WILLIAM BARTON, Esq.
I became acquainted with the late Dr. Rittenhouse, in the sixteenth year
of my age, being first introduced to him, after he removed to the city
of Philadelphia, by the late Joseph Galloway, Esq. and my Father; both
of whom were sincerely attached to him, not only on account of his
scientific talents and acquirements, but for his public and private
virtues. From that period, to the end of his life, we enjoyed an
uninterrupted friendship.
In my scientific pursuits, I was frequently aided by him; particularly,
in that part which relates to Astronomy, with which he was better
acquainted, both in theory and practice, than any other person in this
country; and when he ceased to calculate the Almanacks for the middle
states, at his request I continued them several years.
In the years 1784 and 1785, Dr. Rittenhouse and myself were engaged in
determining the boundaries between this commonwealth and the state of
Virginia; and in the year 1786, in determining the boundary between this
commonwealth and the state of New-York. In those arduous employments, I
had many opportunities of witnessing his address in overcoming the
numerous difficulties we necessarily had to encounter, in the then
wilderness, in which our operations were performed.
As a gentleman of general science, Dr. Rittenhouse would have held a
respectable rank in any country; but as a Mechanist and Astronomer, he
has had but few equals. It has been frequently asked,—why he has not
left more evidences of his talents, for the use of posterity? In answer
to this question, it is to be observed, that almost from his childhood,
he had a complaint in his breast; which increased so much with his age,
that for the last fifteen years of his life,—and in which he had the
most leisure for composition,—it was painful for him to support the
position a person must occupy, when writing. This circumstance I have
frequently heard him lament, in a feeling manner; as it prevented him
from answering letters with promptitude, and writing to his friends as
often as he wished.
Though Dr. Rittenhouse had not the advantage of a liberal education, he
wrote not only correctly but with ease: he made himself master of the
German language, to which he was partial: and of the French, so far as
to read the scientific works in that tongue, with facility.
As an Husband, and a Father, he might be taken as an example and a
pattern, in the most virtuous community that ever existed. He was a good
Citizen,—and warm and sincere in his friendships; and though reserved in
large mixed companies, he was cheerful and communicative, when in a
small circle of his friends. His mind appeared formed for contemplation,
and therefore not calculated for the noisy and busy scenes of this
world: from this placid turn of mind, he had a singular antipathy to all
mobs and riots; and I recollect to have heard him speak of the riots of
the Paxton-boys, (as they were called,) with greater acrimony than on
any other occasion,—more than twenty years after they happened. Being a
philanthropist by nature, he wished the happiness and welfare of the
whole human race; and viewed slavery, in all its forms, with feelings of
horrour: from this attachment to the happiness, the rights, and the
liberty of his fellow-creatures, he was led to take an active and useful
part in favour of our revolution, which separated the colonies (now the
United States,) from the mother-country.
His contemplative mind naturally carried him to piety; but his
liberality was so great, that he did not appear to give a very decided
preference to any one of the sects into which Christianity is divided:
he practised the morality of a sincere Christian, without troubling
himself about the dogmas of the different churches.
His manners were plain and unassuming, though not without a sufficient
share of dignity; and, from a consciousness of his own talents, he did
not envy those of others.
It has too frequently happened, for the honour of science and
literature, that men of great and commanding talents, have been
obstinately dogmatical, and impatient of contradiction;—of those
blemishes, Dr. Rittenhouse had not the least tincture.
To conclude,—if Dr. Rittenhouse was not the greatest man, of the age,
his character has fewer blemishes in it; and, if his talents were not of
that kind which are usually considered the most _brilliant_, they
were—like those of WASHINGTON—of the most _solid_ and _useful_ order.
_Some particulars concerning the Residence, the Tomb, &c. of Copernicus:
communicated to the late Dr. Rittenhouse, Pres. A. P. S. by the Earl
of Buchan._
“In the year 1777,” says his Lordship, “my learned friend John
Bernouilli, of Berlin, on one of his tours having happened to meet with
the Bishop of Warmia,[A53] in the Abbey of Oliva, near Dantzic, was
informed by that prelate, that he had the pleasure to discover, in the
Cathedral of Frauenburg, the Tomb of Copernicus, so long fruitlessly
sought for.
