generous, consistent, and heroic of the knights of the old world
to the rescue of the new. She has always dwelt delighted on the
constancy of the nobleman who could renounce titles and wealth for
more historical and philanthropic honors; the commander renouncing
power, who never shed a drop of blood for conquest or vainglory. She
has often trembled, but never blushed, for her oriental champion, when
tried by the alternate caresses and rage of the most terrific mobs,
and imposing monarchs. She knows that his hospitable mansion was the
shrine at which her citizens in France consecrated their faith in
independence. Invited to revisit the scenes of his first eminence,
the very idolatry of welcome abounds with redeeming characteristics
of self-government.... They raise him before the world as its image,
and bear him through illuminated cities and widely-cultivated regions,
all redolent with festivity and every device of hospitality and
entertainment, where, when their independence was declared, there was
little else than wilderness and war.”
Could tongue or pen say more?
An old Philadelphia lady, who, in her youth, had the honor of walking
to church with Lafayette, vividly recalls her keen disappointment when
she first saw him,--short and stout, not by any means the typical hero
of her romantic dreams. His son, George Washington Lafayette, was with
him, and at a dinner given him, when called upon to respond to a toast,
arose, and, struggling with his emotion and his feeble command of
English, placed his hand upon his heart, and said, “I am zo happy to be
ze son of my fadder!”--words which so touched the sympathetic chord in
the hearts of all present that they felt that the entire vocabulary of
the language could have furnished him with no more fitting phrase.
Among later members of the society have been such men as Noah Webster,
Josiah Quincy, Washington Irving, Elisha Kent Kane, the Arctic
explorer, the Count de Lesseps, Mr. Gladstone, Dr. Oliver Wendell
Holmes, George Bancroft, the historian, James Russell Lowell, and the
two great naturalists, Louis Agassiz, and Joseph Leidy, both of whom,
with their vast learning, retained through life a childlike frankness
and simplicity that endeared them to all who approached them. Those
who met Professor Agassiz by the sea, during his vacation seasons, and
heard from his own lips of the wonders of the shore, and those who
listened to a popular lecture of Dr. Leidy, in which he described the
life and customs of the minute creatures to be found in a drop of pond
water, will always rejoice that it was their privilege to journey even
a little way into the fairy-land of science with such masters for their
guides. Of the pleasure and profit of a more thorough penetration into
its mysteries and enchantments under such preceptors, those who were
fortunate enough to be numbered among the students of Agassiz and Leidy
speak with enthusiasm.
The Philosophical Society, grown gray and venerable, now celebrates,
May, 1893, its one hundred and fiftieth birthday. Although numbering
a large corps of native and foreign members, working in various
branches of knowledge, and contributing to its regularly issued
publications valuable papers, the present fraternity feel that the
society’s proudest claim to distinction lies in the fact that it
fostered literature, science, and invention in the young nation, and
thus became the _alma mater_ of many institutions that have gone forth
from its protecting arms to become, in their turn, centres of light and
usefulness.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[19] Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters, by John Bach McMaster, p.
137.
[20] Life of Benjamin Franklin, by James Parton, vol. i. p. 263.
[21] Works of Franklin, by Jared Sparks, vol. ii. p. 9.
[22] Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, pp. 1, 2.
[23] Charles Willson Peale’s copy of Martin’s Franklin, the original of
which is owned by Mr. Henry Pratt McKean.
[24] Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters, by John Bach McMaster, p.
277.
[Illustration: THE WISTAR PARTIES]
If the impulse towards learning early given by the American
Philosophical Society has found expression in Philadelphia, and other
cities, in historical societies, scientific schools, academies of
natural science, and kindred institutions, its more genial and social
side has long been represented in the city of its birth by the Wistar
Parties.
As this old club has, within a few years, been reorganized, it may
be interesting to turn back to the period of its inception, and even
further back into the past century, when Dr. Caspar Wistar held, at
his own house, those informal gatherings to which the Wistar Parties
of to-day owe their name. How large a place this club filled in the
social life of the period may be gathered from the fact that most
Philadelphians of distinction, if not actual members, were its frequent
guests, while all strangers of note were introduced into the circle
of choice spirits,--choice in the full sense of the word, because
chosen for particular gifts or attainments, the original Wistar Club
being composed of members of the American Philosophical Society, a
close organization that has ever striven to keep its eye single to the
interests of science, literature, art, history, and the promotion of
all useful knowledge. Although Silas Deane, the Marquis de Chastellux,
and John Adams grow quite enthusiastic when describing the luxurious
living prevalent among “the nobles of Pennsylvania,” the latter admits,
with what in a New-Englander may be considered rare generosity, that
there was something to be found here better than our high living, as he
speaks of the “high thinking” of some of those old Philadelphians, in
one of his charming letters to his wife which are only less charming
than her own.
