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MEMOIR 
 
 NATHANIEL BOWDITCH. 
 
 BY HIS SON, 
 
 NATHANIEL INGERSOLL BOWDITCH. 
 
 ORIGINALLY PREFIXED TO THE FOURTH VOLUME OF THE MECANIQUE CELESTE. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 CHARLES C. LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN, PUBLISHERS. 
 
 MDCCCXL. 
 
56 
 
 BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 CHESTNUT HILL, MA 
 
 Entered, according lo Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by 
 N. 1. Bowditch, 
 
 Hi the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 
 
 BOSTON WUJBBElMtt* 
 CH&TWfTHlLMA 
 
 mi 1 \ mi 
 
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 The following Memoir has been printed as part of the Fourth Volume of Dr. 
 Bowditch's Translation of the Mecanique Celeste. A short notice, containing the 
 outline of the present one, with only a few of its details, was written by the author 
 during his father's last illness and upon the day of his death. It was prepared solely 
 for the private perusal of a few friends, without any view to its publication. Six 
 months passed, and the volume which had been left unfinished by the Translator was 
 completed. At this time, it was suggested by the family, that with it should be 
 published the original notice, prepared as above mentioned. This led the author, 
 who was conscious of its defects and omissions, to write it again in the form 
 in which it is now laid before the reader. Several of the notes were added from 
 day to day during the process of stereotyping, which continued from the month of 
 November to the sixteenth of March, being exactly one year after Dr. Bowditch's 
 death. Though the delay has been greater than was wished or expected, it has 
 probably contributed somewhat to the accuracy and completeness of the Memoir. 
 
 Of the Mecanique Celeste only five hundred copies have been printed, the 
 greater part of which will probably remain unsold for several years, as, from the 
 nature of its subject, it must necessarily find but few readers, besides that it is 
 contained in four large and expensive quarto volumes. The author has, therefore, 
 caused to be printed a small extra edition of the Memoir, chiefly with the view 
 of presenting it to such individuals as he believed would feel an interest in the 
 account which he has given of his father's life and character. 
 
 Boston, May, 1839. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The writer offers this Memoir to the public by the advice of several friends, who 
 believe that the example of Dr. Bowditch will be useful wherever it is known, and that 
 it will be especially encouraging to the young. The quarto form of the volume has 
 been retained on account of the engravings, and as being the least expensive, since it 
 permits the use of the existing stereotype plates. 
 
 Boston, May, 1840. 
 
(2 llc\A -q, <JociodW^n 
 
 ■ 
 
[D edication referred to in p. 111.] 
 
 TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY 
 
 ARE DEDICATED, BY THE AUTHOR, 
 
 Ko tfje f&emorg of. fjis QMitz, 
 
 MARY BOWDXTCH; 
 
 WHO DEVOTED HERSELF TO HER DOMESTIC AVOCATIONS WITH GREAT JUDGMENT, UNCEASING 
 KINDNESS, AND A ZEAL WHICH COULD NOT BE SURPASSED ; 
 
 TAKING UPON HERSELF THE WHOLE CARE OF HER FAMILY, 
 
 AND THUS PROCURING FOR HIM THE LEISURE HOURS TO PREPARE THE WORK J 
 
 AND SECURING TO HIM, 
 
 BY HER PRUDENT MANAGEMENT, 
 
 THE MEANS FOR ITS PUBLICATION IN ITS PRESENT FORM, 
 
 WHICH SHE FULLY APPROVED ; 
 
 AND 
 
 WITHOUT HER APPROBATION THE WORK WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN UNDERTAKEN. 
 
MEMOIR. 
 
 The children of the late Dr. Bowditch feel assured that every 
 reader of this Translation and Commentary will be desirous to 
 know something- of the life and character of him who planned 
 and executed so vast a work, and of her to whose memory it is 
 dedicated. We have been blessed in our parents far beyond the 
 lot of others. Such a father and such a mother are but rarely 
 given by Heaven to any one. Both now sleep in the grave ; and 
 our kindred dust will soon be mingled with theirs in that last 
 resting-place. But after the lapse of many years, this work, 
 devoted to the elucidation of one of the most abstruse and profound 
 subjects of human investigation, will still endure, a memorial of 
 the genius of its author. Upon this monument we would inscribe 
 our filial tribute — a record of the parents' virtues, of the children's 
 gratitude and affection. 
 
 Nathaniel Bowditch was born at Salem, in Massachusetts, 
 March 26, 1773, being the fourth of seven children of Habakkuk 
 Bowditch, by his wife Mary, who was the daughter of Nathaniel 
 Ingersoll. His ancestors had always resided in that place from 
 its earliest settlement, having been, for the four last generations, 
 ship-masters. Tradition has handed down the fact, that three 
 
 VOL. IV. c 
 
10 MEMOIR. 
 
 brothers, Jonathan, Joel, and William Bowditch, emigrated to this 
 country from England, and, as is believed, from the city of Exeter, 
 or its immediate vicinity. William became an inhabitant of Salem 
 in 1639. His humble situation in life may be inferred from the 
 title of " Goodman," by which he is mentioned, as distinguished 
 from the more dignified appellation of " Mr." He was living in 
 1649, in which year he had a grant of thirty acres of land from 
 the town. The time of his death is unknown. 
 
 He left an only child, of the same name, who was born in 
 1640, and died in 1681. He was collector of the port of Salem 
 under the Colonial government, and owned a warehouse and 
 other real estate, and several small vessels, but died insolvent. 
 He likewise left an only child, also named William, who was born 
 in September, 1663, and died May 28, 1728, in the sixty-fifth 
 year of his age. He was actively engaged as a ship-master for 
 many years, and was well known as an enterprising merchant. A 
 dangerous rock in the channel of the harbor, of which the original 
 Indian name was " Tenapoo," still bears the name of " Bowditch's 
 Ledge," which was given to it in consequence of a vessel called 
 the " Essex Galley," under his command, having struck upon it 
 about the year 1700. He was for many years one of the selectmen 
 for managing the affairs of his native town, and served also, during 
 several sessions, as a representative in the General Court of the 
 Province. He married, August 30, 1688, Mary, the daughter of 
 Thomas Gardner, Esq., a wealthy merchant. She died in 1724, 
 four years before her husband. He left an estate valued at between 
 four and five thousand pounds. The grave-stones of both husband 
 and wife arc still to be seen in the burial-ground at Salem, 
 
MEMOIR. 11 
 
 though the inscriptions are partially effaced. There were eleven 
 children from this marriage, the seventh of whom was Ebenezer, 
 who was born April 26, 1703, and died February 2, 1768, also 
 in the sixty-fifth year of his age. He was the only son of this 
 numerous household who left male descendants, and thus became 
 the common ancestor of all who now bear the family name in 
 Salem. He married, August 15, 1728, Mary, the daughter of 
 the Hon. Jobn Turner, one of the most distinguished citizens of 
 Salem, long a member of the Provincial Council, and well known 
 in the local history of that time. The annalist of Salem says of 
 him, "His deserts were equal to his honors."* 
 
 Ebenezer Bowditch preserved through life an irreproachable 
 character, and possessed in a high degree the confidence and 
 respect of the community. He pursued his father's occupation, 
 but, as it seems, without much success, since he left but little 
 property at his death. His wife survived him till May 1, 1785, 
 living in reduced circumstances, and being dependent upon her 
 young grandson, the subject of this memoir, for many little 
 attentions, by which her declining years were rendered more 
 comfortable. They had six children, of whom the fifth was 
 Habakkuk, born in 1738. He also was in early life a ship-master, 
 and, as was the custom of that day, learned the trade of a 
 cooper, a practical acquaintance with which was then deemed 
 an important, though subordinate qualification for the discharge 
 of the appropriate duties of his situation. At the commencement 
 of the revolutionary war, he met with misfortunes in business, 
 
 * Annals of Salem, from its first Settlement; by Joseph B. Felt; p. 423. 
 
12 MEMOIR. 
 
 by which his circumstances became very much reduced ; and he 
 was so disheartened, that he had not the energy to attempt to 
 retrieve them. He subsequently worked at the trade of a cooper, 
 which he had originally learned from the motive above stated. 
 But he was able in this manner to earn only a scanty subsistence 
 for his wife and children. Some idea may be formed of his 
 poverty, from the circumstance that, for many successive years, 
 he received fifteen or twenty dollars annually from the charity 
 funds of the Salem Marine Society, of which he was a member, 
 deriving from this sum, .small as it was, quite an essential aid 
 toward the support of his family. He was a man very remarkable 
 for strong natural good sense, but had enjoyed no advantages 
 of education. He was an attentive observer and an intelligent 
 judge of men and events as they passed before him. He was 
 extremely conversant with the Scriptures, and entertained liberal 
 and enlightened views on the subjects of religion and revelation. 
 He possessed a cheerful temper and an amiable disposition. But 
 having yielded to the reverses which he had encountered, and 
 which would but have stimulated others to greater efforts, he 
 outlived those prospects of usefulness and happiness, which, 
 upon his entrance into life, seemed to be within his reach. Upon 
 one occasion, his son, alluding to the latter years of his father's 
 life as having been less happy than his earlier ones, expressed 
 the hope that he might not himself " live too long." Habakkuk 
 Bowditch was married July 23, 1765, and died July 18th, 1798, 
 at the age of sixty years. 
 
 Mary, the wife of Habakkuk Bowditch, had died December 16, 
 1783. She was an excellent woman, discharging all the duties 
 
MEMOIR. 13 
 
 of life with exemplary fidelity. By her death Dr. Bowditch 
 was deprived of his earliest and best friend, at the age of ten 
 years. But there can be no doubt that she had lived long enough 
 to exercise a most salutary influence over her son's mind, and 
 that it is in a great degree to the teachings and example of this 
 pious and affectionate mother, that we may trace the inflexible 
 integrity, the unwavering love of truth, and the high moral 
 principle, for which he was through life distinguished. From her 
 he learned his first lesson as to the value of truth. While a child, 
 playing behind his mother's chair, he had, unobserved by her, 
 unrolled a ball of yarn, from which she was knitting, and involved 
 it in inextricable confusion. When she discovered the mischief, 
 and addressed him with some severity of manner, he denied having 
 done it. She at once entered into a very serious conversation 
 with him, and while she told him that the original matter of 
 offence was but trifling, she explained to him so fully the 
 meanness and criminality of falsehood, and urged him with 
 so much earnestness never again to be guilty of it, that this lesson 
 of his infancy became indelibly impressed upon his heart. He 
 was always a favorite child. She was interested in the early 
 development of his character and talents, and, it is said, was 
 sometimes obliged even to restrain and check his fondness 
 for study, as being excessive. She has been heard to say that he 
 would be " something decided." To use his own expression, " she 
 idolized him ; " and he never spoke of her but in terms of the 
 most respectful and affectionate remembrance. Her excellent 
 influence extended to all her children. They grew up together, 
 as one observed of them, " a loving household," remarkable 
 vol. iv. d 
 
14 MEMOIR. 
 
 as a family for their excellent moral character and their strong 
 mutual attachment. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch survived all his brothers and sisters for nearly 
 thirty years. The eldest, Mary, born March 27, 1766, took upon 
 herself, after her mother's death, the whole charge of the family, 
 and almost supplied, towards the younger children, the place of 
 that excellent parent whom they had lost. She married, April 
 20, 1791, Mr. David Martin, a ship-master, who died a few years 
 afterwards. She herself died December 2, 1808, at the age of 
 forty-two years, leaving to her brother's care an only child, who 
 afterwards always resided in his family, repaying his kindness 
 by the attentions of a daughter, and being to us as an elder 
 sister. As such, she unites with us upon the present occasion. 
 
 The second child, Habakkuk, was born May 2, 1768, and 
 was drowned in Boston about forty years ago. It is not known 
 that he manifested any peculiar taste for the study of mathematics. 
 
 The third child, Elizabeth, was born May 16, 1771, and died 
 December 9, 1791, in consequence of a fall down a flight of 
 steps, having lingered in great agony a short time after the 
 accident. Dr. Bowditch often mentioned, with much emotion, the 
 circumstances of the death of this sister, who, being but two 
 years older than himself, had always been the object of his 
 peculiar regard and affection. In the midst of life and health, 
 and with a countenance radiant with smiles and joy, she was 
 about to leave her friends for a few moments, when a single 
 misstep removed her from them forever. 
 
MEMOIR. 15 
 
 The fifth child, William, was born May 5, 1776. He 
 embraced a sea-faring life, and, while absent upon one of his 
 voyages, died at Trinidad, in the autumn of 1799, at the a^e 
 of twenty-three years. He was quite as remarkable for his 
 mathematical talents as his elder brother, and, had he lived, 
 might perhaps have been equally distinguished for the successful 
 cultivation of this branch of science. In the first edition of the 
 Practical Navigator he is mentioned as the author of one of 
 the notes to Table XIV. Dr. Bowditch delighted to speak 
 of the purity, and almost holiness of character of his brother 
 William ; and another, who knew well his early virtues, has 
 said of him, " He was sanctified from his birth." 
 
 The sixth child, Samuel, was born September 13, 1778, and 
 died April 5, 1794, at the age of sixteen years. He also possessed 
 great quickness at mathematical calculations. But he pursued 
 his studies with a waywardness and eccentricity which would 
 probably have prevented his acquirements from being as great 
 as might have resulted from a more regular and systematic 
 cultivation of his naturally excellent talents. 
 
 The seventh child, Lois, was born March 29, 1781, married 
 her cousin, Mr. Joseph Bowditch, September 28, 1806, and died 
 without children, July 29, 1809, aged twenty-eight years. The 
 eldest and youngest daughters only of this family were married, 
 and they 'were also both on their death-beds at one time and place, 
 prostrated by the same fatal disease, consumption.* Dr. Bowditch, 
 
 * One of them, at this time, presented to the eldest child of Dr. Bowditch a little silver 
 
16 MEMOIR. 
 
 in his last illness, said that it had always been a source of pleasure 
 to him to remember that these sisters, when dying, had each told 
 him that he had been through life a good brother to them ; 
 " but," added he, " it gives me greater pleasure now than ever 
 before." He also said that " they died with the calmness of two 
 Stoics." He once mentioned that, in settling the estate of his 
 deceased sister, the Judge of Probate thought that he had 
 discovered a mistake in the fact that the estate had not been 
 represented insolvent, although more money had been paid away 
 than had been received. The matter was explained, however, 
 by the statement of the administrator, that he should have felt 
 himself disgraced by leaving undischarged the few small debts 
 incurred by his sister, chiefly during her last illness, while he 
 possessed any means of his own with which to pay them. 
 
 Such were the parents and such the brothers and sisters 
 of Dr. Bowditch ; and amid the domestic influences which have 
 been described were the years of his infancy and childhood passed. 
 Many amusing and interesting incidents of this period of his life 
 might be mentioned. It was one to which he himself always 
 recurred with pleasure, as having been very happy, notwithstanding 
 its many privations. If he was obliged, from motives of economy, 
 to wear the thin garments of summer when the near approach of 
 winter made them less comfortable, he would reply to the laugh 
 of his schoolmates or playfellows by charging them with effeminacy 
 for preferring warmer clothing. If, as was often the case, he sat 
 
 medal, bearing upon it their names, and the inscription, " Virtue and Religion lead to 
 Happiness." Such had been the result of her own experience. 
 
MEMOIR. 17 
 
 down to a dinner consisting chiefly of potatoes, he felt that a 
 mealy potato was as good fare as he desired. He humorously 
 described one occasion, upon which, when sent to buy a warm 
 loaf of bread for breakfast, he found himself unable, on his way 
 home, to resist the temptation of gradually eating out the soft part, 
 so that, upon his arrival, the upper and under crusts had come in 
 contact. Possessing health and activity of body, he engaged at 
 one moment with earnestness and ardor in all the amusements 
 of boyhood, and in the next returned with increased pleasure to 
 his studies. Yielding sometimes to the impulse of the moment, 
 as in the instance last cited, he committed trifling indiscretions, 
 but nothing mean or vicious was ever developed in his character. 
 Blessed with a joyous and happy temper, he contentedly 
 accommodated himself to the necessities of his situation. The 
 son of a poor mechanic, with no expectations from family or 
 friends, he had within him an energy of purpose by which he 
 was finally to surmount all obstacles. 
 
 While he was yet in his infancy, his father removed with 
 the family from Salem to the adjoining village of Danvers, and 
 resided there several years. The house which he occupied is still 
 standing. It is a humble cottage. The main building, as seen in 
 front, exhibits but one door and one window. It was here that 
 his mother first showed him the slight crescent of the new moon, 
 and the fuller orb of the harvest moon, and perhaps first awakened 
 in his mind a curiosity to know more of the nature and laws 
 of the planetary system. He here received instruction from a 
 school-mistress, whose aged relatives still live in the immediate 
 vicinity, and by whom it is distinctly remembered that he was 
 vol. iv. e 
 
18 MEMOIR. 
 
 " a likely, clever, thoughtful boy ; " that " his instructress took 
 mightily to him ; " that " he was the best scholar she ever 
 had ; " that " he learnt amazing fast, for his mind was fully given 
 to it ; " and that " he did not seem like other children ; he 
 seemed better." 
 
 Upon the return of the family to Salem, he was sent, at the 
 age of seven years and three months, to the best school in the 
 town, kept by a Mr. Watson. The character of this " seminary 
 of learning " may perhaps be better realized from the following 
 circumstances than from any more general or elaborate description 
 of it. There was but one dictionary in the school ; and a 
 gentleman, who was a fellow-pupil with Dr. Bowditch, never 
 saw one while he was there. Each day, the scholars were 
 called upon to spell aloud, all together, in chorus, the word 
 honorific abilitudinity ;* spelling and pronouncing the first syllable, 
 then the two first, three first, &c, which process, applied to the 
 whole word, of course occupied several minutes. He early 
 showed a great fondness for mathematics ; but, on account of 
 his extreme youth, his master, it is said, refused to permit him 
 to enter on that branch of study until he had obtained and 
 produced from his father a special request to that effect. He, 
 upon one occasion, solved a problem in arithmetic, which the 
 instructer thought must be above his comprehension, and therefore 
 charged him with having procured the assistance of some older 
 scholar, giving him a severe reprimand for the attempt to deceive 
 him. The timely interference and explanations, indeed, of his 
 
 * This word, meaning honor, may be found in Bailey's English Dictionary; and 
 Shakspeare uses honorificabilitudinitatibus, in Love's Labor Lost, Act 5, Scene 1. 
 
MEMOIR. 19 
 
 eldest brother, saved him from any actual chastisement ; but this 
 indignity and act of injustice Dr. Bowditch never forgot. 
 
 But even the slight elementary instruction which he might 
 have obtained at this school, he was obliged to forego altogether 
 at the age of ten years and two months, when he was taken by 
 his father into his cooper's shop, that he might by his labor assist 
 in the support of the family. After remaining here a short time, 
 he entered as a clerk or apprentice into the ship-chandlery shop of 
 Messrs. Ropes and Hodges, when he was about twelve years of 
 age. In this shop he remained till his employers retired from 
 business, at which time, as early as 1790, he entered the similar 
 shop of Mr. Samuel Curwin Ward, where he remained until he 
 sailed on his first voyage, in 1795. Here, when not engaged in 
 serving customers, he spent his time in reading, and particularly in 
 the study of mathematics, for which he then felt a confirmed and 
 decided taste. Upon one occasion, a visiter entered the shop, and, 
 looking at the two clerks, one of whom was asleep behind the 
 counter, and the other diligently occupied with his slate and 
 pencil, smiled and said, " Hogarth's apprentices ! " Another visiter 
 observed that, if he kept on ciphering so, he had not any doubt 
 that, in time, he would become an almanac maker! And in fact, 
 in the year 1788, he computed an almanac for the year 1790, 
 which is still preserved in his library, being one of the most 
 curious, if not most valuable, manuscripts in that collection. It 
 is also stated that he occasionally tried his dexterity at 
 philosophical experiments ; one instance mentioned being that, 
 while in the shop of Ropes and Hodges, he constructed quite a 
 curious barometer. There is now in his library, also, among 
 
20 MEMOIR. 
 
 other similar articles, a very neat wooden sun-dial, which he 
 made in the year 1792. 
 
 These pursuits were, however, only the amusement of his 
 leisure hours. He never allowed them to interfere with the 
 discharge of his duty towards his employers. Upon one occasion, 
 indeed, a customer called and purchased a pair of hinges, at a 
 time when the young clerk was deeply engaged in solving some 
 problem in mathematics, which he thought he would finish 
 before charging the delivery of them upon the books, and when 
 the problem was solved, he forgot the matter altogether. In a 
 few days, the customer called again to pay for them, when Mr. 
 Hodges himself was in the shop. The books were examined, 
 and gave no account of this purchase. The clerk, upon being 
 applied to, at once recollected the circumstance, and the reason of 
 his own forgetfulness. From that day, he made it an invariable 
 rule to finish every matter of business which he began, before 
 undertaking any thing else. Upon his recommendation, given 
 quite late in life, one of his sons adopted as a motto for a seal, 
 " End what you begin." He has himself more than once said, 
 that he never forgot the hinges. 
 