-----
Footnote A53:
An uncle of Copernicus was Bishop of _Warmia_, (in Ermeland, a little
province of Poland,) and gave him a canonry in his cathedral of
Frawenberg, a city in ducal Prussia, situated on the Frische Haff, at
the mouth of the Vistula: it was there he began to devote himself to
astronomy, at the age of twenty-eight years. His great work, _De
Revolutionibus Orbium Cœlestium_, was completed about the year 1530:
but his apprehensions of meeting with persecution from the bigotted
ignorance of the age, in consequence of the system he therein
promulgated, deterred him from publishing it until thirteen years
after that period; and it is supposed that the agitation of his mind,
occasioned by its appearance in the world, produced the sudden
effusion of blood, which terminated his life on the 24th day of May,
in the year 1543. W. B.
-----
“In the year 1778, Mr. Bernouilli having occasion to pass through
Frauenburg, on his road to St. Petersburg, did not fail to visit the
Cathedral, and explore the Monument of Copernicus. Acquainted with no
one in the place, he was yet lucky enough to meet with a Canon, in the
street, whose countenance invited him to accost him on this subject, and
who proved very attentive to his researches. He informed him, that as
for the Ashes of Copernicus, they were mingled in the charnel-house with
the bones of the fraternity of the Canons; but that, for the Tombstone
of the Philosopher, it was no more than a tablet of marble, simple, as
the mode was of his days, and had no other inscription than these
words—NIC. COPERNICUS, THOR:—-That this tablet had remained hidden for
some time, in rubbish; and when recovered, was placed in the
chapter-house, till a more suitable place should be destined for it. Mr.
Bernouilli expresses his regret to me, that he had not urged the Canon
to indulge him with a sight of this Stone; and to look for a further
inscription, to support the assertion of Gassendi, who mentions (page
325), That the Bishop Martin Cromer, an eminent Polish historian, caused
a mural marble monument to be inscribed and erected to the memory of
Copernicus, with the following inscription:
D. O. M.
R. D. NICOLAO COPERNICO,
Torunensi, Artium et
Medicinæ Doctori,
Canonico Warmiensi,
Præsenti Astrologo, et
Ejus Disciplinæ
Instauratori;
MARTINUS CROMERUS,
Episcopus Warmiensis,
Honoris, et ad Posteritatem
Memoriæ, Causâ, posuit;
M. D. L. X. X. X. I.
“Gassendi adds, that this Monument was not erected until thirty-six
years after the death of Copernicus, which does not agree with this date
of 1581.
“The good Canon informed Bernouilli, that he was lodged in the apartment
of Copernicus, of which he was very proud; and invited the Prussian
Philosopher to visit him in that place, which he accordingly did; and
was shewn by the Canon another place, above the Dormitories, which had
been used by Copernicus as his study and observatory, in which the Canon
had a portrait of that eminent man, concerning the original of which he
would not say. This little Observatory had an extensive view; but when
Copernicus had occasion for one more extensive, he was wont to observe
on the gallery of the steeple, which communicates with this place.
“Charmed with these classic footsteps, Bernouilli forgot to look at the
Monument on the chapter-house, above mentioned. In a repository
adjoining to the Cathedral, the Canon shewed Bernouilli the remains of a
hydraulic machine said to have been invented and used by Copernicus. The
construction seemed interesting, but in great disrepair; and Bernouilli
had not leisure to examine it particularly. The use of the machine was
to force and convey water into the most elevated apartments of the house
of the Canons, who are now under the necessity of having it fetched from
a distance, from the lower Town.”
“I remember to have seen (says Bernouilli), in some old German Journal,
that the Library of the ancient town of Konigsberg contained some books,
chiefly mathematical, which were part of the Library of Copernicus; and
also his Portrait, which had been purchased at Thorn, where the remains
of his family still possessed the house in which he was born, as late as
the year 1720. In P. Freher’s _Theatrum Virorum eruditorum_, there is a
Chronostick on the year of Copernicus’s death, 1543. p. 1447.
eX hoC eXCessIt trIstI CopernICVs eVo,
IngenIo astronVM et CognItIone potens.