That John Adams does not mention Dr. Wistar’s hospitable house, and
the company met there, is attributable to the fact that the seat
of government, and with it John Adams as its head, removed from
Philadelphia to Washington about the time that these receptions began.
The Wistar Parties have frequently been spoken of as first held on
Sunday, which erroneous impression was probably due to the fact that
Dr. Wistar’s family and friends were in the habit of dropping in upon
him on Sunday evenings, knowing him to be more at leisure then than
through the week. The following account, from the pen of Dr. Hugh L.
Hodge, entirely disproves the Sunday origin of these parties, which
were begun before Dr. Wistar’s second marriage:[25]
“His [Dr. Wistar’s] house had become the centre of the literary and
scientific society of Philadelphia. He was in the habit of receiving
his friends to a frugal entertainment every Saturday evening. To these
reunions the most distinguished foreign visitors in the city brought
introductions, and the most intellectual of the professional residents
gathered.
“Mrs. Bache, a very superior and high-toned woman, had, previous to
her marriage [in 1797], kept house for her brother for several years,
during which time she, with her friend Miss Eddy, afterwards Mrs. Dr.
Hosack, of New York, had the great pleasure and advantage of attending
these remarkable Saturday evening meetings.”
These early reunions were informal, but as years rolled on a pleasant
custom crystallized into an established usage, the same friends
meeting, week after week, in Dr. Wistar’s house, at the southwest
corner of Fourth and Prune Streets, whose beautiful garden extended
to St. Mary’s church-yard. The entertainment was simple, as the
host’s idea was an intellectual rather than a convivial gathering.
Tea, coffee, and other light refreshments were offered to the guests;
ice-creams, raisins, and almonds were later added to the regale.
Even then the name of Sybarite could not be applied to those early
convives: the terrapin and oyster decadence was of much later date.
A table was seldom spread. The number of guests varied from ten to
fifty, but usually included between fifteen and twenty-five persons.
The invitations were commenced in October or November, and continued
to March or April. During this period Dr. Wistar welcomed to his home,
each week, his old friends and colleagues, and any strangers whom they
chose to bring with them.
In 1804 Dr. Wistar issued an invitation to his friends to meet Baron
von Humboldt, the great naturalist, and his young friend the botanist
Bonpland, who stopped in Philadelphia on their return from a scientific
expedition through Mexico and the West Indies. Here also was introduced
the latest sensation, in the form of Captain Riley, long a prisoner
among the Arabs; also the learned and eccentric Dr. Mitchill, first
Surgeon-General of New York, later satirized by Halleck and Drake in
“The Croakers:”
“We hail thee!--mammoth of the State,
Steam frigate on the waves of physic,
Equal in practice or debate
To cure the nation or the phthisic!”
Dr. Hosack, of the same city, who was present at the fatal duel between
Hamilton and Burr, was another early guest; while under the formal
organization of 1818, and in a time nearer our own, England’s most
brilliant novelist recalls an evening spent at what he is pleased to
call a “Whister party.”
It is not strange that Philadelphians were glad to take the guests of
the city to these parties, where was gathered together, both in the
last century and in this, the best that our New World civilization
could produce, whether of talent and learning or of courtly grace and
good breeding, and here down all the varied years has flashed that
genial flow of wit without which no social gathering is complete.
Here, in early days, came the learned and witty Abbé Correa de Serra,
Mr. Samuel Breck, of Boston, and Dr. John W. Francis, of New York,
whose wit and social qualities were said to resemble those of the
much-loved Lamb; and later came Robert Walsh and Joseph Hopkinson, both
distinguished for their brilliant colloquial abilities, while Nicholas
Biddle would save for the learned brotherhood his freshest _bon mot_,
and Dr. Nathaniel Chapman would bring hither his most irresistible
witticism.
