the reign of fear,
At his command, the sculptur’d tablet tells,
Where hope exists, to dry the wand’rer’s tear.
For, read his works, O man! and then believe,
The mind that grasp’d at systems so sublime,
Beyond the mortal part must ever live,
And bloom, in sacred heav’n’s ethereal clime.
Footnote 75a:
The Port-Folio.
-----
It being thus apparent, that not only Mr. Rittenhouse’s mother but her
brother David Williams were persons of uncommon intellectual powers, the
writer thinks it fairly presumable, that our Astronomer inherited his
genius from his mother’s family.[76] His surviving brother has decidedly
expressed this opinion: in a letter on the subject of the deceased,
addressed to the writer of these memoirs soon after Dr. Rittenhouse’s
death, he says—“I am convinced his genius was more derived from his
mother, than from his father.”
-----
Footnote 76:
In order to gratify the curiosity, if not to remove the doubts, of
such persons as are not disposed to believe in the reality of any
thing like an hereditary power, bias, or propensity of the mind, the
following memorable instances are selected from many others which
might be adduced; to shew that mental faculties, as well as corporeal
qualities and even mental and bodily diseases, are sometimes inherited
by children from their parents: perhaps cases of this kind exist more
frequently than is either observed or imagined.
Mr. James Gregory, the inventor of the reflecting telescope in common
use, called the Gregorian, was one of the most distinguished
mathematicians of the seventeenth century. This eminent man, who was
born at Aberdeen in Scotland in the year 1638, was a son of the Rev.
Mr. John Gregory, minister of Drumoak in the same county: his mother
was, moreover, a daughter of Mr. David Anderson, of Finzaugh, a
gentleman who possessed a singular turn for mathematical pursuits.
Mr. David Gregory, a nephew of the foregoing, was some time Savilian
professor of astronomy at Oxford. This _Subtilissimi Ingenii
Mathematicus_, as he is styled by his successor Dr. Smith, was born at
Aberdeen, in the year 1661. Of the four sons of this celebrated
mathematician,—
David, a mathematician, was regius professor of modern history, at
Oxford;