 Having once heard, in 1787, from his brother William, a vague 
 account of a method of working out, problems by letters, instead 
 of figures, he succeeded in borrowing the book which contained 
 it, and was so much interested and excited by his first glance 
 at algebra, that he could not get the least sleep during the whole 
 of the next night. An old British sailor, residing at Salem on half 
 pay, and who ended his days as an inmate of the Greenwich 
 
MEMOIR. 21 
 
 Hospital, taught him the elements of navigation ; and when they 
 last met, as he was about to embark for Europe, he patted him on 
 the head, saying, " My boy, you have a taste for these things : 
 keep on studying, and you will be a great man yet:" — an approval 
 which greatly stimulated and encouraged him. He rose each 
 day at the earliest dawn, and devoted his morning hours to study. 
 He has often been heard to say, that the time which he thus 
 gained from sleep, gave him, substantially, all his mathematics. He 
 passed the long winter evenings, too, by the kitchen fireside of his 
 employer, Mr. Hodges, — which his diffidence, as well as the security 
 it offered him from interruption, led him to prefer to the parlor, — 
 quietly engaged in his favorite pursuit ; and occasionally, it is said, 
 also rocking, at the same time, the infant's cradle, at the request 
 of the attendant, who wished to be doing something else. 
 
 It happened that Mr. Hodges and another gentleman owned 
 together in moieties a very irregularly-shaped field in Salem, 
 and wished to divide it. Accordingly, the young apprentice 
 undertook to make the proposed survey and division, and 
 completed the task with the most minute accuracy. The 
 co-tenant, however, refused to abide by this survey, since he 
 thought that, as it was made by one who was in the employment 
 of Mr. Hodges, it was probable that there had been an unfair bias 
 in his favor. A regular surveyor was then employed, and Dr. 
 Bowditch, who was very indignant at the suspicions entertained 
 in regard to his own result, said that he could not help feeling a 
 malicious pleasure when he found that the gentleman alluded to 
 received for his half part several square feet less than he was 
 entitled to. In 1794, he was employed by the town to assist 
 
 VOL. iv. f 
 
22 MEMOIR. 
 
 Captain John Gibaut in making a survey of Salem, which labor 
 he accordingly performed ; and the exact area of the town, as 
 ascertained by this survey, was computed by him. 
 
 Being very fond of books, and having no guide in the selection 
 of them, his reading in early life was of the most miscellaneous 
 character. Thus he read through the whole of Chambers's 
 Encyclopaedia, in four folio volumes, without omitting an article ; 
 and, as his memory, except as to persons and names, was 
 wonderfully retentive, he in this manner acquired a fund of the 
 most varied information. His intimate friends have often been 
 surprised at finding him quite conversant with subjects apparently 
 the most foreign from his favorite studies ; and one of the most 
 profound scholars among them observed, that he could hardly 
 form an adequate estimate of the extent of his general attainments. 
 He was an ardent admirer of Shakspeare, whose most beautiful 
 passages were treasured up in his memory from earliest youth. 
 His familiarity with the Old and New Testament was very great, 
 surpassing that of many professed theologians. The family Bible, 
 which he first read, is still preserved, having in it a curious 
 map of the wanderings of the Israelites, and various engravings 
 calculated to awaken that interest in the young reader, which 
 every subsequent perusal in manhood and old age has a tendency 
 to strengthen and confirm. Through the kindness of his friends, 
 and especially of Dr. Prince and Dr. Bentley, both Unitarian 
 clergymen of Salem, the former of whom was distinguished for his 
 fondness for natural philosophy, he obtained the use of books which 
 would otherwise have been unattainable by him. It happened 
 that, in his youth, the extensive scientific library of the late Dr. 
 
MEMOIR. 23 
 
 Richard Kirwan was captured in the British Channel by a 
 privateer fitted out from Beverly, the next town to Salem. 
 The enlightened and liberal owners of the vessel permitted the 
 library thus captured to be sold at a very low rate to an association 
 of gentlemen in Salem, and it became the basis of the present 
 Salem Athenaeum.* From this extremely valuable library, which 
 was a better one than then existed in any part of the United States, 
 except at Philadelphia, he obtained leave freely to take out books, 
 and to consult and study them at pleasure. Among its treasures 
 were the Transactions of the Royal Society of London. All the 
 mathematical papers in these Transactions, and many scientific 
 works, were wholly or partially transcribed by him, and are still 
 preserved in his library, contained in more than twenty folio and 
 quarto common-place books and other volumes. And this immense 
 labor he was obliged to undergo chiefly from his inability to 
 purchase the books in question, — which he wished to have by 
 him permanently, for the purpose of convenient reference, — and 
 partly, perhaps, from his desire to impress their contents more 
 strongly upon his memory than could be done by a mere perusal. 
 The title-page of one of these volumes states that it contains, 
 with the next volume, " A complete Collection of all the 
 Mathematical Papers in the Philosophical Transactions ; Extracts 
 from various Encyclopaedias, from the Memoirs of the Paris 
 
 * It is an interesting fact, that, many years afterwards, " an offer of remuneration was 
 made to Dr. Kirwan, who respectfully declined it, expressing his satisfaction that his valuable 
 library had found so useful a destination." — An Eulogy on the Life and Character of 
 Nathaniel Bowditch, LL. D., F. R. S., delivered at the Request of the Corporation of the 
 City of Salem, May 24, 1838; by Daniel Appleton White; p. 43. 
 
24 MEMOIR. 
 
 Academy ; a complete Copy of Emerson's Mechanics ; a Copy of 
 Hamilton's Conies ; Extracts from Gravesande's and Martyn's 
 Philosophical Treatise, from Bernoulli, &c. &c." He always 
 read with close attention, and endeavored to ascertain the exact 
 meaning of every word about which he was doubtful. This led 
 him, in after life, to collect around him dictionaries, which he 
 constantly consulted. He had more than one hundred in his 
 library. 
 
 He began to learn Latin, January 4, 1790, without an instructor, 
 that he might read Newton's Principia, which he had before 
 attempted to understand by means only of his knowledge of 
 mathematical subjects and the various equations and diagrams 
 which it contained. He now read a copy of Euclid, which had 
 been given him by his brother-in-law, Mr. Martin, and which was 
 once the property of Dr. Mather Byles, a clergyman of Boston, 
 distinguished for his humor and eccentricity. The book still 
 retains his original pencil marks, recording the meaning of the 
 simplest Latin words — " tamen, nevertheless ; mrsus, again ; " 
 &c. He had previously read Euclid in English, and the letters 
 " Q. E. D.," which had remained an impenetrable mystery to him 
 on his previous attempt to read the Principia, were now explained 
 by the "quod erat demonstrandum" which he here discovered; 
 but he was for a long time perplexed by the words " mutatis 
 mutandis" and unable to conjecture what particular change they 
 indicated. He had received from Dr. Bentley a copy of the 
 Principia, which had formerly been presented by that gentleman 
 to a young friend, who kindly consented to relinquish his prior 
 claims ; and this work he at last mastered, as he had done Euclid 
 
MEMOIR. 25 
 
 before. The Hon. Nathan Reed, then an apothecary in Salem, 
 afterwards a member of Congress, being himself fond of scientific 
 pursuits, was attracted by this love of science manifested by Dr. 
 Bowditch, and formed an intimate acquaintance with him. In his 
 shop was an assistant who was a schoolmate and friend of Dr. 
 Bowditch, and here their Sunday evenings were often passed 
 together. Mr. Reed states as a fact, that Dr. Bowditch, while 
 in Mr. Ward's employment, actually translated Newton's Principia 
 into English. No such translation is, however, now to be found 
 among his papers ; though translations of parts of it, indeed, are 
 contained in the manuscript volumes before mentioned. In a 
 similar manner, and from the same motive, he acquired the 
 elements of the French language ; to perfect himself in which, 
 he took lessons during sixteen months, from a foreigner then in 
 Salem, whom, in return, he instructed in English. At first, he 
 declined learning the pronunciation, as a matter which could not be 
 of any use to him ; but at last, the foreigner was so shocked at 
 hearing him read the words parlez vons, &c, as if these had been 
 English, that he almost insisted upon instructing him in the true 
 pronunciation, telling him that it might be of importance in the 
 business of life. And in fact, he had scarcely learned it, before 
 his first voyage was decided upon, and to a French port, where 
 he was thus enabled to act as a successful interpreter. 
 
 Excepting a few lessons which he took in book-keeping from 
 Mr. Michael Walsh, it is believed that he received no other 
 regular instruction after leaving school. But it has been stated 
 that Drs. Bentley and Prince rarely passed his employer's 
 shop, without stopping to converse with him ; and thus, perhaps, 
 
 VOL. IV. g 
 
26 MEMOIR. 
 
 by the interest he had awakened in their minds, he had secured 
 to himself the gratuitous and invaluable assistance of the two ablest 
 instructers whom the town then contained. The world, indeed, 
 was his school, and Nature herself his best instructer. She offers 
 her lessons to all, though many overlook or disregard her teachings. 
 But his was one of those powerful intellects which only at intervals 
 appear among men : it was stimulated and aroused to action by 
 that sternest though best of monitors, necessity ; and it mastered 
 every thing within its reach. Dr. Bowditch never considered that 
 the obstacles in his path had the slightest tendency to retard his 
 progress. On the contrary, he felt that they afforded him a foot- 
 hold by which that progress was rendered more sure and steady. 
 Much as he valued all the " means and appliances " of learning, 
 - — and he did value them beyond all price, — he thought it a great 
 disadvantage to any one to be born and educated in the midst of ease 
 and luxury, even though surrounded with every facility for mental 
 cultivation ; since, to such a one, the needful stimulus or inducement 
 to use the means within his reach would be almost surely wanting. 
 He often mentioned with approbation, as containing much truth, 
 the remark of a distinguished French mathematician to a young 
 pupil, whose ready and intelligent answers had awakened his 
 interest, and who, in reply to the question of his instructer, had told 
 him his parentage and situation in life, — "Ah ! I am sorry. You 
 are too rich. You must give up mathematics." One remarkable 
 exception, indeed, to this rule, Dr. Bowditch readily admitted in 
 the instance of him whose genius reflected as bright a lustre on 
 the noble house of Cavendish as had been received from it.* 
 
 * " En sorte qu'il n'y a nulle temerite a presager qu'il fera rejailler sur sa maison autant de 
 lustre qu'il en a recu tl'ellc." — Cuuicr's Eulogy on Cavendish, before the Institute of France. 
 
MEMOIR. 27 
 
 In the manuscript volumes before mentioned are often 
 contained the precise dates at which he was studying and 
 recording the mathematical papers there collected, and occasionally 
 they contain mottoes or sentiments upon other subjects. Thus the 
 title-page of one of them, under the date of December 13, 1794, 
 has the well-known quotation, " Nullius addictus jurare in verba 
 magistri." A minute analysis, indeed, of these volumes, in a 
 more extended biography, might perhaps enable the reader to 
 trace, step by step, the mental progress of Dr. Bowditch. It 
 is only necessary, however, here to state, that he who, at the age 
 of twenty-one years, had read the immortal work of Newton, was, 
 even then, unsurpassed, and probably unequalled, in mathematical 
 attainments by any one in the commonwealth. Those habits were 
 then formed which were to render him as eminent among men of 
 business, as, by his talents and acquirements, he was to become 
 eminent among men of science. And his character, also, then 
 exhibited all those beautiful and harmonious elements which it 
 ever afterwards retained. That deep religious principle, which 
 sustained and cheered him in the last hours of his life, had guided 
 his boyhood, and was now the familiar and inseparable companion 
 of his mature years ; and already were displayed those various 
 social and personal virtues, which were to render him a moral 
 exemplar to the community in which he lived. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch began life with the same pursuits which his 
 ancestors had followed for so many generations. Between the 
 years 1795 and 1804, he made five voyages, — performing the first 
 in the capacity of clerk, and the three next in that of supercargo, — 
 
28 MEMOIR. 
 
 all under the command of Captain Henry Prince, of Salem. On 
 his fifth and last voyage, he acted as both master and supercargo. 
 He sailed upon the first of these voyages, January 11, 1795, in the 
 ship Henry, bound to the Isle of Bourbon, and was absent exactly 
 one year. His three next voyages were in the ship Astrea, which 
 sailed, in 1796, for Lisbon, Madeira, and Manilla, and arrived at 
 Salem in May, 1797 ; and again in August, 1798, sailed for Cadiz, 
 thence to the Mediterranean, loaded at Alicant, and arrived at 
 Salem in April, 1799 ; and in July, 1799, sailed from Boston to 
 Batavia and Manilla, and returned in September, 1800; — and his 
 fifth voyage was in the Putnam, which sailed from Beverly, 
 November 21, 1802, bound for Sumatra, and arrived at Salem 
 December 25, 1803. 
 
 He has related that, upon the first of these voyages, he carried 
 out, as an adventure, a small box of shoes, which article proved 
 on his arrival at the Isle of Bourbon to be in great demand. 
 He sold them for about three times the first cost, and having 
 made an advantageous investment of the proceeds, he returned 
 home quite elated, and feeling that the fickle goddess had smiled 
 upon him more propitiously than she ever had done upon any 
 mortal before. 
 
 Of his second voyage, Captain Prince relates, that one day, 
 when dining at the table of the American consul at Madeira, " his 
 supercargo laid down his knife and fork, and, after squeezing the 
 tips of his fingers for two minutes," gave to the lady of the house 
 an answer to an intricate question which she had proposed ; to the 
 
MEMOIR. 29 
 
 great astonishment of her clerk, who, after a long calculation, 
 had succeeded in solving it, and " who exclaimed that he did not 
 believe there was another man on the island who could have done 
 it in two hours." 
 
 During his third voyage, on the passage from Cadiz to Alicant, 
 they were chased by a French privateer ; but, being well armed 
 and manned, they determined on resistance. The duty assigned 
 to Dr. Bowditch was that of handing up the powder upon deck. 
 And in the midst of the preparations, the captain looked into the 
 cabin, where he was no less surprised than amused at finding his 
 supercargo quietly seated by his keg of powder, and busily 
 occupied, as usual, with his slate and pencil. He said to him, 
 " I suppose you could now make your will," to which he smilingly 
 assented. He did in fact give to his eldest son his instructions 
 in regard to his last will, with the like calmness and composure, 
 when there was not only an apparent danger, but an absolute 
 certainty, of the near approach of death. 
 
 Upon his arrival at Manilla, during his fourth voyage, the 
 captain, being asked how he contrived to find his way, in 
 the face of a north-east monsoon, by mere dead-reckoning, 
 replied, " that he had a crew of twelve men, every one of whom 
 could take and work a lunar observation as well, for all practical 
 purposes, as Sir Isaac Newton himself, were he alive." During 
 this conversation, Dr. Bowditch sat " as modest as a maid, saying 
 not a word, but holding his slate pencil in his mouth ; " while 
 another person remarked, that " there was more knowledge 
 
 vol. iv. h 
 
30 MEMOIR. 
 
 of navigation on board that ship than there ever was in all the 
 vessels that have floated in Manilla Bay." * 
 
 In his last voyage, Dr. Bowditch arrived off the coast in 
 mid-winter, and in the height of a violent north-east snow-storm. 
 He had been unable to get an observation for a day or two, and 
 felt very anxious and uneasy at the dangerous situation of the 
 vessel. At the close of the afternoon of December 25, he 
 came on deck, and took the whole management of the ship 
 into his own hands. Feeling very confident where the vessel 
 was, he kept his eyes directed towards the light on Baker's Island, 
 at the entrance of Salem harbor. Fortunately, in the interval 
 between two gusts of wind, the fall of snow became less dense 
 than before, and he thus obtained a glimpse of the light of which 
 he was in search. It was seen by but one other person, and 
 in the next instant all was again impenetrable darkness. 
 Confirmed, however, in his previous convictions, he now kept 
 on the same course, entered the harbor, and finally anchored in 
 safety, t He immediately went on shore, and the owners were 
 very much alarmed at his sudden appearance on such a 
 tempestuous night, and at first could hardly be persuaded that 
 he had not been wrecked. And cordial indeed was the welcome 
 
 * An interesting incidental notice of Dr. Bowditch, in the case of a black cook who 
 could work lunar observations, may be found in Zach's Correspondance Astronomique, 
 Vol. IV. p. 62. 
 
 f Upon this occasion, he had given his orders with the same decision and preciseness as if 
 he saw all the objects around, and thus inspired the sailors with the confidence which he felt 
 himself. One of them, who was twenty years older than his captain, exclaimed, " Our old 
 man goes ahead as if it was noon-day ! " 
 
MEMOIR. ' 31 
 
 which he received from one who had been listening to the 
 warfare of the elements with all the solicitude of a sailor's wife. 
 
 In his transactions with custom-house officers upon the 
 continent of Europe, he found that they almost universally required 
 a fee, not less for the performance of duty than for the violation 
 of it; and several of his most humorous anecdotes related to his 
 own experience in this matter. Indeed, all his subsequent 
 observation convinced him that there is hardly a labor or duty 
 in life that is not rendered more light and easy by gratuitous 
 compensation ; and therefore it was always his rule, not only 
 during these voyages, but through life, to make it for the interest 
 of those about him to be upon the alert in attending to his 
 wishes, or complying with his requests ; though never did he 
 attempt by this means to persuade any one to what he considered, 
 in the slightest degree, a violation of duty, or breach of trust. 
 
 During these voyages, he perfected himself in the French 
 language, and acquired a knowledge of the Italian, Portuguese, 
 and Spanish, especially of the latter language. Thus he read 
 through the whole of the voluminous Spanish History of Mariana, 
 during one of these voyages ; and many interesting facts there 
 stated respecting Cardinal Ximenes and the Great Captain, &c, 
 he distinctly remembered in his recent perusal of Prescott's 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, — the last work which he read before 
 his death. An interpreter, with whom he was transacting 
 business, and whose piety consisted in the external observances 
 of a good Catholic, cautioned him against reading so many books, 
 lest some of them should brins; him into the hands of the 
 
32 MEMOIR. 
 
 Inquisition. It is worthy of remark, that it was to this acquisition 
 of the Spanish language, and the consequent opportunity afforded 
 him of conferring an obligation upon an active merchant in Salem, 
 by gratuitously translating for him a Spanish protest, that Dr. 
 Bowditch always attributed his appointment to the situation 
 which he, a few years afterwards, obtained against a powerful 
 competitor, and for which he was much indebted to the influence 
 and friendship of the merchant alluded to. In view of this 
 circumstance, and that before mentioned respecting his knowledge 
 of French pronunciation, with other incidents of a similar 
 character, he used to say that nothing which he ever learned 
 came amiss. It may here be mentioned that, as late in life as the 
 age of forty-five, he learned the German language thoroughly,* 
 and acquired, at about the same time, a slight knowledge of 
 Dutch. A manuscript in his library contains probably ten thousand 
 German words and English meanings, which he had transcribed 
 that he might better remember them. He delighted to trace 
 analogies between different languages, and especially to discover 
 resemblances of foreign words to those of his mother tongue, of 
 which many striking examples were detected and mentioned by 
 him — the Handschuh of the German, meaning glove; and the 
 verse in the Dutch New Testament in which the stonine- of 
 
 * In a letter of Dr. Bowditch to Baron Zach, dated November 22, 1822, published in 
 Zach's Correspondance Astronomicjuc, Vol. X. p. 224, he states that he had, three years 
 previously, purchased several of the most important works of the German mathematicians, 
 and among others Zach's Monatliche Correspondenz, in twenty-eight volumes, — and adds, 
 " With this work I began to learn German, and have been amply rewarded for the labor." 
 His own experience led him to say, that this language could be acquired, in a degree 
 sufficient for reading all mathematical works, by studying two hours each day for four months. 
 
MEMOIR. 33 
 
 Stephen is described, and where it is added that the apostles 
 made " eenen grooten rowe over hem," &c. The serious attempt 
 to prove that jour was derived from dies, he thought not so absurd 
 as he might have done, had not a Spanish boy who once shipped 
 with him, having the Christian name of Benito, been in the next 
 voyage entered upon the books by the good American cognomen 
 of Ben or Benjamin Eaton. He was often amused at discovering 
 in the dictionary of some foreign language, a definition expressing 
 more clearly than elegantly the precise signification of a word.* 
 He also acquired some knowledge of Greek, but how early in life 
 is not known. He always began to learn a language by taking 
 the New Testament and dictionary, and attempting immediately 
 to translate. Thus he left in his library the New Testament 
 in more than twenty-five different dialects or languages. 
 