If the older physicians, whose portraits were recently collected at
the centenary of the College of Physicians, could step down from their
frames, after the fashion of a scene in a well-known drama, we should
have before us, _in propria persona_, a number of Dr. Wistar’s guests
of the medical fraternity. Presumably among these was Dr. Benjamin
Rush, who has been called the American Sydenham, but who combined so
many gifts that, like certain plants of various characteristics, it is
almost impossible to classify him. Perhaps in a larger sense than it
can be said of most men, even of the good physician, he belonged to
humanity.[26]
A frequent guest was Dr. Adam Kuhn, who studied in Edinburgh, and
brought home treasures of learning as his contribution to this
“feast of reason.” Here were also the Shippens, father and son,--both
Williams, both practising at the same time, and both so eminent that
they have frequently been confused by the historian. An honorable line
of Shippens, in different callings, but notably in law and medicine,
has come from that Edward Shippen of whom Boston was not worthy, and
who, after being lashed and driven through the town at the cart’s
tail, because, forsooth, good Puritans couldn’t abide good Quakers,
came to Philadelphia in 1693, to be its first mayor and the founder
of a distinguished family.[27] Here also shone the kindly face of Dr.
Samuel Powel Griffitts, who seems to have brought with him, wherever he
went, an atmosphere of “peace and good will to men.” And here, these
gatherings being formed of men of various callings and professions,
came such lawyers as William Rawle, who was ready to discuss theology
as well as law,--perhaps a little readier to talk of the one than of
the other. One day he is writing his notes on the Constitution of the
United States, while upon another such subjects as Original Sin and the
Evidences of Christianity engage his versatile pen.
Among legal gentlemen who were frequent guests of Dr. Wistar were
William Tilghman, of Maryland, later Chief Justice of Pennsylvania,
who in an interesting biographical sketch has embalmed the memory of
his host; George Clymer, statesman and patriot, whose name is appended
to the Declaration; and Peter Du Ponceau, who, although a Frenchman,
had an ardent admiration for American institutions and the primitive
simplicity that characterized the old Quaker _régime_ in Philadelphia.
And that the cure of souls might not be neglected, we find here John
Heckewelder, the Moravian missionary, an intimate of Wistar, and
a correspondent of Du Ponceau, who later translated Heckewelder’s
interesting work on Indian manners and customs into the French. Here
also was John Vaughan, the Unitarian philanthropist, of whom it has
been said that “he represented this city as faithfully as its own name
‘Brotherly Love.’” Did they meet and talk together, these two at the
extreme poles of doctrine, the devout Moravian and the Arian whose life
was consecrated to the service of his brother man? If they met, and in
their discourse fell upon such subjects as engage the characters in
“Paradise Lost” and the “Divina Commedia,” we may be sure that in their
large mutual love for mankind they found abundant sympathy,
“Nor melted in the acid waters of a creed
The Christian pearl of charity.”
A goodly company, among whose members there is no one more worthy to be
remembered than the host, generally known as Dr. Caspar Wistar, Jr.,
being descended from another Caspar Wistar, who came to this country
in 1717. We are informed by a German scholar and a genealogist that
all the Wisters, whether _ter_ or _tar_, come from one common stock
in Germany, where the name is written Wüster, and that Caspar, who
came to Philadelphia in 1717, son of Hans Caspar and Anna Katerina
Wüster or Wister, in having a deed of conveyance prepared was put
down Wistar by the clerk. This mistake he did not take the trouble
to correct, and from this first Caspar has come a line of _tars_, of
which Dr. Caspar Wistar, Jr., was the most distinguished. A second son
of old Hans Caspar Wister, of Hilsbach, Germany, coming over later,
had his papers made out properly, according to the German orthography
of the name, and thus established the Philadelphia line of _ters_. We
venture to give this rather lengthy explanation in view of the fact
that the spelling of Wister has been a fertile subject for discussion
in the Quaker City for some years, and because it is a most reasonable
one, as will be admitted by all who have studied the records of past
generations. In old letters and papers of the last century it is not
unusual to find a surname variously spelled in the same letter, or even
on the same page. This is notably the case in the voluminous “Penn and
Logan Correspondence,” where Jenings and Jennings, Ashton and Assheton,
Blaithwaite and Blathwayt, used interchangeably, hopelessly confuse the
reader.