“In the above mentioned book, p. 1442, there is a neat little Print of
Copernicus. In Hartknoch’s _Alter und newes Preusen_, here is a print of
Copernicus, from a picture on wood which hangs in what they call his
Cenotaph, at Thorn; and which represents him kneeling, in his
canonicals, before a Crucifix;—and below this portrait are these
_sapphic_ verses:
Non parem Pauli gratiam requiro,
Veniam Petri neque posco; sed quam
In Crucis ligno dederas sationi,
Sedulus oro.
(_a little lower_)
Nicolao Copernico, Thoruniensi, absolutæ subtilitatis mathematico, ne
tanti viri apud exteros celeb. in sua patria periret memoria, hoc
monumentum positum.
Mort. Varmiæ, in suo Canonicatu, Anno 1543—
die 4 + ætatis LXXIII.
(_lastly, lowest._)
Nicolaus Copernicus, Thoruniensis, Mathematicus celeberrimus.
“This Monument of Copernicus was erected by Melchior Pyrnesius, M. D.,
who died in 1589.
“On the same altar-piece, or picture, is represented the portrait of
John D’Albert, with the following inscription.
Illustris Princeps Dn. Joh. Albertus, Polo. Rex, apoplexiâ hic Thoru.
mortuus, Anno 1501, die 17 Maii, ætat. 41; cujus viscera hic sepulta,
Corpore Craco translato; Reg. Ann. VIII.
“Upon the whole,” concludes Lord Buchan, “it appears the likeness I
send, of _Copernicus_, is most to be depended on; and, as such, I
flatter myself it will be an _Heir-loom to infant America_! Concerning
Napier, it is needless for me to enlarge; the learned Dr. Minto having
enabled me to do justice to his memory.”
[Illustration]
Although the following particulars respecting Dr. Rittenhouse were not
communicated by the writer, Professor Barton, until it was too late to
give them a place in the body of the work, the Author nevertheless is
glad to have an opportunity of presenting to the public, even at the
close of his book, the interesting circumstances this communication
contains.
As Optics were one of his favourite studies, so he at one time
contemplated a course of public, and I think popular, lectures on this
beautiful and important branch of physics. On this subject he mentioned
to me his intention in the winter of 1785-1786. The enthusiasm, indeed,
with which he developed his design, and I may add the warmth of zeal
with which his manner at the time inspired me, I can never forget. And,
indeed, I cannot but regret, that our excellent friend never made his
appearance in publick, as a LECTURER. As such, he would, unquestionably,
have greatly advanced the love and the knowledge of natural philosophy
in the United-States. He may, perhaps, have wanted some of the
qualifications of a popular teacher. He would not have aspired to
finished eloquence of style: to the eloquence of gesture and of manner,
he was still more a stranger. But there is an eloquence of physiognomy,
which Mr. Rittenhouse most eminently possessed. The modesty and amenity
of his manner would have effected much, whether his audience had been a
class of philosophers, or an assembly of ladies. Of his own discoveries,
and opinions, and theories, he would have always spoken with that sweet
and modest reserve, for which he was ever distinguished. He would have
dwelt with the most generous and ample enthusiasm upon the great
discoveries of Newton; and if, at any time, he could have forgotten that
impartial conduct, which it is the duty of the historian of a science to
observe, it would have been when he might have had occasion to defend
the theories of that great man, against the objections of succeeding and
minor philosophers.
In Physics, Newton was his favourite author. Of HIM he ever spoke with a
species of respect bordering upon veneration. He considered him as one
of those few great leaders in science whose discoveries and services can
never be forgotten: whose fame, instead of diminishing, is destined to
be augmented, with the progress of time. I had many opportunities of
being witness to the exalted opinion which he entertained of the
immortal British philosopher. He read Dr. Bancroft’s objections to some
parts of Sir Isaac’s theory of colours, with a firm conviction, that the
Newtonian principles were still unshaken: and I well remember, that he
once referred me to a paper which he had published, in one of our
magazines, in answer to some objections which the late Dr. Witherspoon
had urged against some of the theories of Newton.