 But the long intervals of leisure which a sailor's life afforded, 
 he chiefly devoted to his favorite study, pursuing with unremitting 
 zeal those researches in which he had already made such progress, 
 notwithstanding the interruptions and embarrassments of his earlier 
 days. Here, with only the sea around him, and the sky above 
 him, protected alike from all the intruding cares and engrossing 
 pleasures of life, he especially delighted to hold converse with the 
 master-spirits who had attempted to explain the mysteries of 
 the visible universe, and the laws by which the great energies of 
 nature are guided and controlled. M. Lacroix mentioned to 
 one of the sons of Dr. Bowditch, that from him he had 
 received several corrections and notices of errata in his works, 
 
 * See Ebers's German Dictionary, passim. 
 VOL. IV. i 
 
34 MEMOIR. 
 
 which our navigator had discovered during these long India 
 voyages. And in the ship in which he sailed were witnessed 
 not merely the labors and vigils of the solitary student, but the 
 teachings of the kind and generous instructer, anxious and 
 eager to impart to others the knowledge which he had himself 
 acquired. " He loved study himself," says Captain Prince, " and 
 he loved to see others study. He was always fond of teaching 
 others. He would do any thing if any one would show a 
 disposition to learn. Hence," he adds, " all was harmony on 
 board ; all had a zeal for study ; all were ambitious to learn." 
 On one occasion, two sailors were zealously disputing, in the 
 hearing of the captain and supercargo, respecting sines and 
 cosines. The result of his teaching, in enabling the whole 
 crew of twelve men to work a lunar observation, has been 
 before stated. Every one of those twelve sailors subsequently 
 attained, at least, the rank of first or second officer of a ship. 
 It was a circumstance highly in favor of a seaman, that he had 
 sailed with Dr. Bowditch, and was often sufficient to secure his 
 promotion. Connected with much testimony of this sort, is that 
 of the uniform affability and kindness of manner displayed by 
 Dr. Bowditch in his intercourse with all on board, which 
 were especially calculated to increase the self-respect of the 
 sailor, and inspire him with a due sense of his own powers, 
 and of the importance of his occupation. In a letter from 
 an officer in the United States navy, who sailed twice in the 
 Astrea with Dr. Bowditch, at first as a cabin boy, and who died 
 a few months after the friend of whom he speaks, the writer 
 states some of the above particulars respecting Dr. Bowditch, 
 and adds that " his kindness and attention to the poor sea-sick 
 
MEMOIR. 35 
 
 cabin boy are to this hour uppermost in my memory, and will 
 be so when his logarithms and lunar observations are remembered 
 no more."* 
 
 It is unnecessary to state, that Dr. Bowditch discharged his 
 duty toward his employers with the utmost fidelity and exactness. 
 His voyages were conducted with uniform skill and success, 
 and to their entire satisfaction. It is said by Captain Prince, 
 that Dr. Bowditch, though he had such a thorough knowledge 
 of navigation, knew but little of what is called seamanship ; 
 that he never went to see a launch in his life, &c. It 
 is without doubt true, that the mere detail of seamanship 
 was always irksome to him. He has often told his children 
 that, upon common occasions, he left the management of the 
 ship to his first officer ; but upon any emergency, he was 
 not only ready and desirous, but, as is believed, perfectly 
 competent, to perform all the duties which could, on such 
 occasions, be required of an experienced and practical seaman. 
 
 The following is the account of his habits when at sea, given 
 by one who was his companion during several voyages. " His 
 practice was to rise at a very early hour in the morning, and 
 pursue his studies till breakfast, immediately after which he 
 walked rapidly for about half an hour, and then went below to 
 his studies till half past eleven o'clock, when he returned and 
 walked till the hour at which he commenced his meridian 
 observations. Then came the dinner, after which he was 
 
 * Charles F. Waldo, Esq., died August 31, 1838. 
 
36 MEMOIR. 
 
 engaged in his studies till five o'clock ; then he walked till tea 
 time, and after tea was at his studies till nine in the evening. 
 From this hour till half past ten, he appeared to have 
 banished all thoughts of study, and, while walking at his usual 
 quick pace, he would converse in the most lively manner, giving 
 us useful information, intermixed with amusing anecdotes and 
 an occasional hearty laugh. He thus made the time delightful 
 to the officers who walked with him. Whenever the heavenly 
 bodies were in distance to get the longitude, night or day, 
 he was sure to make his observations once, and frequently 
 twice, in every twenty-four hours, always preferring to make 
 them by the moon and stars, as less fatiguing to his eyes. 
 He was often seen on deck at other times, walking, apparently 
 in deep thought, when it was well understood by all on 
 board that he was not to be disturbed, as we supposed he 
 was solving some difficult problem ; and when he darted 
 below, the conclusion was that he had got the idea. If he 
 were in the fore part of the ship when the idea came to 
 him, he would actually run to the cabin, and his countenance 
 would give the expression that he had found a prize."* 
 Another correspondent states that sometimes, when he wished 
 to pursue his studies without disturbing those in the cabin 
 by introducing a candle or lamp, he has seen him standing 
 in the companion-way with his slate and pencil, working out 
 some problem, at eleven o'clock at night, by the aid onlv of the 
 biaacle lamp.t 
 
 • Judge White's Eulogy, p. 27. 
 
 t Another companion of his voyages says, " He never manifested any moral failings 
 whatever, hut was always remarkable for his strict principles of conduct, and for the utmost 
 
MEMOIR. 37 
 
 Such was Dr. Bowditch's seafaring life, — not wasted in ennui 
 or idle reveries, but every moment of it devoted to the improvement 
 alike of his own mind and character, and those of every individual 
 in the little world around him. Already, too, as might have been 
 expected, he was beginning to win the honors of science ; and 
 domestic life, from which the sailor is almost wholly debarred, 
 was preparing for him its sweetest home. 
 
 From our venerable University at Cambridge he received the 
 highest encouragement to pursue the career upon which he had 
 entered. In July, 1802, when his ship, the Astrea, was wind- 
 bound in Boston, he went to hear the performances at the annual 
 commencement of the College ; and among the honorary degrees 
 conferred, he thought he heard his own name announced as 
 Master of Arts ; but it was not until congratulated by a 
 townsman and friend, that he became satisfied that his senses 
 had not deceived him. He always spoke of this as one of the 
 proudest days of his life ; and amid all the subsequent proofs 
 which he received of the respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens, 
 and the distinctions conferred upon him from foreign countries, 
 he recurred to this with the greatest pleasure. It is, indeed, 
 made the subject of express mention in his will. It was 
 
 purity of mind and character ; detesting any thing of an opposite nature, even in word. His 
 feelings, indeed, were quick, and sometimes, though rarely, he was thought to give a too quick 
 utterance to them ; but the excitement passed off in a moment." Another says, " I have 
 known Dr. B. intimately for more than fifty years, and I know no faults. This may seem 
 strange ; for most of your great men, when you look at them closely, have something to 
 bring them down ; but he had nothing. I suppose all Europe would not have tempted 
 him to swerve a hair's breadth from what he thought right." — Judge White's Eulogy, p. 56. 
 VOL. iv. k 
 
MEMOIR. 
 
 gratefully repaid by the services of a long life. For the last 
 twelve years, he was one of the select body of seven individuals 
 intrusted with the immediate management and control of the 
 College, having for many years before been a member of the 
 more numerous body of Overseers, who have the general and 
 more remote supervision of its affairs. Upon his decease, his 
 associates in the Corporation of Harvard College state, " that 
 he so acquired the confidence of his contemporaries, as to be 
 regarded as the pillar and the pride of every society of which 
 he was an active member, the effects of which never failed to 
 be seen and acknowledged by its prosperity and success ; " and 
 they proceed to admit the benefit which that institution " has 
 derived from the extraordinary endowments he possessed, and 
 by which, in the exercise of his characteristic zeal, intelligence, 
 and faithfulness, he ever sustained and advanced all its 
 interests." 
 
 On the 28th day of May, 1799, he was chosen a member of 
 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Some of the most 
 valuable and interesting papers in its Transactions were the 
 subsequent contributions of his pen; and the presidency of 
 this society, to which he was elected in May, 1829, in the 
 place of John Quincy Adams, late President of the United States, 
 is one of the highest honors which Science offers to her votaries 
 upon this side of the Atlantic. A letter received from the officers 
 of the Academy bears a like honorable testimony to the merits 
 and services of their deceased associate and President : — "It 
 is the common fate of mankind to die, and be forgotten. It is 
 the privilege of the just and good to be associated in the 
 
MEMOIR. 39 
 
 remembrance with tender and grateful recollections. It is the 
 destiny of minds gifted above the common lot, and acting beyond 
 the common sphere, to involve in general regret the communities 
 that have known their worth. It is thus that, on the present 
 occasion, our sincere and general regret is necessarily mingled 
 with the sadness of domestic affliction." 
 
 On March 25, 1798, Dr. Bowditch married Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Francis Boardman, Esq., who is said to have been 
 a lady of remarkable intelligence, and worthy of his choice. 
 After a few months spent in her society, he went upon his third 
 voyage, and upon his return found his home desolate. She 
 whom he first selected as his companion, was not to be the 
 mother of his children. His wife had died, October 18, 1798, 
 aged only eighteen years. Dr. Bowditch felt that an alliance 
 so abruptly terminated, did not justly entitle him to retain to 
 his own use the property of which he thereby became legally 
 possessed ; and accordingly, he surrendered to the relatives of 
 his late wife, every thing which he had thus acquired, including 
 even certain small articles of plate, &c, which, but for the general 
 character of the motive which influenced him, he would have 
 gladly retained. Upon his second daughter and youngest child, 
 he, many years afterwards, bestowed the name which had been 
 borne by the wife of his youth. 
 
 On October 28, 1800, he married his cousin Mary, the only 
 daughter of his uncle, Jonathan lngersoll, Esq. She was then 
 scarcely nineteen years of age, having been born December 
 4, 1781. Her father had been an active ship-master, and 
 
40 MEMOIR. 
 
 was then living upon his estate in Danvers, from which, more 
 than twenty-five years ago, he removed to Windsor, Vermont, 
 where he still cultivates a farm upon the beautiful banks of the 
 Connecticut, finding in the cares and labors of husbandry, at the 
 advanced age of eighty-eight years, a pleasure greater than he 
 ever experienced amid the more stirring scenes of his youth. 
 Long may his honorable and peaceful life be preserved ! This 
 marriage, which lasted more than thirty-three years, may be 
 regarded as the most happy circumstance of Dr. Bowditch's 
 life. With personal attractions of no common order, domestic 
 in her habits, of the most lively and cheerful disposition, with 
 affections which age never chilled, governed ever by the strictest 
 religious principle, the wife and mother was devotedly attached 
 to her husband and children, sympathizing in the pursuits of the 
 former, and guiding and directing those of the latter, making 
 home the scene of the purest and most delightful influences 
 and recollections, and associating with her presence in life and 
 her memory in death, the idea of a being whose every act and 
 thought were blameless. The stranger was attracted by her 
 winning smile and affable manners. She made her house the 
 agreeable resort of friends and visiters. . Many sons and 
 daughters of sorrow acknowledged in her that active benevolence 
 and liberal aid which discovered and supplied their wants, or 
 that kindly sympathy which soothed where it could not relieve. 
 But there was one who was her heart's idol, whom she reverenced 
 almost as a being of a higher order than herself, regarding as 
 worthless every thing else, in comparison with his approving 
 smile. He, indeed, had reason always to rejoice, that a 
 beni»nant Providence had made her the sharer and the guardian 
 
MEMOIR. 41 
 
 of his home and his happiness. That bosom, where his head 
 had reposed in life, with undoubting faith and trust, was the 
 fittest pillow upon which it could be placed for its final rest 
 in death ! 
 
 The most important result of this period of Dr. Bowditch's life, 
 was the publication of The New American Practical Navigator, 
 a manual in which were imbodied a scientific explanation of 
 the principles of navigation, and also the practical application 
 of these principles in the simplest and most effective manner.* 
 Dr. Bowditch had prepared for publication two editions of the 
 treatise of John Hamilton Moore, with notes and corrections, 
 and in preparing a third revised edition of that work, he 
 corrected so very many errors, that, in 1802, he was induced 
 to publish it under his own name. From that time to the 
 present, it has been exclusively used by every ship-master who 
 has sailed from this country, and its tables and rules have been 
 adopted in the works used in England and elsewhere. Into 
 the original work, and the eight succeeding editions, many 
 improvements, of great practical utility, have from time to time 
 been introduced. Thus in the last edition, published in 1837, 
 " the body of tables has been increased from thirty-three to 
 
 * This work is mentioned by Zach, in his Correspondance Astron., Vol. VI. p. 206, 
 A. D. 1822, who gives the entire title-page of the third edition, printed at Newburyport; 
 and in Vol. VII. p. 167, is an example taken from it. In Vol. X. p. 234, A. D. 
 1824, we find the title-page of the fifth edition, printed in 1821. And many other 
 notices occur in the same journal, of astronomical methods given by Dr. Bowditch in this 
 work, which, as they were also the subjects of particular communications made by him 
 to the American Academy, will be noticed hereafter. 
 VOL. IV. I 
 
42 MEMOIR. 
 
 fifty-six, some being entirely new, and others essentially improved 
 or corrected." * The successive additions thus made by the 
 author, have prevented the competition of any other work. 
 More than eight thousand errors were corrected by Dr. Bowditch 
 in his first edition of it under his own name ; and when it is 
 considered that one of these was no less than the very criminal 
 inattention of setting down the year 1800 as a leap year, in the 
 tables of the sun's declination,! thereby making a mistake in 
 some of the numbers of twenty-three miles, and causing the 
 actual destruction of several ships, and the imminent danger of 
 others, some idea may be formed of the great service thus 
 rendered by him to the cause of nautical science. J The amount 
 of labor requisite for insuring accuracy in the tables, by actually 
 going through all the calculations necessary to a complete 
 examination of them, was immense almost beyond conception. 
 The following striking contrast is presented by the modest 
 Preface of the American editor, and the boasting language of 
 the original compiler. The one says, that " the author had 
 once flattered himself that the tables of this collection which 
 did not depend on observations, would be absolutely correct ; but 
 
 * Eulogy on Nathaniel Bowditch, LL. D., President of the American Academy of Arts 
 and Sciences ; including an Analysis of his scientific Publications ; delivered before the 
 Academy, May 29, 1838 ; by John Pickering, Corresponding Secretary of the Academy ; 
 p. 13. 
 
 t See Preface to the last edition of the work. 
 
 X For many interesting details respecting this work, see " A Discourse on the Life and 
 Character of the Hon. Nathaniel Bowditch, LL. D., F. R. S., delivered in the Church on 
 Church Green, [Boston,] March 25, 1838; by Alexander Young;" pp. 34 to 39; — and 
 Mr. Pickering's Eulogy, p. 10, &tc, and Notes, pp. 84 to 87. 
 
MEMOIR. 43 
 
 in the course of his calculations, he has accidentally discovered 
 several errors in two of the most correct works of the kind 
 extant, viz., Taylor's and Hutton's Logarithms, notwithstanding 
 the great care taken by those able mathematicians in examining 
 and correcting them. He therefore does not absolutely assert 
 that these tables are entirely correct, but feels conscious that 
 no pains have been spared to make them so." The other 
 says, that " he sells no sea-books, charts, or instruments, but 
 such as may be depended on ; consequently he excludes all 
 those old, inaccurate, and erroneous publications, the depending 
 upon which has often proved fatal to shipping and seamen" * 
 The following is the summary elsewhere given of this work : 
 It " has been pronounced by competent judges to be, in point 
 of practical utility, second to no work of man ever published. 
 This apparently extravagant estimate of its importance, appears 
 but just, when we consider the countless millions of treasures 
 and of human lives which it has conducted, and will conduct, 
 in safety through the perils of the ocean. But it is not only 
 the best guide of the mariner in traversing the ocean ; it is also 
 his best instructer and companion every where, containing within 
 itself a complete scientific library, for his study and improvement 
 in his profession. Such a work was as worthy of the author's 
 mind, as it is illustrative of his character; — unostentatious, yet 
 profoundly scientific and thoroughly practical, with an effective 
 power and influence of incalculable value." f So, also, the 
 London Athenaeum says of this work, "It goes, both in American 
 and British craft, over every sea of the globe, and is probably 
 the best work of the sort ever published." 
 
 # Mr. Pickering's Eulogy, p. 11. t Judge White's Eulogy, p. 29. 
 
44 MEMOIR. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch, however, did not himself consider this work 
 as one which would much advance his scientific reputation. It 
 was, in his view, only a " practical manual." * But it was the 
 work hy which, almost exclusively, he was, for a long time, known 
 in this country, and it laid the basis of a wide-spread popularity, 
 such as few, if any, works upon scientific subjects have ever 
 gained for their authors. Several years ago, he was much 
 amused by the following incident. Two young men came into 
 the shop of his bookseller to purchase a copy of the Navigator. 
 Upon being shown one bearing on its title-page the number of 
 the edition, and purporting to have been revised and corrected 
 by the author, one said to the other, " That is all a mere cheat ; 
 the old fellow must have been dead years ago ! " They were 
 astonished, and perhaps a little embarrassed, at being introduced 
 to an active, sprightly gentleman, in full health and good spirits, as 
 the author of this work, which they had known from their earliest 
 entrance upon a sailor's life. It was in honor, especially, of the 
 memory of him who had written the Practical Navigator, that, 
 
 * Dr. Bowditch, in his letter to Baron Zach, Corr. Ast. Vol. X. p. 225, says, " You 
 will see that I have studiously avoided all scientific parade, and have published the work 
 according to the method of instruction used in our country, where we prefer, in these 
 matters, practice to theory." Thus, owing to the errors incident to all nautical observations, 
 he deemed it useless to aim, in the nautical tables, at the most minute degree of exactness, 
 but only at that measure of it which was requisite for practical purposes; so that these 
 tables might be used with the greatest possible promptness, and might, at the same time, lead 
 to the greatest accuracy of result which was in fact really attainable. And he, in this 
 letter, states that he is delighted to find that Zach, in a previous publication, concurs in 
 this opinion. Upon this the editor remarks, p. 244, " mais c'est a nous de nous felioiter de 
 nous trouver d'accord avec un navigateur d'une si grande experience ; la notre n'est qu'une 
 induction." 
 
MEMOIR. 45 
 
 when the news of his death was received at Cronstadt, all the 
 American shipping, and many of the English and Russian vessels, 
 hoisted their flags at half-mast in that naval depot of the Czars, 
 — a tribute of respect which had been previously paid in the 
 ports of Baltimore, Boston, and Salem. From the same motive, 
 the badge of mourning was adopted by the members of the Naval 
 School of the United States, as for the loss of a valued friend 
 and instructer. 
 
 Immediately upon the close of his seafaring life, Dr. Bowditch 
 was elected President of the Essex Fire and Marine Company, 
 which situation he held till his removal to Boston, in 1823. 
 Here, also, he displayed his usual good judgment and discretion, 
 and his usual success attended him. It was, indeed, an office 
 for which he was eminently qualified by his whole previous life. 
 After paying to the stockholders an average annual dividend 
 of ten or twelve per cent, for the whole twenty years of his 
 presidency, he left the institution with a large surplus of profits 
 earned. In this situation, where he was necessarily brought 
 more in contact with men of business than ever before, his easy 
 and affable manners soon made him generally known ; and the 
 intrinsic excellences of his character made him no less generally 
 beloved and respected. 
 
 During the years 1805, 1806, and 1807, he employed himself 
 in making a survey of the harbors of Salem, Marblehead, Beverly, 
 and Manchester ; and the result of his labors was a chart of 
 remarkable beauty and exactness, upon which all the old and 
 familiar landmarks of the pilots, though not known by him to be 
 vol. iv. m 
 
46 MEMOIR. 
 
 such, were so accurately placed in their true distances and 
 bearings, as to excite among them the greatest surprise. 
 
 His principal occasional labors, during his residence in Salem, 
 consisted of twenty-three contributions to several volumes of the 
 Transactions of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of 
 which the following is an accurate list : — 
 
 VOLUME SECOND. PART SECOND. 
 
 Published in 1800. 
 
 1. New Method of working a Lunar Observation. 
 
 The object of this method was to establish a uniform rule for 
 the application of corrections, so that there should be no variation 
 of cases resulting from the distance and altitude of the observed 
 bodies. Dr. Bowditch says of this method, in a note, that " it was 
 written several years ago, and before the publication of the 
 Transactions of the Royal Society for 1797, in which is inserted a 
 method somewhat similar, invented by Mr. Mendoza y Rios. An 
 appendix to the New Practical Navigator has lately been published, 
 in which the corrections are all additive, and the work, is shorter." It 
 is particularly noticed and commended in the Connoissance des Terns, 
 (1808,) then published under the direction of M. Delambre.* 
 
 * Zach (Corr. Astron., Vol. VI. p. 553, A. D. 1322) says, " M. Bowditch dans son 
 Nciv american practical navigator a aussi donne pour la reduction des distances lunaires une 
 nouvelle meihode abregee, avec des tables, qui merite d'etre plus connue ; aucun auteur 
 europeen n'en a encore parle ; il vient de la perfectionner dans sa quatrieme edition stereotype 
 publico a New York en aout 1817. Nous la recornmandons a l'attention des professeurs et 
 auteurs des traites de navigation." In Vol. X. p. 321, A. D. 1S24, he says, "La methode 
 de M. Bowditch a l'avantage sur toutcs les autres methodes d'approximation, que routes les 
 corrections sont toujours additives, et qu'on n'a jamais besoin de faire attention a des cas 
 
MEMOIR. 47 
 
 VOLUME THIRD. PART FIRST. 
 