A student of the schools of Edinburgh, Professor in the College of
Philadelphia, and later in the University, Dr. Wistar has the honor of
being the author of the first American treatise on anatomy. Eminent as
a physician, teacher, and man of science, this large-brained and busy
man found life incomplete without the cultivation of its social side.
It is to be regretted that Mr. Vaughan, Mr. Du Ponceau, or the learned
Dr. Benjamin Rush, who at times used a pen with a humorous nib, or
some of the other _habitués_ of these unique gatherings, have not
left us pleasant and gossiping reminiscences of the Wistar Club,
which would serve to render us as familiar with these old figures
as contemporaneous writers have made us with the frequenters of the
Kit-Cat Club, where the wits of Queen Anne’s time gathered, or that
later circle at the Turk’s Head, dominated by the great burly figure
of the dictionary-maker. Garrick, Reynolds, and all the rest are
grouped about him; and Boswell is ever at hand, taking notes. Did
humble Boswell realize that he was painting pictures for the future, as
well as, even better than, the elegant Sir Joshua, who sat near him?
Goldsmith was at it too, giving us life as it was, not some fanciful
picture of it; and to them we owe it that these men live before us
now. The following is the nearest approach that we can find to such a
picture, and this, from the pen of the late Chief Justice Tilghman,
gives us only one figure, when we would like to be presented to the
whole company.
After dwelling upon the modest dignity and bland courtesy of Dr.
Wistar’s bearing as President of the Philosophical Society, and the
ardor with which he incited its members to diligence in collecting,
before it should be too late, the perishing materials of American
history, Mr. Tilghman says,--
“The meetings of this committee he [Dr. Wistar] regularly attended. It
was their custom, after the business of the evening was concluded, to
enter upon an unconstrained conversation on literary subjects. Then,
without intending it, our lamented friend would insensibly take the
lead; and so interesting were his anecdotes, and so just his remarks,
that, drawing close to the dying embers, we often forgot the lapse
of time, until warned by the unwelcome clock that we had entered on
another day.”
Here is another pen-sketch from a writer signing himself “Antiquary,”
which has a touch of life in it, and shows the good doctor’s ready tact
in setting a _gauche_ stranger at his ease. Mr. John Vaughan introduced
into the learned circle what the narrator is pleased to call “a living,
live Yankee, a specimen of humanity more rare,” he says, “forty or
fifty years ago than now.” It would appear that this compatriot was
received into the company with emotions similar to those awakened,
later, by the advent of the “American Cousin” in England.
“He was,” says the writer, “a man remarkable for his mechanical turn
of mind, but entirely unused to society. No workshop could turn
out a more uncouth individual. I was standing near the door when
John Vaughan brought him in. Between the blaze of light, the hum of
conversation, and the number of well-dressed men, he was completely
overcome, and sank into the first chair he could reach. Mr. Vaughan
could not coax him out of it, and I expected every minute the door
opened that he would make a bolt for the street. Presently Dr. Wistar,
who had the happy knack of suiting his conversation to all ages and
classes, was introduced to the shy Yankee. Soon the ice was broken,
and I saw the shy mechanic conversing freely with scientific men,
explaining to them his views upon mechanism, etc.”
When, in 1818, the good old doctor went out to join “the innumerable
company,” the little circle here, which he had drawn together, resolved
to commemorate the pleasant meetings at his house, and to keep fresh
his memory, by forming an organization called the Wistar Parties. This
is, in brief, the _raison d’être_ of the association, as given by a
subsequent member, Mr. Job R. Tyson, in his interesting paper entitled
“Sketch of the Wistar Party,” read before that honorable society
September 26, 1845. He says,--
“I have ascertained that the following gentlemen, in the autumn of the
year 1818, formed themselves into an association and agreed to give
three parties every year, during the season: William Tilghman, Robert
M. Patterson, Peter S. Du Ponceau, John Vaughan, Reuben Haines, Robert
Walsh, Jr., Zacheus Collins, and Thomas C. James.”
There were only eight to begin with; in 1821 the number had increased
to sixteen, and in 1828 to twenty-four.
Mr. Tyson tells us that two essential laws of the existence of the
organization were, “_first_, that no one is eligible to membership who
is not a member of the American Philosophical Society; and, _second_,
that unanimity is necessary to a choice.” Numerous regulations were
added, “which,” he says, “with some modifications, have since been
observed.”