It has been observed by a celebrated writer, that mathematicians in
general read but little of each other’s works. This remark, if I mistake
not, is very strongly illustrated in Mr. Rittenhouse. However it may
have been in his earlier age, I am confident that during the last
thirteen years of his life, when my intercourse with him was great, and
indeed but little interrupted; I am confident, that at this matured and
auspicious era of his life, our friend was not a laborious student. He
looked into many books, and he often passed quickly from one kind of
reading to another: from philosophy to poetry; from poetry perhaps to
philosophy again. His reading may be said to have been desultory. I have
little doubt that this rather irregular manner of reading was, in some
measure, the result of his extreme delicacy of constitution, which
rendered a more unvaried application to any one kind of reading, irksome
and oppressive. Often have I seen him lay down his book or pen, to
recline upon his sopha, the circumscribed flush upon his cheeks plainly
indicating the physical state of his feelings. A short repose would
enable him to return to his studies again.
Mr. Rittenhouse’s application to books, had, no doubt, been more regular
and constant in the earlier part of his life; before I knew him well, or
before I had accustomed myself to watch the progress of his mind. He
was, certainly, profoundly, acquainted with the Principia and other
writings of Newton, which he read partly in the original, and partly
through the medium of translation. And although, within the period of my
better acquaintance with him, his reading I have said, was not intense,
he suffered no important discovery in philosophy to escape his notice.
Although his own library was small, he had ample opportunities, through
the medium of the valuable library belonging to the Philosophical
Society, and other collections in Philadelphia, of observing the
progress of his favourite studies in Europe. He took much interest in
the discoveries of Mr. Herschel, whose papers he eagerly read as they
arrived from Europe: and I well remember the time (in 1785) when he was
engaged in reading Scheel’s work on Fire, which had recently appeared,
in an English dress. He then assured me, that some of this great Swedish
philosopher’s notions concerning the nature and the laws of heat, had
long before suggested themselves to his mind.
The chemical discoveries of Crawford and Priestley solicited some of Mr.
Rittenhouse’s attention, about the year 1785-1786, and for some time
after. The brilliant discoveries of Priestley, in particular, were not
unknown to him. Upon the arrival of this illustrious philosopher in
Philadelphia, in 1794, Mr. Rittenhouse stood foremost among the members
of the Philosophical Society in publicly welcoming the exiled
philosopher to the country which he had chosen as the asylum of his
declining years; and in expressing his high sense of his estimable
character, and of the vast accessions which he had brought to science. I
often met Dr. Priestley at the house of our friend. Their regard for
each other was mutual. It is to be regretted that their immediate
intercourse with each other could not be more frequent. Priestley had
unfortunately chosen the wilderness, instead of the capital or its
vicinity, as his place of residence: and Rittenhouse, alas! did not live
two years after the arrival of Priestley in America.
On the death of Mr. Rittenhouse, Dr. Priestley wrote me a letter of
condolence on the great loss which the publick had sustained; on the
irreparable loss which I, in particular, had suffered. When the Doctor
afterwards returned from Northumberland to Philadelphia, he discovered
much solicitude to know from me Mr. Rittenhouse’s religious sentiments,
and the manner and circumstances of his death; and he evinced no small
satisfaction in receiving from me that relation which I have already
given you, of the last hours, and of the last words, of one of the best
of men.
Mr. Rittenhouse had not studied natural history as a science: but to
some of the branches of this science he had paid particular attention;
and upon some of them he was capable of conversing with the ablest, and
the most experienced. In Botany, he was not acquainted with the
scientific or classical names: but the habits, and in many instances,
the properties of plants were known to him. I well recollect how great
were his pleasure and satisfaction, in contemplating the _Flora_ of the
rich hills of Weeling, and other branches of the Ohio, when I
accompanied him into those parts of our union, in the year 1785. In this
wilderness, he first fostered my love and zeal for natural history. Upon
his return from the woods, in the month of October, he brought with him,
as ornaments to his garden, many of the transmontain plants of the state
of Pennsylvania: and long before I knew that it grew wild in the
vicinity of Philadelphia, upon the banks of his native Schuylkill, he
had naturalized in his garden, the beautiful Silene virginica, which he
designated with the name of “Weeling Star.”