 Published in 1809. 
 
 2. Observations on the Comet of 1807. [pp. 1—18.] 
 
 3. Observations on the total Eclipse of the Sun, June 16, 1806, 
 
 made at Salem. [pp- 18—23.] 
 
 In a note to this communication, Dr. Bowditch makes, as is 
 believed, the first public mention of an error in Laplace's Mecanique 
 Celeste, in the estimate of the oblateness of the earth, as calculated 
 from the observed length of pendulums; showing that Laplace's 
 result ought to have been, upon his own principles, ^ instead of -^. 
 
 4. Addition to the Memoir on the Solar Eclipse of June 16, 1806. 
 
 [pp. 23-33.] 
 
 5. Application of Napier's Rules for solving the Cases of Right- 
 
 angled Spheric Trigonometry to several Cases of Oblique- 
 angled Spheric Trigonometry. [pp- 33—38.] 
 
 This communication so alters Napier's rules, as to make them 
 include most of the cases of oblique-angled spheric trigonometry, and 
 is marked by the same neatness, elegance, and simplicity, which 
 characterized his first communication. These rules are now familiarly 
 known in the text-books of Harvard College as « Bowditch's Rules.'' 
 
 VOLUME THIRD. PART SECOND. 
 
 Published in 1815. 
 
 6. An Estimate of the Height, Direction, Velocity, and 
 
 particuliers ; les regies sont generates;" and proceeds to give a detailed account of it.- 
 See also note to article 15. 
 
48 MEMOIR. 
 
 Magnitude of the Meteor that exploded over Weston, 
 in Connecticut, December 14, 1807. [pp. 213— 237.] 
 
 This communication is of a very interesting character, and it rests 
 upon numerous observations collected with great labor and assiduity. 
 Dr. Bowditch considers the meteor in question to have had a course 
 about eighteen miles above the earth, a velocity of more than three 
 miles a second, and a probable cubic bulk of six millions of tons — 
 which others have estimated to be the contents of the pyramid of 
 Cheops.* 
 
 7. On the Eclipse of the Sun of September 17, 1811, with the 
 
 Longitudes of several Places in this Country, deduced 
 from all the Observations of the Eclipses of the Sun, 
 and Transits of Mercury and Venus, that have been 
 published in the Transactions of the Royal Societies of 
 Paris and London, the Philosophical Society held at 
 Philadelphia, and the American Academy of Arts and 
 Sciences.^ [pp- 255—305.] 
 
 8. Elements of the Orbit of the Comet of 1811. [pp. 313—326.] 
 
 In this, as in his second communication, he arrived at his results 
 after almost incredible labor, rendered necessary by the want of the 
 
 * The Zeitschrift fur Astronomie, Vol. I. p. 37, A. D. 1816, gives the results arrived 
 at in this communication, and calls it "einer interressanten Arbeit." 
 
 t The Zeitschrift fir Astronomie, Vol. I. p. 90, A. D. 1816, mentions the observations 
 of the eclipses of the sun, June 16, 1806, and September 17, 1811, as contained in these 
 volumes, fee, and states that "Bowditch hat den grossern Theil davon zu Langen- 
 bestimmungen benutzt und zugleich dabey, fiir eine Menge amerikanischer Orte, Hi'ilfsgiossen 
 lur leichtern Berechnung des Nonagesimus gegeben;" and Zach, in his Corr. Astron. 
 Vol. X. p. 494, A. D. 1824, has a table of the longitudes and latitudes of places 
 determined by astronomical observations calculated by Dr. Bowditch. 
 
MEMOIR. 49 
 
 improved methods of the present day.* The original volume, 
 containing his calculations in the case of this latter comet, now 
 preserved in his library, contains one hundred and forty-four pages 
 of close figures, probably exceeding one million in number, though 
 the result of this vast labor forms but a communication of twelve 
 pages.f 
 
 9. An Estimate of the Height of the White Hills in New 
 Hampshire. [pp. 326—328.] 
 
 10. On the Variation of the Magnetic Needle. [pp. 337 — 344.] 
 
 This communication, in like manner, which is of quite an 
 interesting character, and of considerable practical importance, was 
 the result of five thousand one hundred and twenty-five observations, 
 during a period of four years. 
 
 11. On the Motion of a Pendulum suspended from two Points. 
 
 [pp. 413—437.] 
 
 This communication is also one of interest and value ; and the 
 little wooden stand, from which a leaden ball was suspended, still 
 exists, to remind us of the zeal and assiduity with which Dr. Bowditch 
 watched the various curves and lines which the ball described.! 
 
 * See Dr. Bowditch's letter (Zach, Corr. Astron. Vol. X. p. 228) before referred to, 
 where this fact is stated. The editor, in p. 248, gives the elements of the orbits of the comets 
 calculated by Dr. Bowditch wholly from American observations. 
 
 t Mr. Encke, in speaking to a friend of Dr. Bowditch, at Berlin, in 1836, said that he 
 had known him from the time when this paper appeared ; and that he had never seen an 
 American since, without asking him what he could tell him about its author; — and the 
 Zeitschrift fur Astronomie, Vol. I. p. 44, gives an account of this communication " von dem 
 amerikanischen Astronomen Bowditch." 
 
 t This subject is mentioned in his letter to Baron Zach, before alluded to, ( Corr. Astron. 
 Vol. X. p. 227.) The editor, in his note, p. 246, says the remarkable variety of the 
 VOL. IV. n 
 
50 MEMOIR. 
 
 12. A Demonstration of the Rule for finding the Place of a 
 
 Meteor, in the second Problem, page 218 of this Volume. 
 
 [pp. 437—439.] 
 
 VOLUME FOURTH. PART FIRST. 
 
 Published in 1818. 
 
 13. On a Mistake which exists in the Solar Tables of Mayer, 
 
 Lalande, and Zach* [pp. % 3.] 
 
 14. On the Calculation of the Oblateness of the Earth, by 
 
 Means of the observed Lengths of a Pendulum in 
 different Latitudes, according to the Method given by 
 
 motions of a pendulum thus suspended, and the very curious experiments of Professor Dean, 
 who explains, in this mode, the apparent motion of the earth as seen from the moon, engaged 
 Dr. Bowditch in the examination of the theory of these motions. The result has been, he 
 adds, " une recherche tres interessante." " Comme ce memoire merite d'etre mieux connu, 
 et qu'il ne Test pas generalement, vu la difficulte de se procurer des livres americains, nous 
 en donnerons la traduction dans un de nos cahiers." 
 
 * Dr. Bowditch states, that " The attraction of Jupiter produces an equation in the 
 expression of the Sun's distance from the Earth, and a Table is given for its computation, 
 by Mayer, in 1770," fee. ; " and ever since this Table was first published, which is about fifty 
 years, an error of six signs has always existed in the argument by which the correction is 
 found ; so that, when the equation is really subtractive, it will frequently be found by the 
 Table to be additive, and the contrary." — "In De Lambre's Solar Tables, published in 1806, 
 the form of the table is wholly altered, the method of entry by a double argument being used ; 
 and by thus taking a different path, the error is avoided, without noticing that it really does 
 exist in the other works." 
 
 Baron Zach, in his Monatliche Correspondent, Vol. VIII. p. 449, A. D. 1803, says 
 that Bowditch, an American astronomer, has called his attention to this mistake ; and, after 
 admitting its importance, frankly adds, " Allen Astronomen, welche sich mit Verfertigung 
 der Sonnen-Tafeln beschaftigt haben, einen La Caillc, Tob. Mayer, La Lande, De 
 Lamhre und niir ist dieser Fehler entgangen." 
 
MEMOIR. 51 
 
 Laplace, in the Second Volume of his "3Iecanique 
 Celeste;" icith Remarks on other Parts of the same 
 Work relating to the Figure of the Earth. [pp. 3—24.] 
 
 The object of this communication is to correct certain errors in 
 the article " Earth " in Rees's Cyclopeedia, to the end that currency 
 should not be given to inaccurate ideas on the subject, by that popular 
 work. 
 
 15. Method of correcting the apparent Distance of the Moon 
 
 from the Sun, or a Star, for the Effects of Parallax 
 and Refraction. [pp. 24—31.] 
 
 This is but the rule given in the Practical Navigator, making all 
 the corrections in question additive. It is another instance of the 
 simplicity at which he always aimed in his rules and formulas.* 
 
 16. On the Method of computing the Dip of the Magnetic 
 
 Needle in different Latitudes, according to the Theory 
 of Mr. Biot. [pp. 31-36.] 
 
 17. Remarks on the Methods of correcting the Elements of the 
 
 Orbit of a Comet, in Neicton's " Principia" and in 
 Laplace's "Mecanique Celeste." [pp. 36—48.] 
 
 This communication proves that two equations in the Principia, 
 the accuracy of which several commentators upon that work had 
 
 * In Zach's Monatl. Corres., Vol. XVII. p. 411, A. D. 1803, this method is mentioned 
 as being in the Appendix to the New American Practical Navigator, printed at Newburyport, 
 1804 ; and the editor says, " Der Verfasser ist ein Americaner, Bowditch, und Delambre hat 
 es der Miihe werth gehalten, eine umst'andliche Darstellung dieses Verfahrens zu geben.' 
 Then follows a somewhat minute account of the method. — See note to article 1. 
 
52 MEMOIR. 
 
 attempted to prove, and as to which no doubts had jet been expressed 
 or insinuated, always made the corrections in question " double of 
 what they ought to be," and restricts the method of Laplace as 
 appropriate only where the number of observations is small. 
 
 18. Remarks on the usual Demonstration of the Permanency 
 
 of the Solar System, with Respect to the Eccentricities 
 and Inclinations of the Orbits of the Planets, [pp. 48—51.] 
 
 19. Remarks on Dr. Steicartfs Formula for computing the 
 
 Motion of the Mooris Apsides, as given in the Supplement 
 to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. [pp. 51 — 61.] 
 
 This is a very curious and interesting communication. A method 
 which, notwithstanding doubts had been expressed respecting it, 
 had been sanctioned as accurate by Dr. Hutton, by Lalande, and 
 Playfair, — the latter of whom even considered its accuracy to have 
 been demonstrated, — is in this memoir proved to have been true only 
 in the particular case supposed ; and it is shown that, as a general 
 method, it wholly fails. 
 
 VOLUME FOURTH. PART SECOND. 
 
 Published in 1820. 
 
 20. On the Meteor which passed over Wilmington, in the State 
 
 of Delaware, November 21, 1819. [ PP . 3— 14.] 
 
 21. Occultalion of Spica by the Moon, observed at Salem. 
 
 [ P . 14.] 
 
 22. On a Mistake which exists in the Calculation of Mr. 
 
 Poisson relative to the Distribution of the Electrical 
 Matter upon the Surfaces of two Globes, in Vol. XII. 
 
MEMOIR. 53 
 
 of the "Memoires de la classe des sciences mathematiques 
 et physiques de VInstitut Imperial de France" [pp. 15—17.] 
 
 23. Elements of the Comet of 1819.* [ PP . 17—19.] 
 
 Besides the above contributions to the Memoirs of the American 
 Academy, Dr. Bowditch was the writer of several other articles, 
 among which may be mentioned the following : — 
 
 1. Notice of the Comet of 1807. Published in the Monthly An- 
 
 thology for December, 1807, Vol. IV. [pp. 653, 654.] 
 
 2. Review of a "Report of the Committee (of Congress,) to 
 
 whom was referred, on the 25th of January, 1810, the 
 Memorial of William Lambert, accompanied with 
 sundry Papers relating to the Establishment of a First 
 Meridian for the United States, at the permanent Seat 
 of their Government." Published in the Monthly An- 
 thology for October, 1810, Vol. IX. [pp. 245-266.] 
 
 This article occupies twenty-one pages, and proves very 
 conclusively the great advantages of continuing to estimate the 
 longitude from Greenwich, which Mr. Lambert considered "a sort 
 of degrading and unnecessary dependence on a foreign nation," and 
 an "encumbrance unworthy of the freedom and sovereignty of the 
 American people." This Memorial the reviewer shows to be " a 
 compilation, with needless repetitions and palpable mistakes, 
 evincing a great want of knowledge in the principles of the 
 
 * For a statement of Dr. Bowditch's communications to the Memoirs of the Academy, 
 and an abstract of their contents, from which several of our remarks in the text are 
 condensed, see Mr. Pickering's Eulogy, pp. 17 — 31. 
 VOL. IV. 
 
54 MEMOIR. 
 
 calculations ; " and that, " both as respects its object and execution, 
 it was wholly undeserving the patronage of the National Legislature." 
 
 3. Defence of the Review of Mr. Lambert's Memorial. 
 
 Published in the Monthly Anthology for January, 1811, 
 
 Vol. X. [pp. 40—49.] 
 
 Mr. Lambert having, in an angry manner, charged his reviewer 
 with " twistical cunning," " ingenious quibbling," " zeal for the honor 
 of the British nation, and the convenience of British mariners," 
 and challenged him " to examine his computation of the longitude 
 of the Capitol at Washington from Greenwich, and to point out a 
 mistake that can be made palpable,''' 1 — Dr. Bowditch, in this reply, 
 considers these charges of Mr. Lambert as beneath his notice, 
 but accepts his challenge, and proves that there is an error in every 
 one of the six examples he has given. 
 
 These two papers were fatal to the proposed project; and, 
 fortunately for the interests of science, Greenwich continues to be 
 the first meridian of all who speak the English language. 
 
 4. Revieiv of "A Treatise on the most easy and convenient 
 
 Method of computing the Path of a Comet, from several 
 Observations ; by William Olbers, 31. D. ; Weimar, 
 1797 ; " — m ul of "Theoria Motus Corporum Coelestium 
 in Sectionibus Conicis Solem ambientium ; " by Charles 
 Frederick Gauss; Hamburg, 1809. Published in the 
 North American Review for April, 1820, Vol. X.* 
 [pp. 260—272.] 
 
 * A copy of this article Dr. Bowditch sent to Baron Zach, with the letter before 
 referred to, marking a part of it as written by Mr. Everett, the editor. Zach publishes 
 
MEMOIR. 55 
 
 This article gives an account of several German astronomers 
 and their most noted periodical publications. Thus it contains a 
 notice of Dr. Olbers — " the Columbus of the planetary world " — 
 and of Gauss, the authors of the two works reviewed ; an account 
 of Bode's Astronomisches Jahrbuch, Zach's Monatliche Correspondenz, 
 and the Zeitschrift fur Astronomic It states the fact that, " out of 
 thirteen primary planets and satellites, discovered since the year 
 1781, we are indebted to persons born in Germany for twelve; and 
 that, in the determination of the orbits of these new bodies, they 
 have done more than all the other astronomers in the world." 
 
 5. Review of "A remarkable Astronomical Discovery, and 
 Observations of the Comet of July, 1819; by Dr. Olbers 
 of Bremen ; published in Bode's Astronomisches Jahrbuch 
 for 1822;" [and of two other articles in the same work, 
 for the years 1822 and 1823, on the same subject, by 
 Professor Encke of the Ducal Observatory at Seeberg, 
 near Gotha.] Published in the North American Review 
 for January, 1822, Vol. XIV. [pp. 26—34.] 
 
 extracts from it in his notes upon this letter, Vol. X. p. 231, and says, " It will be interesting 
 to the reader to learn how men of science in America render justice to those of Germany, 
 while they reproach their brethren beyond the water for the little attention which they have 
 bestowed upon our productions." Dr. Bowditch mentions in this review an interesting 
 paper which Mr. Ivory had published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 
 1814, giving a method of his own for computing the orbit of a comet, which, " upon examination, 
 turns out to be nothing more than that which Dr. Olbers had published in his work above 
 seventeen years before, although this coincidence must have been wholly unknown to Mr. 
 Ivory, and to the other members of the Royal Society. We consider this as a striking 
 instance of the little attention paid in Great Britain to works of mathematical science printed 
 in Germany." The passage added by Mr. Everett was merely that which states a like 
 neglect of German literature. 
 
56 MEMOIR. 
 
 A copy ot this article on Encke's comet Dr. Bowditch also sent 
 with the letter before mentioned, to Baron Zach, who, in his notes, 
 states that Dr. Bowditch " has here collected all that has been said 
 and done respecting this famous comet." In the concluding 
 paragraph of this article, the reviewer expresses his regret that, 
 "while Great Britain alone can boast of more than thirty public 
 and private observatories of considerable note, we have not, in 
 the whole United States, one that deserves the name." He also 
 speaks of the duties imposed on the importation of mathematical 
 instruments and scientific works, as fines and penalties, which had 
 been justly called " a bounty upon ignorance," &c. This whole 
 paragraph is extracted by Zach, (Vol. X. p. 245,) and he says, 
 "Voici de quelle maniere un bon republicain exhale son chagrin 
 en public ; c'est au moins quelque chose" &c. 
 
 6. Letter to Baron Zach, dated November 22, 1822; with a 
 
 Postscript, dated December 20, 1823. Published in his 
 Correspondance Astronomique for the year 1824,* Vol. 
 X. [pp. 223—230.] 
 
 7. Review, entitled "Remarks on several Papers published in 
 
 former Volumes of this Journal;" [the first being remarks 
 on "A New Algebraical Series, by Professor Wallace, of 
 Columbia, S. C. ;"] published in Silliman's Journal for 
 1824, Vol. VIII. [pp. 131— 139;] — and Remarks on Mr. 
 
 * This letter has been already more than once referred to, and contains many interesting 
 facts. The editor's comments upon it occupy twenty pages. With this letter Dr. Bowditch 
 had sent, besides his articles mentioned in the two last preceding items, a copy of the fifth 
 edition of the Practical Navigator. The editor says of him, " C'est le premier, et jusqu'a- 
 prcsent le seul grand geometre en Amerique." 
 
MEMOIR. 57 
 
 Wallace's Reply ; published in the same Journal for 1825, 
 
 Vol. IX. [pp. 293—304.] 
 
 The reviewer expresses his surprise that any offence should have 
 been given by the mere statement of the historical fact that this 
 " new series " was but the usual development of the binomial 
 theorem, and the same which had been given by Euler fifty years 
 before.* 
 
 8. Review of "Fund anient a Astronomies" by Frederick William 
 Bessel; 1818; — of the Tables of the Moon, by M. 
 Bnrckhardt ; 1812 ; — of the New Tables of Jupiter and 
 
 * Professor Wallace, in his Reply, states that he did not claim the series as new, and 
 appeals to a reference which he had made in his original article to Mr. Stainville, &c, and, 
 not knowing who his opponent was, says that he does not, like his reviewer, refer his readers 
 "to the Complement des Elemens d'Algebre, however useful as a school-book," &c. He also 
 states, " that the results which Euler has given do not include a single case of a transcendent 
 function, and were only given as examples of the applications of the simplest case of the 
 binomial theorem," &c. Dr. Bowditch, in his rejoinder, mentions the vague terms in which 
 Mr. Stainville had been originally referred to, and says, " It now appeal's that Mr. Stainville 
 gave it as new for the first time in 1818, and Professor Wallace for the second time in 1824, 
 Euler's having been published in 1775 : " and again ; " It is believed that most persons, after 
 reading what Professor W. has written, would suppose he claimed some, if not a very large 
 portion, for his own. But the real fact is, that none of it is his. The whole of the first seven 
 pages, and a large portion of the two remaining pages, of Professor W.'s first communication, 
 are merely literal translations from Stainville and Gergonne ; and what is not copied from 
 them is quite unimportant." He also says, "It is a fact, notwithstanding the positive 
 declaration of Professor W. to the contrary, that Euler's demonstration is not restricted to this 
 very simple case, but is general for all values of the exponent, whether integer, fractional 
 negative, or surd ; and it is characterized by Lacroix as being elegant and rigorous." This 
 review will be found quite amusing and piquant. It is, like the articles on Mr. Lambert's 
 Memorial, both as to matter and style, a fair specimen of Dr. Bowditch's powers as a 
 controversial writer. 
 