The number of Philadelphians who could be invited to one party was
twenty, and these it appears were picked citizens, selected rather for
their attainments and attributes than for their “long descent.” With
regard to the number of strangers invited, no limit was set.
The members were pledged to attend themselves, and procure the
attendance of strangers, punctually at the hour of eight o’clock;
and “the sumptuary code enjoined, as consentaneous with the scheme
and objects in view, that the entertainments should be marked by
unexpensive, if not frugal, simplicity.” No tea, coffee, cakes, or wine
were to be served before supper. It was recommended that the collation
consist of one course, and be so prepared as to dispense with the use
of knives at table. No ice-creams were allowed. This in 1828.
In 1835 Mr. Job R. Tyson bought Dr. Caspar Wistar’s old house, at
Fourth and Prune Streets, when once more it opened its doors to the
learned and jovial brotherhood.
In 1840 the number of citizens who could be invited was raised to
forty, while in the years succeeding the organization of the club many
guests from over the sea, and from the different States of the Union,
had been welcomed to the Wistar Parties. One of the latter writes,--
“During my stay in Philadelphia I was present at several of these
Wistar meetings, and always returned from them with increased
conviction of their beneficial tendency.
“These meetings are held by rotation at the houses of the different
members. The conversation is generally literary or scientific, and,
as the party is usually very large, it can be varied at pleasure.
Philosophers eat like other men, and the precaution of an excellent
supper is by no means found to be superfluous. It acts, too, as a
gentle emollient on the acrimony of debate. No man can say a harsh
thing with his mouth full of turkey, and disputants forget their
differences in unity of enjoyment.”
Better known abroad in the early part of the century than any other
American city, all travellers of consequence came to Philadelphia.
Among these we find such men as General Moreau, counted after Bonaparte
the greatest general in the French Republic; the younger Murat, who
married Miss Fraser, of South Carolina; the Marquis de Grouchy, whose
name will be forever associated with the defeat of Waterloo; the poet
Moore, whose singing drew tears from the beautiful eyes of Mrs. Joseph
Hopkinson; the Prince de Canino, son-in-law of Joseph Bonaparte,
ex-king of Spain, who, himself residing at Bordentown until 1830, was
doubtless a guest of the Wistar Association, although, after the
fashion of princes, it was his pleasure to entertain rather than to
be entertained. These and many more, including President Madison, and
the witty and able Virginia gentleman William Short, who, as secretary
of legation under Thomas Jefferson, chargé-d’affaires to the French
Republic, and minister to Spain and the Netherlands, had seen much
of foreign official and social life. An acquaintance of Talleyrand,
himself a diplomatist, life abroad offered Mr. Short many attractions,
which a friend and contemporary assures us were more than balanced by
the terrors of the sea, which menaced him in the form of sea-sickness.
This gentleman, a surviving member of the Wistar Association of 1837,
recalls no social intercourse in Old-World cities more delightful than
that of this informal club.
While on a visit to Philadelphia in 1825, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar makes
the following entry in his journal:
“At Mr. Walsh’s I found a numerous assembly, mostly of scientific and
literary gentlemen. This assembly is called ‘Wistar Party.’... The
conversation generally relates to literary and scientific topics.
I unexpectedly met Mr. E. Livingston in this assembly. I was also
introduced to the mayor of the city, Mr. [Joseph] Watson, as well
as to most of the gentlemen present, whose interesting conversation
afforded me much entertainment.”
This German nobleman, who was well “wined and dined” in old
Philadelphia, seems to have possessed a happy faculty of replying aptly
to the pretty compliments paid him and his country by Judge Peters, Mr.
Charles J. Ingersoll, and other social magnates of the period. To the
toast “Weimar, the native country of letters,” he replied, with ready
wit, “Pennsylvania, the asylum of unfortunate Germans.” Can we not
hear the laughter and applause that greeted that toast? They were not
allowed to subside, either, as the venerable Judge Peters followed the
toast with a song which he had composed the previous evening, and which
he sang with great vivacity and spirit. Are there any such gatherings
now, and do our octogenarians sing songs of their own composing with
vivacity?
The Duke of Saxe-Weimar describes another Wistar Party, this at the
house of Colonel Clement C. Biddle, at which John Quincy Adams, then
President of the United States, was a guest. Of him he says,--