It is a fact, that in the last months of his life he devoted a good deal
of his time to an examination of the structure of the most important
organs of plants. Acquainted with that doctrine which forms the basis of
the sexual system, he was fond of examining plants during the period of
their inflorescence: and I remember, with what apparent pleasure, he
pointed out to me the tube in the styles of some of the plants which
grew in his garden.
He had made many observations upon the buds of trees, some of which I
think were new. I regret that the memorandums which he kept of these
observations have not been found among his papers.
Not fifteen days before his death, he had finished the perusal of a
German translation of Rousseau’s beautiful letters on Botany, which I
had put into his hands.
Mr. Rittenhouse, like Newton and many other men of great talents,
employed much of his time in the perusal of works on the subject of
natural and revealed religion. This was, I think, more especially the
case in the latter part of his life. Among other books which I could
mention, I well recollect that he read the _Thoughts_ of the celebrated
French philosopher Pascall: and he acknowledged, that he read them with
pleasure. But that pleasure, he observed to me, was diminished, when he
learned, what was often the state of Pascall’s mind:—a state of
melancholy and gloom: and sometimes even of mental derangement. At the
time of his death, the American Philosopher was engaged in the perusal
of Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History: and he had just before finished the
perusal of the _Meditations_ of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus; that
excellent work, replete with the sublimest morality, and with much of a
sublime religion.
About three weeks before his death, I had put into his hands the first
volume of Dr. Ferguson’s _Elements of Moral and Political Science_. I
took the liberty of particularly directing his attention to the last
chapter of the volume: the chapter on the future state. He read it with
so much satisfaction, that he afterwards sent it to his elder daughter,
with a request that she would peruse it.
The benevolent dispositions of our friend were well known to you. You
have, doubtless, done justice to this portion of his character; yet
permit me to mention a few detached facts, which have came under my own
immediate notice, and the relation of which may serve to augment even
_your_ respect and veneration for Mr. Rittenhouse.
The year 1793 is memorable in the history of Philadelphia. During the
prevalence of the yellow fever, in the summer of that year, Mr.
Rittenhouse wrote to me a note requesting me to visit a number of poor
people, in his vicinity, labouring under the malignant fever; and making
it a condition of my attendance upon them, that I should charge _him_
for my services.
In the month of March of the same year, I had a good deal of
conversation with Mr. Rittenhouse, on the subject of penal laws. He did
not think that the late judge Bradford, whose essay on this subject he
greatly admired, and recommended to my perusal, was too lenient in his
views of the subject. He observed, that although he had often served on
juries, he thanked God, that he never had in any case where life and
death were immediately involved; observing, that his conscience would
_ever_ reproach him, if he had, in any instance, given his verdict for
death. “Of all murders (he added) _legal_ murders are the most horrid.”
He did not think that death ought to be the punishment for any crime.
The union of sensibility with benevolence is frequently observed. The
sensibility of Rittenhouse was exquisitely nice; perhaps, I might say,
it was somewhat morbid. In a conversation which I had with him on the
subject of the analogies between animals and vegetables, when I had
observed to him, that the further we push our inquiries into this
interesting subject, the more reason we have for supposing, that those
two series of living beings constitute, as many eminent naturalists have
supposed, but one vast family, he said it appeared so to him, but he
hoped it would never be discovered that vegetables are endowed with
sensibility. “There is, he observed, already too much of this in the
world.”
His religion was sublime and pure. It had no tincture of superstition or
credulity. Accustomed, from an early period of his life, to contemplate
the largest and the smallest objects of Creation; and with respect to
the former to view their arrangement and harmony in the construction of
a system of immeasurable extent; in these objects and in these places,
he beheld one of the revelations of our Creator. He could not be
insensible of the ills, infirmities, and miseries of human life, and
even of the life of inferior animals. But still he discovered, as he
often observed to me, the existence and even the dominion of much
benevolence through the world. He was wont to consider our benevolent
dispositions, and our virtuous affections, as among the strongest proofs
of the existence of a Creator. These dispositions, these affections, and
our intellectual powers, are the genuine emanations of a God.