 VOL. IV. p 
 
58 MEMOIR. 
 
 of Saturn, by M. Bouvard ; 1808 ; — of the Tables of 
 the Satellites of Jupiter, fyc, by 31. Delambre ; 1817; 
 — of the Tables of Venus, of Mars, and of Mercury, by 
 B. de Lindenau ; 1810, 1811, and 1813; — and of the 
 Memoir on the Figure of the Earth, by 31. de Laplace ; 
 1817 and 1818.* Published in the North American 
 Review for April, 1825, Vol. XX. [pp. 309-367.] f 
 
 This brief but most comprehensive article upon modern astronomy 
 will be found to possess an uncommon degree of interest. It 
 consists of a series of biographical sketches, in which are described 
 all who have been remarkable for the successful cultivation of 
 physical science in modern times, bringing into view their actual 
 and relative services and merits, and awarding to each the degree 
 of approval to which he was entitled ; — the writer now dwelling 
 with enthusiasm upon his favorite Lagrange, now bestowing a 
 more qualified and guarded approbation, or a positive censure, upon 
 others inferior in powers and attainments to that distinguished 
 mathematician, or opposite to him in character.! It comprises, 
 
 * The titles of the particular works reviewed, are here given in an abridged form. 
 
 t In the Notes to Mr. Pickering's Eulogy, p. 95, a list is given, without comment, 
 of six of the above eight articles, the fifth and seventh not being noticed. All these 
 occasional publications of Dr. Bowditch, excepting the letter to Baron Zach, were collected 
 by him in two volumes, now in his library. 
 
 t Thus he says, " Upon the decease of Euler, Lagrange remained undisputedly the 
 greatest mathematician then living," &tc. ; while of Dr. Bradley's successor he says, " Dr. 
 Bliss was wholly unworthy of the office of astronomer royal. The account of his life by 
 La Lande is comprised in less than a dozen words — ' Bliss etait astronome royal ; il mourut 
 en 1765.'" This article is the one, of all Dr. Bowditch's occasional publications, which 
 exhibits in the clearest light his peculiar talents and acquirements. Evidently the work of one 
 possessing a knowledge of the actual state of mathematical science, in its various departments, 
 
MEMOIR. 59 
 
 especially, a very full account of Dr. Bradley's observations, and 
 of Bessel's services in reducing them ; of the best makers of 
 mathematical instruments — Graham, Bird, Ramsden, Troughton, 
 Jones, Reichenbach, Frauenhofer, Herschel, &c. ; of the successive 
 astronomers royal at Greenwich, and of the other chief European 
 observers ; and, lastly, " it gives an account of the labors of those 
 mathematicians who have improved the science of astronomy by 
 their calculations of the effects of the mutual attractions of the 
 heavenly bodies." 
 
 Dr. Bowditch was also, for many years, a contributor to the 
 Annalist and Mathematical Diary, solving every question there 
 proposed, in his usual style of simple elegance. He also wrote 
 or corrected various articles in the American edition of Rees's 
 Cyclopaedia. And all these various publications were the 
 employment merely of those leisure hours which were left to him 
 after all the calls of active business, and all the claims of social 
 and domestic life, had been most fully answered; and more than 
 this, and notwithstanding all these duties and engagements, and 
 all the occasional scientific labors which have been mentioned, such 
 was his wonderful economy of time, that, within the same period, 
 he also completed what has justly been characterized as the 
 gigantic undertaking of making the Translation and Commentary 
 now before the reader, — a work upon which, almost exclusively, 
 will rest his fame as a man of science.* 
 
 as extensive and minute as was possessed by any individual then living, — it is, throughout, a 
 record of the most sound and impartial criticism. Any biography of him, which has not this 
 review in an appendix, must be incomplete. 
 
 * Baron Zach, in his Correspondance Astronomitpie, Vol. X. p. 234, A. D. 1824, says, 
 " Nous finirons cette note par apprendre a nos lecteurs ce que nous a revele le professeur 
 
60 MEMOIR. 
 
 Upon recurring to the Translator's Preface, in the first volume, 
 it will be found there stated that " the notes were written at the 
 time of reading the volumes, as they were successively published. 
 The translation was made between the years 1814 [misprinted 
 1815] and 1817, at which time the four first volumes, with the 
 several appendices and notes, were ready for publication." The 
 fifth volume, published by La Place twenty years after the others, 
 was never translated by Dr. Bowditch, though he wrote many 
 important notes upon it.* It was his intention, however, had he 
 lived, to translate the volume. Death has defeated forever 
 that intention? The work which he had so nearly completed, no 
 one lives to finish as he would have finished it ; but, like the 
 beautiful painting from which was taken the engraving prefixed to 
 this memoir, and which never received the final touch of the dying 
 artist, it is the more interesting from the circumstances under 
 which it was left incomplete. 
 
 Everett, que M. Bowditch a traduit en anglais toute la Mecanique Celeste de M. La Place, 
 avec un ample commentaire, mais qu'on n'a pu encore le persuader de publier cet ouvrage qui 
 ne pourrait que lui faire un honneur infini, ainsi qu'a son pays, mais nous soup^onnons 
 qu'il attend pour cela l'ouvrage de MM. Plana et Carlini, qui est sur le metier, et qui ne 
 tardera pas a paraitre." A similar public announcement of this fact had been made in the 
 North American Review for April, 1820, Vol. X. p. 272; and the editor says that Dr 
 Bowditch " has not, however, yet been prevailed upon to do honor to himself and to his 
 country, by the publication of so great and arduous a work." 
 
 * A day or two only before his death, he received from Europe a translation, executed 
 by a young lady whom he had never seen, but who was soon to become his daughter, 
 embracing in seventy manuscript pages the first part of the fifth volume ; — a suitable offering 
 of filial duty to one who did not live to thank her in person for her kindness, but who left 
 for her at his decease an affectionate letter, written exactly a week before his death. 
 
MEMOIR. 61 
 
 As, in the course of publication, it became necessary to 
 incorporate into the notes much additional matter, owing to the 
 subsequent progress of mathematical science, they were all, in a 
 great measure, rewritten ; and thus, perhaps, the present four 
 volumes will be found to contain almost every thing of importance 
 in the whole five volumes of the original work, excepting what 
 relates to the earth's temperature and the velocity of sound.* 
 Still, it was Dr. Bowditch's intention to introduce into the fifth 
 volume more original matter than into either of the preceding 
 ones, making it, as it were, the general depository alike of all the 
 results of his extensive theoretical investigations, and of the 
 practical experience of a long life. It was, especially, a source of 
 regret to him, that he could not prepare the Index to the work, 
 which he felt assured, from his intimate knowledge of its contents, 
 and of the relative importance of the different matters of which 
 it treats, he was more competent to prepare than any one else. 
 That duty, we believe, however, will at a future time be ably 
 performed by a friend, (Benjamin Peirce, Esq., Professor of 
 Mathematics in Harvard University,) whose revision of the entire 
 work, when in the process of publication, and vigilance in detecting 
 typographical errors, Dr. Bowditch always valued as an additional 
 means of insuring its accuracy. 
 
 It would not be our desire, were we competent to the task, to 
 offer any criticism upon the present work. It will itself speak to 
 every reader. A few remarks, however, upon the motives, views, 
 and objects of the translator may not be inappropriate. 
 
 * Mr. Pickering's Eulogy, p. 54. 
 vol. iv. q 
 
62 MEMOIR. 
 
 In the first place, then, his great design was to supply those 
 steps in the author's demonstrations, which were not discoverable 
 without much study and research, and which had rendered the 
 original work so abstruse and difficult, as to lead a writer in the 
 Edinburgh Review to say there were not twelve individuals in 
 Great Britain who could read it with any facility.* Dr. Bowditch 
 himself was accustomed to remark, " Whenever I meet in La 
 Place with the words ' Thus it plainly appears,' I am sure that 
 hours, and perhaps days, of hard study will alone enable me to 
 discover how it plainly appears." So important did he consider 
 the object which he thus had in view, that every letter which he 
 received, proving to his satisfaction the fact of some young man's 
 having read his Translation and Commentary, afforded him 
 much more pleasure than the favorable mention of it in popular 
 journals, or even than the flattering approbation bestowed by 
 competent judges ; since, while the one would be but an opinion, 
 the other would be a proof, that the great end of his labors had 
 been accomplished. He received several such letters. M. 
 Lacroix wrote to him that he had recommended the work to a 
 young professor at Lausanne. There can, indeed, be no doubt 
 
 * " We will venture to say, that the number of those in this island who can read that work 
 with any tolerable facility, is small indeed. If we reckon two or three in London and the 
 military schools in its vicinity, the same number at each of the English Universities, and 
 perhaps four in Scotland, we shall hardly exceed a dozen ; and yet we are fully persuaded that 
 our reckoning is beyond the truth." — Edinburgh Review, 1S08, Vol. XI. p. 281. 
 
 In America, two, and perhaps three persons, besides Dr. Bowditch, were able to read the 
 original work critically ; but a competent judge has doubted whether the whole of it had 
 been so read even by one. 
 
MEMOIR. 63 
 
 that it lias been truly said by a late foreign review,* respecting 
 this Translation and Commentary, " a work which existed in mere 
 abstraction before, has been made as accessible, to all public and 
 popular purposes, as its essential nature would permit ; " and by 
 another review, t " the notes to each page leave no step in the 
 text, of moment, unsupplied, and hardly any material difficulty 
 of conception or reasoning unelucidated." t Mr. Babbage, in a 
 letter to the translator, August 5, 1832, says, "It is a proud 
 circumstance for America, that she has preceded her parent 
 country in such an undertaking ; and we in England must be 
 content that our language is made the vehicle of the sublimest 
 portion of human knowledge, and be grateful to you for rendering 
 it more accessible." 
 
 A second great object of the translator was, to continue 
 the original work to the present time, so that it should place 
 in possession of the reader the many recent improvements 
 and discoveries in mathematical science. That the most 
 eminent living mathematicians consider this end to have been 
 attained, clearly appears by the following extracts from letters 
 addressed by them to Dr. Bovvditch, and now before us: — M. 
 Lacroix says, July 5, 1836, "I am more and more astonished 
 at your continued perseverance in a task so laborious and 
 
 * London Athenaeum, 1838. 
 
 t London Quarterly Review, Vol. XLVII. p. 558. 
 
 t An English professor of mathematics, who was at Rome in the winter of 1836-1837, 
 told a friend of Dr. Bowditch, that he was indebted to these notes for his knowledge of 
 La Place ; and that, though he did not expect to be very long absent from England, he had 
 ordered the next volume to be sent after him to Italy, if it should appear before his return 
 home. 
 
64 MEMOIR. 
 
 extensive. I perceive that you do not confine yourself to the 
 mere text of your author, and to the elucidations which it 
 requires ; but you subjoin the parallel passages and subsequent 
 remarks of those geometers who have treated of the same subjects ; 
 so that your work will embrace the actual state of science at 
 the time of its publication." — M. Legendre, in a letter dated at 
 Paris, July 2, 1832, says, " Your work is not merely a translation 
 with a commentary; I regard it as a new edition, augmented 
 and improved, and such a one as might have come from the 
 hands of the author himself, if he had consulted his true interest, 
 that is, if he had been solicitously studious of being clear," &c. — & 
 Mr. Bessel, also, in a letter dated at Konigsberg, February 18, 
 1836, writes, " Through your labors on the Mechanism of the 
 Heavens, La Place's work is brought down to our own time, 
 as you add to it the studies of geometricians since its first 
 appearance. You yourself enrich this science by your own 
 additions, for which especial obligations are due to you." — M. 
 Puissant (in a letter dated May 31, 1835, and addressed to 
 D. B. Warden, Esq., through whose agency Dr. Bowditch had 
 transmitted to him a copy of this work) observes, " The numerous 
 additions which accompany the text, and which, in their turn, 
 deserve to be translated into French, are the more important, 
 as they clear away the difficulties which the subject frequently 
 presents, and moreover include whatever Dr. Bowditch and other 
 geometers have added to the theory of the motions of the 
 heavenly bodies." 
 
 A third object of the translator was one which, though 
 wholly subordinate to the others, he still thought of considerable 
 
MEMOIR. 65 
 
 importance. La Place had so modified, by the action of his own 
 mind, the various productions of other men of genius, that, while 
 he stated the results of their labors, or adopted their improvements, 
 he did not remember, or at least did not think it necessary to admit, 
 the source to which he was, in each particular instance, indebted. 
 His work told the great truths of science, but omitted to state by 
 whom those truths had been first discovered and announced. But 
 it must be remembered that it was concise in all its processes and 
 expressions ; and he probably felt that every reader, whose genius 
 could follow him into the depth of his abstruse speculations, must 
 necessarily have previously read the same works from which he had 
 himself derived assistance ; and that, familiar as they must be to the 
 reader already, it would be superfluous, by any acknowledgment 
 or quotation, to direct attention to them. Be this as it may, 
 the fact is certain that, in the original work, credit is frequently 
 not given to the eminent mathematicians of ancient and modern 
 times, by whose labors those of its author were rendered less 
 difficult or more effective. But Dr. Bowditch thought it due 
 to the cause of literary justice, that, in every such instance, the 
 omission in the original work should be supplied. Several of 
 the communications which he received, mention his course in 
 this respect with high approbation, and express the regret of 
 the writers that La Place should himself have thought and acted 
 otherwise. Dr. Bowditch was well aware of that natural self- 
 love, by which every one is gratified at finding his labors approved 
 by others ; and he could especially realize how great must have been 
 the pleasure felt at being quoted by La Place for some important 
 process or discovery which had contributed to the completeness of 
 the Mecanique Celeste. He had communicated to the public, and 
 vol. iv. r 
 
66 MEMOIR. 
 
 to La Place himself, a notice of an error in the original work, 
 which was corrected in a subsequent edition, but without even a 
 private acknowledgment. That it was not publicly noticed by 
 the author, was of course, for the reason above stated, no cause 
 of any especial complaint. And Dr. Bowditch well knew by 
 personal experience, upon more than one occasion, that it was very 
 possible his own letter to La Place, or La Place's reply, might 
 have miscarried.* It has also been suggested, that La Place was 
 extremely averse to the act of writing a letter at any time, however 
 strong or urgent a motive existed for so doing. This was certainly 
 the case with Dr. Bowditch. Often, upon the receipt of an epistle 
 or note, he has taken his hat, called personally upon the writer, 
 and given him a verbal answer. f 
 
 * Eight copies of the first volume of this Translation and Commentary, sent by 
 him as presents to the most distinguished institutions and astronomers of Germany, wholly 
 failed to reach their place of destination ; and several copies of the first volume of Struve's 
 Observations, transmitted by the author as presents from the Imperial Observatory at Dorpat 
 in Russia to the Royal Society of London, in 1821, found their way, with the original letter 
 which accompanied them, to a bookstore in Boston, in 1824, where Dr. Bowditch accidentally 
 saw and purchased them ; retaining one of which for his own use, he transmitted all the others 
 as at first directed. He received no reply whatever, and presumed that the same evil destiny 
 had a"ain followed them. But some years afterwards, he found in Schumacher's Astronornische 
 Nachrichten, Vol. IV. p. 398, a letter to the editor, from Francis Baily, Esq., of London, 
 dated January 19, 1826, giving an account of their curious wanderings; of the agency of 
 " Mr. Bowditch, the celebrated American astronomer," in the matter ; and of their safe arrival 
 at last, " after a long and circuitous voyage of five years, from Dorpat to Boston, and from 
 Boston to London. 
 
 f When his third son went to Europe to pursue his medical studies, he gave him no 
 letters of introduction, but, as a substitute for them, certain copies of a newly-published 
 volume of this work to deliver as presents. 
 
MEMOIR. 67 
 
 We should much regret that any of the preceding remarks 
 should be construed as in the least degree attributing to La Place 
 an intentional or unfair appropriation to himself of the fruits of 
 the labor of others. We allude only to an error of judgment, 
 which, though easily accounted for upon the above suppositions, 
 is much to be regretted, as having occasionally exposed him to this 
 more serious imputation. Any such omission of the author, as 
 far as Dr. Bowditch was himself concerned, was, long before his 
 decease, wholly effaced from his memory by the kindness shown 
 to one of his sons by the widow of La Place, who transmitted, by 
 his hands, as a present to his father, a bust of her late husband, 
 which has ever since been one of the ornaments of his library, 
 and which, by a provision of his will, is eventually to be deposited, 
 with the manuscript of this work, in the Library of Harvard 
 College, there to be preserved as a joint memorial of the 
 author and the commentator. 
 
 Such were the three chief objects which it was the design of 
 this Commentary to accomplish; and the general merits of the work 
 have been acknowledged, in language no less strong than that 
 already quoted, by Professor Airy, Francis Baily, Esq., the late 
 Bishop of Cloyne, and other astronomers of Great Britain, as well 
 as by those of France, Germany, and Italy. Thus, Sir John 
 Herschel, in a letter to the translator, dated March 8, 1830, says, 
 " It is very gratifying to me to commence a scientific intercourse, 
 which I have long desired, with the congratulations which the 
 accomplishment of so great a work naturally calls for ; and I trust 
 that its reception by the public will be such (of which, indeed, 
 there can be little doubt) as to encourage you to proceed to the 
 
68 MEMOIR. 
 
 publication of the succeeding volumes, and that you will be 
 favored with health, strength, and leisure, to enable you to 
 complete the whole of this gigantic task in the masterly manner 
 in which you have commenced it. It is a work, indeed, of which 
 your nation may well be proud, as demonstrating that the spirit 
 of energy and enterprise which forms the distinguishing feature 
 of its character, is carried into the regions of science ; and 
 every expectation of future success may be justified from such 
 beginnings." — There was also one delicate attention which he 
 received from a female hand. Mrs. Somerville sent a copy of her 
 translation of a part of this work to him who was so happily and 
 successfully engaged in the same labors. This volume, invested by 
 him in a rich and beautiful binding, still attests the pleasure which 
 he derived from it as a tribute of respect to his genius from one of 
 the most gifted women of the age. — M. Lacroix, in a letter of 
 April 5, 1830, writes, "Besides doing honor to the able, patient, 
 and conscientious geometer, who has undertaken this great labor, 
 your work, by the beauty of its typographical execution, does honor 
 to the country where it is published. It is perhaps the most 
 beautiful book which has appeared upon mathematics. The 
 calculations in it possess the greatest neatness ; and the figures 
 which you have inserted in the body of the work itself unite 
 the greatest elegance with convenience. An undertaking so 
 remarkable entitles you to the gratitude of those who are 
 desirous of studying to the bottom the theory of the system of 
 the world, which rests upon transcendental mechanics; and it 
 makes us wish for the speedy publication of the remaining 
 volumes." — So also Mr. Encke of Berlin, in a letter dated 
 May o, 183G, speaks of it as a work "which, by the depth 
 
MEMOIR. 69 
 
 of the researches with which it is accompanied, will insure 
 to you a distinguished place among the astronomers who 
 have employed themselves on the difficult branch of physical 
 astronomy." — Mr. Cacciatore, conductor of the Royal Observatory 
 at Palermo, in a letter dated May 1, 1836, mentions it as 
 having " excited the enthusiasm of all who took an interest in the 
 subject of it ; " and in his treatise on Goniometry he remarks, 
 " The profoundness and clearness which are conspicuous in 
 that work, demonstrate that it was only by the aid of such 
 powers of analysis that a commentary could be written upon 
 the immortal work of La Place, and that La Place cannot be 
 read with advantage unless it is accompanied with the notes of 
 Bowditch. Italy must have a translation of it." * 
 
 The translation of this work was, as has been stated, completed 
 as early as 1817; but so limited was Dr. Bowditch's income, 
 that it hardly sufficed to meet the expenses of a growing family, 
 upon all of whom he was desirous to confer the advantages of the 
 best education which the country afforded ; and all that was not 
 needed for this purpose was expended in collecting around him 
 the choicest scientific works of ancient and modern times. The 
 American Academy, with that kindness and liberality which ever 
 marked their intercourse with their late President, and which have 
 characterized their proceedings since his decease, offered to publish 
 the work at their own expense. He was also solicited to publish 
 it by subscription. But his natural and praiseworthy independence 
 of spirit induced him unhesitatingly to decline these gratifying 
 
 * See Notes to Mr. Pickering's Eulogy, pp. 96 — 100. 
 
 VOL. IV. 5 
 
70 MEMOIR. 
 
 proposals. He was aware, from the character of the work, that 
 it would find but few readers, and he did not wish any one to feel 
 compelled, or to be induced to subscribe for it, lest he should have 
 it in his power to say, " I patronized Mr. Bowditch by buying his 
 book, which I cannot read." He was thus obliged to wait even 
 longer than the time prescribed by the poet, " nonumque prematur 
 in annum," — until, under more favorable circumstances, he was 
 enabled to commence the publication at his own expense. 
 
 But, though this work was not yet published, his fame as a 
 mathematician had become fully established, and several of the 
 scientific institutions of this country and of Europe conferred upon 
 him their highest honors. The following are the foreign societies 
 of which he was admitted a member, and the date of the several 
 diplomas : — The Edinburgh Royal Society, January 26, 1818 ; the 
 Royal Society of London, March 12, 1818 ; Royal Irish Academy, 
 March 16, 1819; Royal Astronomical Society of London, April 13, 
 1832 ; Royal Academy of Palermo, March 12, 1835 ; British 
 Association, June 29, 1835 ; Royal Academy of Berlin, March, 
 1836. It is worthy of remark, that France, the labors of whose 
 greatest author have been by him rendered of so much more 
 practical value and extensive usefulness, should alone have 
 withheld from him the like honors.' 5 In this country, he was 
 elected a member of the American Philosophical Society held 
 at Philadelphia, April 21, 1809 ; of the Connecticut Academy 
 of Arts and Sciences, October 26, 1813; and of the Literary and 
 
 * It is indeed mentioned in Mr. Pickering's Eulogy, p. 101, that, but for his death, he 
 would probably soon have been elected a member of the Royal Institute of France. 
 
MEMOIR. 71 
 
 Philosophical Society of New York, January 17, 1815 ; &c. &c. ; 
 and at the annual commencement in 1816, he received from 
 Harvard College the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch always felt a deep interest in the various literary, 
 scientific, and charitable institutions of his native town. It was 
 chiefly through his instrumentality that, in 1810, a union was 
 effected between the Philosophical Library, before referred to, and 
 the Social Library, so called, which was the origin of the Salem 
 Athenaeum ; and from that period, during his whole residence in 
 Salem, he continued to be one of its most active and influential 
 trustees. Having felt, in early life, the importance of a ready 
 access to books, he labored to promote a most free and extensive 
 circulation through the community, of the works in this institution, 
 and to make its advantages as easy of attainment as possible, by 
 every deserving individual. The gratitude inspired in his breast 
 by the recollection of his own obligations of this nature, when he 
 was but a poor apprentice, ended only with his life. Recurring to 
 this subject in his will, he says, "These inestimable advantages 
 have made me deeply a debtor to the Salem Athenaeum; " and in 
 return he bequeathed to it the sum of one thousand dollars. In 
 accepting this bequest, the trustees admit most fully that "the 
 early benefits which he thus gratefully remembered in his will," he 
 had before repaid by his services and donations ; and they add 
 that they " see in this last act the unconscious and disinterested 
 devotedness with which he, through a life of activity and business, 
 fostered all the interests of learning and education," 
 
 Equally strong and lasting was his gratitude towards another 
 
72 MEMOIR. 
 
 excellent institution, the Salem Marine Society. Composed 
 exclusively, as its name denotes, of such as had made the sea the 
 scene of their enterprising labors, Dr. Bowditch and his father 
 had been both successively enrolled among its members. The 
 kind and timely aid, to which, during several years of his infancy 
 and childhood, he had been indebted for some of the absolute 
 necessaries of life, he mentioned with emotion to his children, 
 during his last illness, and deemed that he but paid a debt to this 
 institution when he bequeathed to it a like sum of one thousand 
 dollars, in aid of its charitable objects and purposes. His associates 
 in this society were peculiarly competent judges of the value of 
 his labors and services ; and we doubt if our language could 
 be made to present a more simple and beautiful expression of 
 gratitude and regard than is imbodied in the following extracts 
 from resolutions adopted by them upon the occasion of his decease : 
 — " In his death a public, a national, a human benefactor has 
 departed. Not this community, nor our country only, but the 
 whole world, has reason to do honor to his memory. When the 
 voice of Eulogy shall be still, when the tear of Sorrow shall cease 
 to flow, no monument will be needed to keep alive his memory 
 among men ; but as long as ships shall sail, the needle point to 
 the north, and the stars go through their wonted courses in the 
 heavens, the name of Dr. Bowditch will be revered as of one who 
 helped his fellow-men in a time of need, who was and is a guide 
 to them over the pathless ocean, and of one who forwarded the 
 great interests of mankind." 
 
 Each stranger who visits the hospitable city of Salem, is 
 desirous to see the Museum of the Salem East India Marine 
 
MEMOIR. 73 
 
 Society, or, as it is familiarly called, the Salem Museum. It is 
 readily and gratuitously opened to his inspection. As he enters its 
 spacious hall, his attention is arrested by a full length portrait of 
 its late President. There the Commentator on the Mecanique 
 Celeste seems still to preside in person over a favorite scene of 
 his labors, inviting the attention of the visiter to what he has 
 himself, in his will, described as " a museum of a very rare 
 and peculiar character, collected from distant countries, and 
 affording a proof alike of the enterprise, taste, and liberality of 
 such of the citizens of Salem as have followed a seafaring life." 
 The members of this society are such only as have sailed, in the 
 capacity of masters or supercargoes, beyond the Cape of Good 
 Hope or Cape Horn ; and besides the obtaining of curiosities 
 from these distant regions, an object of much greater practical 
 importance, the collection of facts and observations in aid of 
 nautical science, has always been zealously promoted by this 
 society, and is believed to have been suggested by Dr. Bowditch 
 himself. A blank book is furnished to each member, uniformly 
 prepared for recording these facts and observations during each 
 voyage ; and, upon the return of the vessel, it is deposited with 
 the society. It is then examined by a committee, who select 
 and record in other volumes, having a convenient index for 
 reference, all that they consider important ; and the result is 
 a mass of nautical information, such as, probably, exists 
 nowhere else in the world, and which Dr. Bowditch found of great 
 service in preparing for the press the various editions of the 
 Practical Navigator. He was for many years Inspector of its 
 Journals, before he became its President, and, in both of these 
 relations to the society, highly promoted its progress and 
 vol. iv. t 
 
74 MEMOIR. 
 
 success. Owning Salem for our birthplace, we feel proud of this 
 institution ; and we know that the bequest to it by its former 
 President of the like sum of one thousand dollars, was made from 
 an actual sense of obligations conferred, as in the case of the two 
 other institutions which he thus remembered. 
 
 Besides these duties and engagements of a public nature, Dr. 
 Bowditch became, in 1818, and was at his death, trustee for 
 managing an estate of nearly half a million of dollars, which had 
 been left by a merchant of Salem ; and it may truly be said that 
 there seemed to be no end to the various little services and good 
 offices which he constantly delighted to render, and for which he 
 was always sure to find the requisite leisure. His fondness for 
 imparting as well as acquiring knowledge, was still manifested ; 
 as an instance of which it may be mentioned that he instructed 
 several young ladies of Salem in French. 
 
 In his political opinions, he was a decided Federalist, and 
 during the late war between this country and Great Britain, he 
 took great interest in the absorbing and important events of 
 the time. It has been stated that, when this war was first 
 declared, he was, for two or three days, wholly unable to attend 
 to his usual engagements of business or study. At the end of 
 this time, however, he addressed his wife with " This will never 
 do ; " and, summoning a resolution to hope for the best, as the evil 
 could not be avoided, he returned with alacrity to his ordinary 
 course of life ; and nothing more was ever heard from him about 
 the war, except that he often expressed the ardent hope of 
 obtaining a speedy and an honorable peace, and used all those 
 
MEMOIR. 75 
 
 exertions which he thought the crisis required to accomplish so 
 desirable an end.* It is believed that, later in life, and in view 
 of its incidental and remote results, he regarded this war, if 
 not as a necessary vindication of the national honor, at least as 
 far less disastrous in its consequences than he had anticipated. 
 
 An instance may be mentioned of a fearless and independent 
 discharge of duty, upon an occasion involving quite an exciting 
 political topic. The legislature had passed a law in which a 
 comma was inserted contrary, probably, to the true intention of 
 the law-makers ; but the mistake (if it were one) existed in 
 the original draft, and in all the printed copies of the statute* 
 Certain acts had been done by the Federalists, under authority 
 of the law as actually promulgated, which their political opponents 
 thought indictable offences, and which would have been so, if the 
 comma had been transposed. A term of court was held in Salem, 
 and Dr. Bowditch was returned upon the grand jury, and his 
 associates elected him foreman. lie had made himself thoroughly 
 acquainted with this particular case, and had with him a legal 
 opinion drawn up by one whose knowledge of law commanded 
 universal respect. The prosecuting officer of the government 
 attended before the jury, and, after stating that it was incumbent 
 
 * On one occasion, he was distributing votes at the ballot box, upon a very inclement 
 day, by the side of a political opponent, whose efforts just counteracted his own. Each was 
 troubled with a severe cold, and Dr. Bowditch proposed that they should both go home, 
 as he was satisfied that their absence would leave the final result the same as if they both 
 continued their labors. His opponent smiled, and objected to the proposition, that it would 
 indicate a lukewarmness in a good cause. This reason immediately operated upon Dr. 
 Bowditch to withdraw his proposition, and the equal struggle was resumed. 
 
76 MEMOIR. 
 
 upon him to give them any legal information which might be 
 needed in the course of their duties, added that complaints would 
 be laid before them of violations of this statute, which he 
 accordingly proceeded to explain. Dr. Bowditch said, " Sir, I 
 doubt the accuracy of your explanation. Have you got the statute 
 with you?" The legal adviser said he had, and produced it, and 
 read it with a wrong emphasis, as if the comma were otherwise 
 inserted. Dr. Bowditch indignantly interrupted him : " Please, 
 sir, to show me the book : " and on looking at it, he added, " Why 
 did you so read it as, by your emphasis, to give us a false impression 
 of its meaning?" The reply was, "There is no doubt the comma 
 is inserted where it now is, only by mistake." Dr. Bowditch 
 said " It is your duty, sir, to tell us what the law is as you 
 find it, not to tell how you think it ought to be improved or altered. 
 We have no further occasion for your services at present ; when 
 we wish them, we will send for you." His associates on the 
 jury, though nearly equally divided in political sentiments, were 
 hio-hly gratified hy his characteristic promptness and energy, and 
 refused to find any bills of indictment for the supposed violations 
 of law, and unanimously passed a very full vote of thanks to him 
 for the fairness and independence with which he had presided 
 over their deliberations. 
 
 For the last twenty years of his life, he retired altogether 
 from the exciting scenes of political strife to what he called his 
 "peaceful mathematics ;" though he still continued to entertain and 
 express decided opinions upon public men and measures, and to act 
 upon these convictions. Dr. Bowditch was never fond of public life. 
 He never held a seat in the House of Representatives of his native 
 
MEMOIR. 77 
 
 state, and was never a speaker in the assemblies of his fellow- 
 citizens. He was, however, elected to the honorable office of 
 one of the Executive Council of Massachusetts, which he held 
 during the years 1815 and 1816, being, during one of those 
 years, at the council board under the administration of Governor 
 Strong, far whose dignified manners, commanding talents, and 
 exalted character, he entertained the highest respect ; and this 
 sentiment, it is believed, was cordially reciprocated on the part 
 of the chief magistrate. At this board, upon more than one 
 trying occasion, he gave his vote and exerted his influence in 
 support of the law, and refused to screen from its penalties the 
 murderer and other criminals who had deliberately violated its 
 provisions without any palliating circumstances ; notwithstanding 
 the strong and urgent appeals in their behalf, made by many 
 excellent and benevolent citizens, among whom were some of 
 his own personal friends. He considered that a enpricious 
 exercise of even the prerogative of mercy, would, in effect, 
 convert a government of law into a government of men. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch's father had originally worshipped at the Episcopal 
 church in Salem, but became a member of Dr. Bentley's society 
 while his son was quite young. Upon his second marriage, 
 Dr. Bowditch removed to a different part of the town, and, for 
 this and other reasons, became a member of the society under 
 the pastoral care of his friend Dr. Prince, and always continued 
 so during his residence in Salem. Within the walls of its 
 ancient church was the first simple rite of the Christian religion 
 administered to all his children. A coolness on the part of Dr. 
 Bentley, originating in this removal from his society, resulted, 
 
 VOL. IV. u 
 
78 MEMOIR. 
 
 from political causes during the war, in an entire estrangement, 
 which was always a source of regret to Dr. Bowditch, who made 
 the first advances toward a reconciliation, by a direct call at his 
 house with a friend who desired an introduction. The visiters 
 were received with the utmost cordiality, and the intercourse, 
 thus happily renewed, was never afterwards interrupted ; and the 
 family still retain in their possession memorials both of the early 
 and the late friendship of Dr. Bentley. It was indeed particularly 
 delightful to Dr. Bowditch to find that the restoration of peace to 
 the country, brought with it a renewal of that social intercourse 
 which political dissensions had wholly interrupted. He often 
 mentioned the visit of Mr. Monroe, the President of the United 
 States, to the town of Salem, in 1817, as an occasion never to be 
 forgotten, because it was the first upon which, after a separation 
 of many years, were again brought together within the same 
 circle so many of his earliest and most valued friends. 
 
 Many and very flattering and advantageous proposals were 
 made to Dr. Bowditch, from time to time, to induce him to leave 
 Salem ; but his attachment to his native place proved stronger 
 than any temptation to which he was thus exposed. In 1806, 
 he was elected Hollis Professor of Mathematics in Harvard 
 University.* In 1818, President Jefferson desired him to accept 
 
 * By a singular coincidence, it happened that, at the annual commencement of that year, 
 he was seated between two strangers, one of whom, reaching forward, observed to the other 
 the fact of his nomination to this office, and asked whether it would probably be accepted ; 
 to which the other replied, that he rather thought not, since Mr. Bowditch would probably be 
 afraid of " singing small on classic ground." But with the classics of his own science 
 Dr. Bowditch was sure that be was more conversant than any one there, and his ability to 
 
MEMOIR. 79 
 
 the like professorship in his University at Charlottesville in 
 Virginia ; and in his letter containing- this request he says, " We 
 are satisfied we can get from no country a professor of higher 
 qualifications than yourself for our mathematical department." 
 In the same year, he was also urgently requested to take charge 
 of an insurance office in Boston. In 1820, Mr. Calhoun, the 
 Secretary of War of the United States, requested him to consent 
 to a nomination to the vacant professorship of mathematics at 
 West Point, and says, " I am anxious to avail myself of the first 
 mathematical talents and acquirements to fill the vacancy." 
 
 In 1823, he received an invitation to take upon himself the 
 charge of an institution in Boston, — similar to that which he 
 then managed, — jointly with another, recently incorporated by the 
 name of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company, 
 for which latter institution his services were considered almost 
 indispensable. The salary offered at first was exactly three 
 times that which he then enjoyed. After mature consultation 
 with his friends, and after bestowing upon the proposal his own 
 most careful deliberation, it was also decidedly declined. But 
 those who made it would admit of no refusal. A new offer was 
 forthwith made of a still more liberal compensation, ($5000;) and 
 as he felt it to be more than an equivalent for any services which 
 he could render, — and as any further refusal on his part, which 
 should have led to the offer of a still higher salary, he would 
 
 teach to others what he knew himself, he had often abundantly tested. He declined the 
 appointment, chiefly from an unwillingness to break away from all the pleasant associations 
 connected with Salem. 
 
80 MEMOIR. 
 
 have regarded as a mere extortion, — he felt that, in listening 
 to the proposal, he was now obeying a call of duty, and he 
 accordingly, though with great reluctance, determined to quit 
 the town where, as he says in his will, " he had passed so 
 pleasantly the first fifty years of his life." He could, indeed, 
 hardly determine to make the sacrifice in question ; and, even 
 when it was determined upon, a vague hope and anticipation 
 were long cherished both by himself and his wife, that eventually 
 they should return and end their days amid the scenes of their 
 childhood. Until his death he continued to take the same lively 
 interest as ever in the affairs of that city. 
 
 He left his early home attended with as cordial and sincere 
 expressions of respectful and affectionate regret as could possibly 
 have honored his departure. A public dinner was given to him 
 upon that occasion, which will long be remembered by those 
 present as a scene of the most interesting character ; while the 
 recorded account of the festival will ever attest that it was 
 a tribute paid to " science supported by genius, guided by 
 benevolence, and attended by all the virtues ; " — to their 
 " distinguished citizen, the first of his countrymen in the walks 
 of science, and second to no man on earth for purity and honor ; " 
 — to "their respected guest, who reflected upon his country the 
 brightest honors of science, and diffused in social life the warmest 
 influences of benevolence." And the wish was expressed, that 
 he might " enjoy a happiness as pure as his fame, and constant 
 as the activity of his virtues ; " and it was declared that, " as the 
 monarchy of France had done homage to her La Place, so would 
 the republic of America not be ungrateful to her Bowditch." 
 
MEMOIR. 81 
 
 It may here be mentioned, as an instance of Dr. Bowditch's 
 diffidence and aversion to all public display, that he previously 
 obtained from the president of the day a promise not to call 
 upon him to address, however briefly, his assembled friends ; — an 
 incident which probably never before occurred upon a like occasion. 
 It is also an interesting circumstance, that that gentleman (Hon. 
 Benjamin Pickman) was the same individual to whom he was 
 indirectly indebted in early life for his copy of Newton's Principia.* 
 
 This was the last occasion upon which Dr. Bowditch was 
 personally to receive from his native city any public expression 
 of those sentiments which continued, however, to be uniformly 
 cherished and manifested towards him by its citizens to the 
 close of his life. But honorable indeed to his memory were the 
 proceedings of Salem consequent upon his decease, and gratefully 
 will his children ever cherish the remembrance of them. The 
 resolutions then adopted describe him to have been " a townsman 
 of singular simplicity, integrity, purity, and benevolence of 
 character ; attaining from humble life, by his intellectual and 
 moral energy, the highest honors of science, and the respect 
 
 * Dr. Bowditch had, many years before, been a member of an engine club in Salem, — 
 a voluntary association of gentlemen for securing each other's property from the ravages 
 of fire. At the occasional meetings of this club, of a social character, he stipulated that 
 he should never be called upon for toasts or sentiments, unless he could be allowed to 
 get them written and delivered by proxy. This was agreed to, and a friend, of " infinite 
 humor," prepared accordingly a number of them, of a most appropriate character, which 
 were from time to time produced, and highly applauded, and the more warmly from the 
 above circumstance respecting their origin, which, though ostensibly concealed with 
 suitable gravity, was yet known to all the members. 
 VOL. IV. V 
 
82 MEMOIR. 
 
 and gratitude of the community as a public benefactor ; " and 
 "earnestly commend to the admiration and imitation of all., 
 and especially of the young men of his native place, the 
 noble example of active and patient industry, unconquerable 
 perseverance, unbending uprightness and faithfulness in all 
 the relations of life, and ardent love and constant pursuit of 
 knowledge and truth, which were the foundations of a character 
 of such honorable distinction and rare usefulness ; " and declare 
 that " the people of Salem have ever retained a deep interest 
 in his happiness and fame since he reluctantly left his native 
 place for a sphere of more extended usefulness ; " and that 
 they " now receive and acknowledge with grateful sensibility the 
 evidence of his generous remembrance of his first home in the 
 last days of his life, contained in his liberal bequests to three 
 of the most useful and important institutions of the city." * 
 
 Thus, in 1823, Dr. Bowditch removed to Boston, with his 
 wife and a family of six children, — four sons and two daughters, 
 — the eldest of whom had not completed his professional studies, 
 and the youngest of whom was but an infant. The remains 
 of one interesting child, who died in 1820, at the age of ten 
 years, and those also of an infant boy, repose in the burial- 
 grounds of Salem. All the anticipations and motives which 
 
 * Pursuant to another resolution, a public Eulogy was pronounced upon the deceased 
 by Hon. Daniel Appleton White, which, listened to at the time with the deepest interest, 
 will in its published form remain as true, beautiful, and discriminating a delineation of 
 character, as might have been expected from one who himself possesses a high order 
 of talent, who was long an intimate personal friend of Dr. Bowditch, and whose thoughts 
 are always clothed in a classic elegance of style. 
 
MEMOIR. 83 
 
 determined Dr. Bowditch to this removal, were fully realized 
 and justified by its ultimate results. In Boston he found many 
 of his early friends, who had preceded him in this removal, and 
 was in a few years followed by others. Strangers extended to 
 him the hand of friendship, and gradually became endeared to 
 him. He saw his three eldest sons engaged in the professions 
 or pursuits which their tastes had led them to select, under 
 circumstances more advantageous than his former place of 
 residence would have afforded. His own increased income 
 allowed him to enrich still more his valuable library ; and he 
 found himself surrounded by sources of the purest and highest 
 enjoyments. In his will he speaks of Boston as " the home of 
 his adoption, where as a stranger he met with welcome, and 
 had continued to receive constantly increasing proofs of kindness 
 and regard." 
 
 The affairs of the Commercial Insurance Company were 
 successfully conducted by him till the increasing labor of his office 
 as Actuary of the Life Insurance Company, induced the latter 
 institution to offer him the same salary which had been previously 
 paid by both together, and which was subsequently still further 
 increased to six thousand dollars. He now relinquished the 
 charge of the other corporation, whose charter was surrendered, 
 and its concerns prosperously closed. And it was without any 
 regret that Dr. Bowditch bade farewell to the cares and anxieties 
 attendant upon marine insurance, where occasionally an unforeseen 
 accident intervenes to destroy the fairest prospect of success. The 
 company of which he was President had met with two losses, 
 of thirty thousand dollars each, in quick succession ; and though 
 
84 MEMOIR. 
 
 one was a case of total destruction by fire, upon the high seas, and 
 the other a case of equally fatal shipwreck, and in each instance 
 the vessels lost were of the first class, so that no error of judgment 
 could be attributed to him, still the immediate influences of these 
 disasters were disheartening ; and he felt that, with the multitude, 
 success, and that alone, is wisdom, and that, in the majority of 
 cases, their verdict is a just one. He himself, indeed, always 
 was of opinion that continued ill-luck indicated incapacity. 
 On one occasion, when he had refused to underwrite upon a 
 vessel commanded by Mr. A .... , because " he was unlucky," 
 the captain called upon him to complain of his imputing to him 
 as a fault what was but a misfortune ; and, after trying for some 
 time to evade a direct reply, Dr. Bowditch at last said, " If you 
 do not know that, when you got your vessel on shore on Cape 
 Cod, in a moon-light night, with a fair wind, you forfeited your 
 reputation as an intelligent and careful ship-master, I must now 
 tell you so ; and this is what i mean by being unlucky." 
 
 It was with pleasure, therefore, that he now turned his 
 undivided attention to the management of the institution which 
 was truly " the child of his affections." The act incorporating 
 this company with a capital of a half a million of dollars, 
 conferred powers of effecting insurance upon lives and granting 
 annuities ; and Dr. Bowditch, before he had even removed to 
 Boston with his family, expressed so decidedly the opinion that the 
 business would not be a source of profit with these limited powers, 
 that, at his suggestion, an additional act was obtained, recognizing 
 the right of the company to take money in trust to manage for 
 individuals. His judgment proved perfectly correct upon both 
 
MEMOIR. 85 
 
 points : while the former branch of business has been very trifling 
 in its results, the amount of property already received in trust 
 exceeds five millions of dollars, and the charge deducted for its 
 management is the chief, almost the only, source of the profits 
 of the company. He calculated interest tables, for the common 
 year and leap year, specially designed for the use of this 
 corporation, involving a great amount of labor ; and a few 
 copies were privately printed. These tables have saved the 
 constant employment of at least one clerk. The continually 
 increasing degree of public confidence and general popularity 
 which this institution has enjoyed, has been chiefly attributable 
 to the financial skill, sound judgment, strict integrity, and watchful 
 vigilance, with which he devoted himself to its administration, 
 and the fearless and decided manner in which he always 
 checked, prevented, and guarded against, every possible abuse. He 
 considered the institution as being morally the guardian of the 
 property intrusted to it belonging to widows, minors, and others, 
 and was careful that they should fully understand the contracts 
 made by them, or on their behalf, and that those contracts, when 
 made, should be observed strictly according to their true intent 
 and meaning. Displaying the utmost courtesy, and the most 
 liberal spirit of accommodation towards other institutions and 
 individuals who dealt with the company, he had always in view, 
 in its widest sense, the permanent and ultimate good of the 
 institution over which he presided, and never compromised its 
 interests or rights. Disarming all jealousy upon the part of the 
 legislature, by the open and frank communications which he made 
 to its committees, he gradually overcame much of that prejudice 
 which a republican form of government naturally tends to foster 
 
 VOL. IV. W 
 
86 MEMOIR. 
 
 against all large moneyed institutions. Identified almost with 
 himself, the public, no less than the stockholders and depositors, 
 reposed in it a degree of trust, which has probably never been 
 exceeded by the most extensive and well-earned popularity of 
 any similar institution. In the settlement of estates of deceased 
 persons in the Probate Office for the county, the records often 
 speak of it as " the Bowditch Office." 
 
 Hardly a day passed which did not exhibit in full view all 
 his most peculiar and methodical habits of business, and many 
 of the most valuable and important of the distinguishing traits 
 of his character. Instances without number might be cited. 
 One of the wealthiest citizens of Boston, himself a member of 
 the Board of Control of the company, wished, upon a Saturday, 
 to deposit ten thousand dollars to be managed in trust. His 
 balance in the bank, however, was less than that sum by three 
 hundred dollars, and he offered to the actuary his check for that 
 part, to be good on the next Monday. Dr. Bowditch said, " I 
 cannot, sir, receive any check payable at a future day as cash. 
 It is a rule of the office, which you yourself assisted in making, 
 that I shall never part with the money of the institution, or make 
 any engagement in its name, without an actual payment, or 
 sufficient collateral security received in return. It is my duty 
 to enforce this rule against the most powerful and influential, 
 as well as the most humble, individual who deals with the 
 institution." The gentleman was at first not a little astonished 
 at such a novelty as the refusal to trust him for three hundred 
 dollars for one day. Dr. Bowditch resumed, — "I am happy, sir, 
 that it has become necessary to enforce this rule in an extreme 
 
MEMOIR. 87 
 
 case. Having been once applied to yourself, no one else can ever 
 object to a compliance with it. And it is in itself an excellent 
 regulation." A moment afterwards, finding that his own private 
 balance in the bank was more than that sum, he offered to take 
 the gentleman's check himself, giving to the company his own 
 check payable that day; which was done accordingly. 
 
 Upon another occasion, a person called to take away a policy 
 for which he had contracted. Dr. Bowditch asked him the time 
 of making it and the amount ; then turned in a moment to two 
 books in succession, went into the vault in which was contained 
 the property of the company, and looking over a small file of 
 papers in one corner, came out again, and said, "You have got 
 it, sir." — " No, sir, I have not." — "I am certain you have." — 
 " Nothing but your being so certain that I have, makes me doubt 
 at all that I have not got it." — "I am ready to take my oath 
 in court, if necessary, that it has been delivered to you." — " O, 
 then, you remember, I suppose, placing it in my hands." — " No, 
 sir, I have no particular recollection about the matter at all. 
 But when a policy is once recorded in that book (pointing to a 
 volume before him,) and has received the examination both of 
 myself and the secretary, the original policy is always put by 
 me in that corner of the safe. It is the rule of this office, that 
 nobody shall deliver out an original paper but myself. I have 
 the key of that safe ; your paper is not there. Therefore, if I 
 were called upon in court, I could take my oath that you have 
 received it." The lost paper was of course found. 
 
 A female had deposited with the office all her property, in 
 
88 MEMOIR. 
 
 strict trust for her own life, the sum being sufficient to secure 
 her an income of about six dollars a week. She subsequently 
 became insane, and a guardian was appointed, who took her into 
 his own family to reside. He complained every year that the 
 income was not enough to pay the necessary expenses of taking 
 care of her, and said that he must have part of the principal. Dr. 
 Bowditch told him it was impossible ; that the company never 
 would consent to any violation or modification of the original 
 contract which the lady had made when in possession of her 
 reason ; and added, " You can have her placed in any private 
 institution for the insane, at a much less weekly expense than 
 you yourself charge." Finally, one day, when he called for 
 the annual income which was payable, he refused to receive it 
 unless he could obtain also part of the principal ; and added that 
 if the company would not pay it voluntarily, he should commence 
 a suit to compel them to do so. Dr. Bowditch, fired with 
 indignation, said, " The moment a writ is served upon the 
 company for such an object, I will institute a complaint against 
 you as an unfaithful guardian, and get you removed from your 
 trust." From this time, the income was amply sufficient to meet 
 all the wishes of the guardian. 
 
 A gentleman wished to obtain a loan upon mortgage. On 
 examination, it appeared that the former owner of the estate had, 
 before his purchase of it, devised all his property, of every kind, 
 to the lady he was about to marry, and, several years afterwards, 
 died without children, leaving her his widow ; and that she had 
 conveyed the estate in question to the applicant, with warranty. 
 Notwithstanding the clear intent of the testator, this particular 
 
MEMOIR. 89 
 
 estate legally belonged not to his widow, but to his brothers and 
 sisters as his heirs at law. The loan must therefore be declined. 
 But the equity of the case was so strong, that, upon the 
 applicant's giving such further security as was required, in 
 addition to that afforded by the improvements which he had 
 made upon the estate, the loan was at last agreed to ; and the 
 secret of the defect of title thus discovered, was long preserved 
 inviolate. It happened, by a singular coincidence, that the 
 widow had died, and that her property, including the proceeds 
 of this very estate, had been placed with the company in trust 
 for a daughter, who, with a large family, was dependent upon 
 the income which it afforded. The gentleman, ascertaining 
 this fact, and being impatient of waiting for the expiration of 
 about a year, when his title to the land would be rendered 
 perfect by the statute of limitations, actually disclosed the 
 defect to those legally entitled to the estate, feeling sure that, 
 if they recovered it from him, he should be able to obtain his 
 indemnity from the property thus placed in trust with the 
 company. The heirs at law, as soon as they became apprized 
 of their rights, brought a suit to enforce the legal claim, which 
 had originated about thirty-nine years before. When Dr. 
 Bowditch learned these circumstances, and found that the 
 person in question, rather than wait silently a few months 
 longer, had been willing to give effect to this unjust claim, 
 and thus indirectly to deprive of her last resource this female 
 and her family, he said to him, " You have involved yourself 
 in one suit, and must lose it ; and never will I voluntarily 
 part with one dollar of the widow's money intrusted to me, to 
 make good a loss which you have thus brought upon yourself. 
 
 VOL. IV. X 
 
90 MEMOIR. 
 
 You shall first have still another suit, against all the weight and 
 influence which this company can command." The gentleman 
 died during the pendency of the original suit, by which event 
 the action was ended ; and the period of limitation having been 
 previously completed, a new suit could not be instituted. Nothing 
 but the loss of life could have prevented his losing the cause. 
 
 A gentleman called to deposit a small sum of money in behalf 
 of a young lady, his ward, to remain till she was of age. It was 
 readily received. Before he retired, another gentleman entered, 
 who happened to be a very particular friend of the actuary. 
 He said, " Will you receive twenty or thirty thousand dollars 
 in trust for me 1 " — " No, I cannot receive it from you." — 
 ft Why not from me, as well as any one else ? " — " Because you 
 can take care of the money yourself. Whenever, as at present 
 is the case, there is so much money in possession of the company, 
 uninvested, that it will not be a decided advantage for them 
 to take any more, I receive it only from such as cannot take care 
 of it themselves. For such cases especially was the company 
 designed. It is a sort of Savings' Bank, except that it is on a 
 larger scale than usual." 
 
 He also considered it very important that no money should 
 be received in trust from foreigners or residents out of New 
 England; both as a means of preventing ill-will of any kind, 
 and that the whole affairs of the company might be more 
 strictly local, and therefore more safe, than they could be if its 
 dealings were more widely extended. And thus it once happened, 
 in a severe financial crisis, when it would, in his own opinion, have 
 
MEMOIR. 91 
 
 been advantageous to the community, in the particular case, to 
 have dispensed with the rule, that he yet looked to ultimate 
 consequences, and refused a deposit of one or more hundred 
 thousand dollars, which a resident in Nova Scotia wished to 
 place with the institution. 
 
 His intercourse with the three individuals associated as 
 immediate officers of the institution under him, was uniformly 
 of the most affectionate character. Requiring at all times 
 great promptness and accuracy from them in the discharge of 
 their appropriate duties, his kindness of heart won from them 
 all, the same attachment which they would have felt towards a 
 parent. These officers will never forget that he summoned them 
 as witnesses to his will, telling them that before he died he 
 wished to see them once more together, adding, " This is, probably, 
 the last time that I shall have that pleasure." It was the last 
 time. One of them (the secretary) had been his colleague 
 from the foundation of the office ; and there had existed between 
 them a daily intercourse of the most friendly character, without 
 the slightest interruption, during fifteen years. To him Dr. 
 Bowditch expressed, on his death-bed, the earnest wish that he 
 would in no event desert the institution. Having been addressed 
 by the deceased as a son, he, as such, was one of the four individuals 
 who, besides ourselves, attended his remains to the tomb. He will, 
 we know, pardon the relation of the following anecdote : — Dr. 
 Bowditch had one day gone out of the office for a few moments, 
 and, on his return, found that he had accidentally left open the 
 trunk containing all the convertible property of the company. 
 The secretary might have had access to it. Without any 
 
92 MEMOIR. 
 
 remark at the time, he took out the trunk, and the schedule 
 of the property which ought to have been there, and carefully 
 examined each item. He told us at the time, and the secretary 
 of the company himself afterwards, that, though he would have 
 unhesitatingly left his own property uncounted, and have felt 
 that there was not the slightest risk from the exposure, he could 
 not answer it to his conscience, as the responsible guardian of 
 the property of others, knowingly to subject it even to a possibility 
 of loss. 
 
 An instance may be mentioned of his exact and equal justice, 
 where a member of his own household was made its subject. 
 Several years ago, it was the duty of the individual then the 
 messenger of the office, to receive the interest paid upon notes 
 and mortgages, and hand it immediately to the actuary, that 
 the proper endorsements might be made ; and if, after business 
 hours, persons called to make such payments, and were willing 
 to leave the money with the messenger, taking his word that the 
 proper endorsements should be made the next day, this officer was 
 in the habit of accommodating them by so receiving it. Yielding 
 to temptation, he spent a small sum thus received, ($120,) 
 intending to replace it by his salary, which would be due in a 
 few days. Dr. Bowditch's eldest son, who then was, and still is, 
 solicitor of the company, was called upon to write certain letters 
 to persons supposed to be delinquent in payment of interest. 
 When he was preparing to do so, the messenger of the company 
 called, and with many tears confessed his wrongful appropriation 
 of the money, and begged that, at least for the sake of his wife and 
 children, it might be concealed till the next day, when he had 
 
MEMOIR. 93 
 
 always intended to replace the sum ; adding the most solemn 
 assurances that it should then certainly be done. The son 
 consented, though reluctantly, to conceal from the father an act 
 which he was induced to believe had been committed without any 
 deliberate intent to defraud. On the next morning, the salary 
 was paid, and almost immediately afterwards, instead of the 
 promised application of it, was paid over by the messenger to 
 an urgent creditor, who threatened him with the utmost severity 
 of the law. Upon ascertaining this fact, the original offence 
 was without delay disclosed by the solicitor of the company to 
 its actuary. Dr. Bowditch's reply was, " Had it been your own 
 money, you would have been at liberty to listen to the dictates 
 of compassion and humanity ; but as an officer of this institution, 
 you have committed, though unintentionally, a great fault, which 
 I can with difficulty overlook. You must give me your own 
 check for the whole amount of the deficit, since by a timely 
 exposure the company could have withheld the salary which 
 has just been paid. This being done, all further action I leave to 
 the board of directors." The check was given ; and this important 
 though painful lesson of duty was cheerfully learned at the 
 time, and has been as gratefully remembered since as the most 
 kind and affectionate instructions which a parent's love ever 
 communicated. Before this incident, and, if possible, still more 
 scrupulously since that time, Dr. Bowditch determined that no 
 one should remain in any situation attached to the office, who 
 was laboring under pecuniary embarrassments. To see the note 
 of one of its officers offered upon change, would with him, at any 
 time, have been a conclusive reason for his instant dismissal. 
 He knew intimately the weakness of human nature ; that 
 
 VOL. IV. V 
 
94 MEMOIR. 
 
 honesty and integrity may in a moment be lost by those fatal 
 entanglements ; and he regarded the prayer for delivery from 
 temptation as one of vital importance. In his own conduct, 
 he practised upon the same rule. He never endorsed or became 
 surety for any of his children, or made any engagements by 
 which he might become liable to forfeit his independence. 
 
 In adopting the forms for various blanks, and the books for 
 the various accounts of the company, Dr. Bowditch introduced, at 
 the first establishment of the institution, such perfect simplicity 
 of method and arrangement, that scarce any subsequent change 
 has been found from experience to be necessary ; the books having 
 different columns ruled, and the matters stated in print at the top 
 of each, which are to be recorded in it, so that a glance suffices 
 to decide what would otherwise require perhaps a long search. 
 Dr. Bowditch was very rapid and exact in all his calculations, 
 such as computing interest, &c, and each one's business was in 
 succession finished with the utmost despatch, so that it was 
 wonderful how much he was able to accomplish. He always 
 bestowed his own final revision upon every contract made by the 
 company, and every note or mortgage or other security made to 
 or taken by it ; * and frequently his minute and careful scrutiny 
 
 * When a mortgage is paid off, the law makes it the duty of the lender to go to the 
 public office where the same is recorded, and to acknowledge satisfaction in the margin 
 of the record ; for making which entry the officer is entitled to a small fee, which is 
 payable by the borrower. Dr. Bowditch, on such occasions, always took this fee, and, 
 wrapping round it a piece of paper, on which were minuted such particulars of the 
 mortgage as would identify it, and prevent him from discharging the wrong one, "This 
 money," said he, "will answer as ballast for the paper, and prevent that from getting 
 out of my pocket, and the affair out of my memory." 
 
MEMOIR. 95 
 
 would detect some clerical error, which had escaped all who had 
 preceded him. He was equally exact and particular in his mode 
 of transacting all the other business of the company. Everyday, 
 at two o'clock, he balanced the cash account before he closed 
 the office, that he might leave nothing unfinished. Only the day 
 before his death, having a week previously found himself too 
 feeble to make an endorsement upon a promissory note of half 
 the principal, and to look over and execute a deed of release of 
 half the mortgaged premises, he sent to the secretary to bring him 
 the papers again, saying, " You know I never like to leave any 
 thing unfinished." He made the endorsement, and executed the 
 release in question only forty-seven hours before he died. He 
 would never listen to two speakers, or attempt to attend to two 
 matters at once. " One thing at a time," was his rule. It brought 
 order out of chaos ; all the elements of confusion vanished at its 
 magic influence. It was certainly the most efficient, and probably 
 the only rule, that could have been devised for finishing all the 
 various and complicated transactions which each successive day 
 brought with it. Often, when engaged in making an entry, if, 
 upon looking up, he saw a friend, he would exclaim, " In one 
 moment ! " and then proceed and deliberately finish the matter 
 before him ; after which he would say, " Now I am free, and will 
 talk with you." He had his La Place habitually by his side, and 
 in the occasional intervals of leisure from the calls of business or 
 friendship, he constantly recurred with delight to the teachings 
 of this his favorite author. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch enjoyed most heartily any laughable incident 
 which occurred, and often, by his amusing comments or anecdotes, 
 
96 MEMOIR. 
 
 awakened a like hilarity in others. Thus, upon one occasion, a 
 person who called to buy a life annuity moved so feebly, and 
 made so many grimaces and contortions, and groaned so dolefully, 
 lamenting his ill health, and the short time he had to live, that it 
 was very evident he was acting a part, with a view to make as 
 good a bargain as possible. Dr. Bowditch enjoyed the affair 
 highly, and, after the applicant had retired, he was describing 
 the incident to a friend with so much comic effect, " suiting the 
 action to the word, and the word to the action," that he even 
 surpassed his original ; and the two officers of an insurance 
 company in the room immediately beneath his own, came running 
 up stairs with some anxiety to know the cause of such sounds 
 of distress and such piteous ejaculations. 
 
 It was indeed wonderful with what facility Dr. Bowditch 
 could in an instant divert his attention from any subject to 
 another of the most opposite character ; at one moment engaged 
 in the every-day detail of the business of his office, at the next 
 abstracted from all around him by the most elevated investigations 
 of science ; and then, again, displaying either the utmost cordiality 
 of friendship, or almost the wild hilarity of childhood, and apparently 
 finding from each change an equal degree of relaxation. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch's disposition to afford every possible facility 
 and accommodation to annuitants, depositors, and stockholders, 
 was manifested upon all occasions. He habitually kept the office 
 open during the afternoon of the day preceding that for the 
 general payment of interest or dividends, of which he sent a 
 private notice to those individuals who had the largest number 
 
MEMOIR. 
 
 97 
 
 of different sums to receive, stating his readiness then to pay 
 them ; which arrangement saved both them and all others who 
 might have applied at the same time with them on the following 
 day, from the disagreeable but unavoidable delay to which they 
 must then have been subjected. This not only gratified the 
 individuals in question, but was indeed, indirectly, an equal 
 accommodation to every one else, besides that it insured greater 
 accuracy than if the entries were made in a hurry, with many 
 standing around waiting impatiently for their own turn. 
 
 He was also desirous that females who had annuities or 
 deposits in trust, should come in person to the office to receive 
 their payments, as he wished them to see and judge for themselves 
 as to the management of their property, and that he might himself 
 give them any explanations and information which they desired; 
 and the moment a lady entered, she took immediate precedence 
 of every one else, and the claims of some of the most considerable 
 depositors have often been thus postponed to those of a poor 
 widow who had intrusted to the institution her little all. No 
 female annuitant, indeed, ever left the presence of Dr. Bowditch 
 without having been delighted with his courteous and polite 
 reception, and with the ready, frank, and kind manner in which 
 her inquiries had been answered or her wishes attended to. 
 The courtesy thus shown to female annuitants was extended to 
 females applying for loans upon mortgage — but in rather a 
 peculiar way, viz. the uniform refusal of their request. And it 
 was certainly with some ingenuity that this rule of the company 
 was supported exclusively by reasons based upon gallantry towards 
 the sex. He said to them, " It is impossible to accede to your 
 
 VOL. IV. 2 
 
98 MEMOIR. 
 
 request, because, should any delinquency occur, the company 
 could never be so rude or harsh as to institute a suit against a 
 woman, or to take forcible possession of her estate. Therefore 
 we never lend except to a man, with whom we can immediately 
 resort to all the strict measures of the law, in case it becomes 
 necessary." So plausible a reason was always satisfactory. 
 
 Prompted by a similar motive of politeness was another of 
 his private rules. Aware of a difficulty which he through life 
 experienced in remembering names, and that the self-love of 
 applicants at the office would be hurt at the necessity of 
 informing him who they were, he was in the habit of referring 
 every one whose familiar features thus perplexed him, to another 
 officer of the institution, to get the number of the policy or 
 mortgage respecting which inquiry had been made. The clerk 
 understood this request, and began by asking the name, which 
 was a less mortifying question from him, than it would have been 
 from the principal of the office. He then handed the name and 
 number to the actuary on paper, 
 
 The most difficult duty to be performed by the actuary of 
 this company, and at the same time one of almost daily recurrence, 
 was that of refusing applications for loans of money which he 
 thought it not safe for the institution to grant. It often required 
 great firmness and decision. Powerful influences, direct and 
 indirect, were often resorted to in order to obtain a favorable 
 answer. But it is emphatically true that Dr. Bowditch understood 
 the art of saying " No ; " and while he decidedly and peremptorily 
 declined an offer as inadmissible, so that no time should be wasted 
 
MEMOIR. 99 
 
 in profitless discussion, it was always his endeavor to do it with 
 as much courtesy of manner as possible. He was well aware, 
 however, that this was the most thankless part of the actuary's 
 duties ; that though a manly, independent, and decided course, 
 would certainly secure the respect and approbation of the majority, 
 and promote the interests of the institution, it must also necessarily 
 give offence in individual cases. Such cases did occur. There 
 never lived the man whom Dr. Bovvditch feared to address in 
 what he considered the language of truth, and he often spoke 
 with a plainness and directness to which his hearers had not 
 been accustomed. 
 
 It was always a painful duty, however, to be compelled to 
 disappoint applicants by the refusal of their requests, though it 
 was one which, as has been stated, Dr. Bowditch never hesitated 
 to perform. Sometimes, indeed, he declined requests, which he 
 subsequently thought might, with some slight modification, have 
 been admissible ; and in such cases he was always ready and 
 willing to recede from his first position. An instance of this kind 
 occurred a few weeks before his death. The proposal made by 
 a friend was declined, as not coming within the rules of the office. 
 The applicant had no idea that Dr. Bowditch at that time was 
 laboring under a serious disease, and manifested some surprise 
 and irritation at this unfavorable answer. With a slight change 
 in the terms of the proposal, by which the original objection 
 was removed, it was, in a day or two afterwards, acceded to. It 
 was soon known that Dr. Bowditch was alarmingly ill. No one 
 was more earnest and constant in his inquiries respecting his 
 health, than the gentleman alluded to. The day but one before 
 
100 MEMOIR. 
 
 his death, Dr. Bowditch made some remarks to his eldest son, 
 desirino- him to communicate them in his name to that gentleman. 
 A letter was accordingly written, in which, after stating his 
 uniform sentiments of esteem and respect during a long inter- 
 course, and alluding to a common descent from the same remote 
 ancestor, (John Turner,) as having strengthened by relationship 
 the feelings of good-will which a knowledge of character had 
 first produced, — Dr. Bowditch proceeds to say that if any 
 incident has ever occurred between them of a less friendly 
 description, he has never let the sun go down upon his 
 remembrance of it, and hopes that it has been equally forgotten 
 by his friend. A reply was received, in which the writer says, " I 
 have ever been inclined to reverence the silver hairs of an honest 
 man. Associated with the consideration that they arc connected 
 with great public services, inflexible independence of thought 
 and action, and a very high order of intelligence, duty, not less 
 than inclination, commands our respect." A copy of the original 
 communication, sent by his son, as he had desired, and the reply 
 to it, were read to Dr. Bowditch only twenty-three hours before 
 his death. They were the last to which he ever was a listener. 
 He died, as it were, in the very act of forgetting and forgiving, 
 and asking a like forgetfulness and forgiveness of, all the incidents 
 connected with one occasion upon which he feared that, as actuary 
 of the Life Insurance Company, he had perhaps unnecessarily 
 said " No." * 
 
 * Of a similar character is the anecdote of his once asking the pardon of some young 
 men in the Salem Athenaeum for having upon a certain occasion spoken, as he thought, 
 somewhat too quickly to them. — Judge White's Eulogy, p. 57. 
 
MEMOIR. 101 
 
 During- the late disastrous period, when every bank in the United 
 States was compelled to suspend specie payments, Dr. Bowditch 
 conducted the affairs of the Company with such caution, that — 
 though this was the largest moneyed institution in New England, 
 having a capital equal to that often common banks, and though its 
 dealings were necessarily extended throughout the community — 
 the actual loss sustained by the reckless management of other 
 institutions, and by the numerous bankruptcies which destroyed 
 all commercial confidence, was less than that of any one bank 
 in the city, and was more than balanced by the reserved profits 
 resulting from the success of a financial measure which he had 
 previously suggested and executed. 
 
 Such teas Dr. Bowditch, the Actuary of the Massachusetts 
 Hospital Life Insurance Company. He had qualifications rarely, 
 if ever, found united in one individual, and they had here their 
 happiest and fullest exercise, and accomplished a most useful 
 result. Not inferior to his fame throughout the scientific world 
 as the author of this work, will be the reputation which he has 
 left among all connected with that institution, as one who, (in 
 the language of the Board of Control in one of their resolutions 
 adopted after his decease,) » by the clearness and simplicity of 
 the regulations he devised and adopted, and the intelligence, 
 fidelity, and inflexible resolution with which they were adhered 
 to and executed, has preeminently contributed to the present 
 stability and prosperity of the institution." In another of these 
 resolutions they describe him as "one who lived long enough to 
 perform all the duties of a long life, although not permitted to 
 attain old age ; who has left to his family a bright example, 
 
 vol. iv. a a 
 
102 MEMOIR. 
 
 and a name that will be known and honored throughout the world 
 so long- as virtue and science shall be held in reverence." 
 
 It is gratifying- to us to reflect that the institution whose 
 continued prosperity was almost the last earthly wish of Dr. 
 Bowditch, has been intrusted to the hands of one whom, of all 
 others, he would have himself selected to be his successor ; under 
 whose auspices we doubt not that it will long possess, as heretofore, 
 the unlimited confidence of its friends and of the community. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch was, from 1826 to the end of 1833, a Trustee 
 of the Boston Athenaeum. At the time of his appointment, it 
 was in a situation far from prosperous. One whose name has 
 ever stood foremost upon the list of public benefactors in this 
 city, generously offered to the institution eight thousand dollars, 
 if a like sum in addition could be obtained. Dr. Bowditch, with 
 the assistance of a friend equally zealous in the cause, undertook 
 the task of procuring the performance of this condition. They 
 first waited upon a nephew of the original donor, who, upon the 
 circumstances being stated to him, immediately said, " I will 
 follow the example of my uncle, and give the same sum, provided 
 you can get from others sixteen thousand dollars." This brilliant 
 success in the outset, in reality, as he perceived by the condition 
 thus annexed, doubled his future labors. But he saw in it only 
 an opportunity of urging more strongly upon others a like 
 munificence, as the withholding of each small sum might endanger 
 the loss of the whole promised bounty. His efforts, therefore, 
 were unremitting. With that persuasive eloquence which is 
 always inspired by disinterested zeal in a good cause, and which 
 
MEMOIR. 103 
 
 few could resist from his lips, he appealed so forcibly to those he 
 addressed, that he obtained much more than the requisite sum. 
 One great object to which the funds thus gained for the institution 
 were applied, was that of perfecting its collection of works of 
 science ; and here his labors were no less useful than they had 
 been before. He had previously accomplished one measure, far 
 more important in his view than any other, and without which 
 he felt that any future labors would be of but little advantage, — 
 namely, that of permitting subscribers to take books from the 
 library for the use of themselves and their families. The benefit 
 of a like arrangement he had long experienced while connected 
 with the Athenaeum in Salem. This was at first vehemently 
 opposed by some of the most intelligent of his associates, who 
 apprehended from this plan evil consequences, which have been 
 proved by experience not to result from it. There can be no 
 doubt, indeed, that the final attainment of this his favorite object 
 has been of great benefit to the citizens of Boston, 
 
 These services were remembered so gratefully by this insti- 
 tution, that, on his decease, its trustees felt themselves called 
 upon publicly to declare their nature and extent, in order that 
 the community might duly appreciate its obligations to him. 
 Death had removed the necessity of that silence which was 
 more grateful to the modesty of the living, than would have 
 been even that just and appropriate eulogy, which, after 
 alluding to his particular services above mentioned, proceeds 
 thus : — " But Dr. Bowditch has far higher claims to notice ; 
 he stood at the head of the scientific men of this country, and 
 no man living has contributed more to his country's reputation. 
 
104 MEMOIR. 
 
 His fame is of the most durable kind, resting on the union of the 
 highest genius with the most practical talent, and the application 
 of both to the good of his fellow-men. Every American ship 
 crosses the ocean more safely for his labors, and the most eminent 
 mathematicians of Europe have acknowledged him their equal in 
 the highest walks of their science. His last great work ranks 
 with the noblest productions of our age." — " But it is not 
 merely the benefactor of this institution, and the illustrious 
 mathematician, whose labors have given safety to commerce 
 and reputation to his country, whom we lament. It is one 
 whose whole life was directed to good ends ; who combined the 
 greatest energy with the kindest feelings ; who was the friend of 
 every good man and every good undertaking ; the enemy of 
 oppression, the patron of merit, the warm-hearted champion 
 of truth and virtue. It is the companion, whose simple manners 
 and amiable disposition put every one at ease in his presence, 
 notwithstanding the respect which his genius inspired ; and who 
 could turn, apparently without effort, from the profoundest 
 investigations, to take his part, with the light-heartedness of a 
 child, in the mirth of the social circle. His heart was as tender as 
 his intellect was powerful. His family found him as affectionate 
 as he was wise ; he was equally their delight and their pride. 
 They could have no richer inheritance than his character ; and 
 nothing but such a character could afford them consolation for 
 such a loss." And for this consolation they refer us, in their 
 concluding resolution, to " the contemplation of a life so gloriously 
 spent, and which has left such enduring monuments of excellence 
 in every department, whether of science or of practical utility, to 
 wliicli it has been devoted." 
 
MEMOIR. 105 
 
 A marble bust of Dr. Bowditch, executed some years since 
 by John Frazee, of New York, was presented to this institution 
 by the gentlemen at whose request it was taken. Though it 
 accurately represents the features, the artist has not succeeded 
 in arresting that bright and cheerful expression of the deceased, 
 which his children will ever most delight to recall. 
 
 Under his auspices as President of the American Academy, 
 one volume of its Transactions* has been published. He also 
 procured an important modification of the terms upon which a 
 donation had been made to that body by Count Rumford ; so that, 
 from being wholly worthless, it has been rendered available for 
 the general objects of the society. He obtained the hall over the 
 Life Insurance Company's office for the use of this institution, 
 where its excellent collection of books was neatly and elegantly 
 arranged under his direction. His youngest son, who had 
 succeeded in making a fine catalogue of his own library, he had 
 requested at his leisure hours to prepare one likewise for this ; 
 which labor has been nearly completed since his decease. An 
 artist has, at the request of the Academy, recently executed a 
 marble bust of their late president, in whose death they lament 
 the loss of " their distinguished associate and head, whose name 
 
 * This is called Vol. I. of a New Series, to avoid the necessity of sending to 
 foreign members of the Academy copies of all the earlier volumes ; as he considered that 
 Vol. I. of the Old Series contains some mathematical papers of so inferior a character, as 
 to indicate a low state of that science in this country at the time of its publication. It 
 may be observed that, by this arrangement, he was obliged also to consign to the like obscurity 
 all his own communications, as they are recorded in the subsequent volumes of the Old 
 Series. 
 
 vol. iv. b b 
 
106 MEMOIR. 
 
 has for many years conferred honor upon their institution, and 
 whose communications are among the most valuable contents 
 of the volumes of their Memoirs ; " — "of a friend and fellow- 
 citizen, whose services were of the highest value in the active 
 walks of life, whose entire influence was given to the cause of 
 good principles, whose life was a uniform exhibition of the loftiest 
 virtues, and who, with a firmness and energy which nothing 
 could shake or subdue, devoted himself to the most arduous and 
 important duties, and made the profoundest researches of science 
 subservient to the practical business of life." * 
 
 Dr. Bowditch was accustomed to say, after his appointment 
 to a seat in the Corporation of Harvard College, that his two 
 high holidays were those occasioned by the literary exercises 
 and festivities of the annual Commencements of that institution. 
 On these days he might always be seen listening with interest 
 and attention to the various performances. 
 
 Though not himself a practical mechanic, there was no class 
 in the community whom he more valued and respected. Many 
 intelligent mechanics will remember the familiar and friendly 
 manner in which Dr. Bowditch has often joined them when 
 
 * Tl»3 Eulogy pronounced, pursuant to another resolution of the Academy, by John 
 Pickering, Esq., one of Dr. Bowditch's earliest and most intimate friends, has been before 
 referred to. Il presents to the reader, with the utmost fidelity and accuracy, and with 
 great thoroughness of research, an analysis and estimate of the scientific labors and services 
 of the deceased, to which we with pleasure acknowledge our own obligations in preparing 
 the present memoir. 
 
MEMOIR. 107 
 
 walking, and continued to walk with them arm in arm. Living 
 in a republic, he respected in others, and aspired himself to no 
 aristocracy, but that of character and talents — that which results 
 from useful and honorable labors either of the hands or of the 
 head. No sight ever afforded him such pleasure as that of the 
 working classes of the city, upon one day in seven, dressed in 
 their Sunday clothes, and forgetting the laborious occupations 
 of the week, enjoying with their wives and children the pure air 
 and beautiful scenery of the Boston Common. 
 
 The Boston Mechanics' Institution considered him justly enti- 
 tled to the honor of being elected its President, even though his 
 manual dexterity in any particular craft might be doubtful. He 
 received this appointment January 12, 1827, and resigned the 
 office April 27, 1829." A valuable apparatus was purchased by 
 subscription, which he promoted by his influence and example ; 
 and lectures upon the steam engine, and other similar important 
 subjects, were delivered with much success. And it is believed 
 that all the lectures now delivered so generally before various 
 institutions in Boston, upon almost every evening in the week, and 
 by which so much valuable information is diffused through the 
 community, find almost their first precedent in this country in 
 the course given by the mechanics of Boston, with Dr. Bowditch 
 at their head. 
 
 By the same body of men Dr. Bowditch was placed on the 
 select list of honorary members of the Massachusetts Charitable 
 
 * He was chosen first honorary merrfber of this society, May 15, 1829. 
 
108 MEMOIR. 
 
 Mechanic Association, (February 4, 1828 ;) while those whom he 
 through life had most benefited were proud to own him as 
 one of their profession, and elected him a member of the Boston 
 Marine Society, (March 2, 1830.) The latter society, upon his 
 death, say, " ' He hath wrought a good work, and rests from his 
 labors.' His intuitive mind sought and amassed knowledge, to 
 impart it to the world in more easy and comprehensive forms. 
 His life and example, in all their phases, present more to admire 
 and approve than we may hope to see imitated and achieved by 
 another individual." Both these societies, receiving unitedly in 
 his will the same affectionate and honorable mention, unitedly 
 listened to the Discourse which the Rev. Alexander Young had 
 previously delivered before his parishioners,* in the church where 
 the deceased had worshipped. 
 
 Thus various and important were the public relations which 
 Dr. Bowditch sustained in the community around him, and thus 
 
 * The first in the series of the publications of this class in point of time, it details very fully 
 the incidents of Dr. Bowditch's life, and especially those illustrating his personal and social 
 habits and character. Some slight errors in this Discourse, chiefly respecting the time when, 
 and the circumstances under which Dr. Bowditch gained particular acquirements, a subsequent 
 investigation has enabled others to correct ; but the substantial accuracy and fidelity of those 
 moral delineations, which it was his peculiar province and design to present, will ever remain 
 unimpeached. On the afternoon of the day when it was delivered in Boston, it was repeated 
 at the church of the late Dr. Prince in Salem. Of its delivery upon this latter occasion, it is 
 recorded that " in that compacted audience, there were several present who had witnessed 
 the whole career of Dr. Bowditch, from earliest childhood to the lofty summit of his usefulness 
 and fame ; and among others, Captain Henry Prince, under whose command he had performed 
 his four first voyages ; " — and it is added that " it was a striking evidence of the sincere and 
 deep sympathy of the audience in the commendations bestowed by the preacher upon the 
 
MEMOIR. 109 
 
 uniform and unqualified is the testimony given respecting the 
 value of his diversified labors and services. Beautifully has one 
 of his eulogists* said, "The world has been the wiser and the 
 happier that he has lived in it." And his death was announced 
 in one of the public journals,! with but the following brief 
 comment : " A star has fallen." Connected with so many 
 different classes of society, he seemed, as he walked through the 
 streets, constantly to meet an acquaintance or a friend. None 
 were so high that they did not feel themselves honored by his 
 notice, and none so humble as to be beneath it. The little child 
 on its way to school, whose sweet or intelligent countenance 
 happened to attract his attention, he often arrested by some 
 kind inquiry, and detained by a dialogue which ended in a kiss, 
 or some other act of endearment ; and virtuous age ever received 
 his reverence. The Chief Magistrate of the Commonwealth, 
 with friendly sympathy, was present at those simple funeral rites 
 by which we felt that the deceased would be most appropriately 
 honored ; and one in humble life, who was to us a stranger, 
 asked permission to take a last look at his lifeless remains, 
 "because he had known Dr. Bowditch and loved him." 
 
 character and merits of the departed, that, after the discourse was finished, though large 
 numbers of them had been standing for three hours, they continued in the church to listen to 
 the dirge commencing with the unrivalled lines, — 
 
 'Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb; 
 
 Take this new treasure to thy trust, 
 And give these sacred relics room 
 To slumber in thy silent dust.'" 
 
 * Mr - Young. f National Intelligencer, March 21, 1838. 
 
 VOL. IV. C C 
 
110 MEMOIR. 
 
 But for his residence in Boston, Dr. Bowditch would never 
 have possessed the means of publishing- this work at his own 
 expense ; and notwithstanding all his daily duties and occasional 
 labors above described, during his residence here, and the 
 performance of multiplied good offices to individuals as before, 
 and by which, in the aggregate, almost as much service was 
 rendered to society as by his more public efforts, — he also found 
 the leisure which he needed for this the last great undertaking 
 of his life.* The estimated cost of publishing the five volumes 
 exceeded twelve thousand dollars, and was equal to one third 
 of all his property at that time. To this undertaking, involving 
 so much expense and labor, he was strongly urged by his wife, 
 who assured him of her willingness to make any sacrifice which 
 
 * The first volume was published in the year 1829, the second in 1S32, and the third 
 in 1834. These three volumes were from the press of Isaac R. Butts. The fourth volume, 
 from page 634, has been stereotyped at the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry. If Dr. 
 Bowditch had lived, he would probably have stereotyped all the others. Connected with the 
 publication of this work, may be mentioned two anecdotes exhibiting a trait of character in 
 the translator which has been before alluded to. Robert W. Macnair, whose name is affixed 
 to the second volume as a compositor, was one with whose accuracy, neatness, and assiduity, 
 Dr. Bowditch was always much pleased ; and he was gratified to find that he felt such a 
 pride in the appearance of the volume, as the result, in part, of his own manual dexterity, 
 that he wished the fact of his agency in preparing it to be thus always known. Dr. 
 Bowditch, on learning his death, (which took place after a short illness, February 27, 1833,) 
 expressed to his widow his sympathy for her loss, and, notwithstanding her husband had 
 been employed and paid by another, gave her at parting the sum of fifty dollars, as an 
 acknowledgment of the zeal and fidelity which had been shown in his service. And 
 during his own last illness, lie told his children that with the printers and publishers of this 
 work he wished them " to deal liberally." And when, after his death, this circumstance 
 was communicated to them, they said, " It is like him ; he always acted so towards us 
 while living." 
 
MEMOIR. HI 
 
 it might render necessary.* She knew that, in the event of his 
 death, he had made her his sole legatee. But, like himself, she 
 valued money only as a means of attaining desirable ends. And 
 to what more noble or worthy purpose could it possibly be applied ? 
 She did not live to see the publication completed, though she found 
 the reward of her advice, in those high terms of commendation 
 with which each successive volume was mentioned by the most 
 eminent scientific men of the age, in this and in foreign countries, 
 and in the great and constantly increasing reputation which was 
 thus gained by her husband. The letters of this description, 
 already, in part, laid before the reader, the wife listened to as to 
 the sweetest music, for they contained the praises of one dearer 
 to her than herself. And so deep was Dr. Bowditch's conviction 
 that, but for her disinterested advice and urgent solicitation, the 
 publication would never have been commenced, that he prepared a 
 dedication of the work to her memory. This document, in his 
 own hand-writing, manifesting, as it does throughout, a deep 
 feeling of affection, he had always preserved ; and, during his last 
 illness, he gave to it the sanction of a love stronger even than 
 death, by enjoining on his children as his last wish, that they 
 should prefix it to this the posthumous volume of his work, and 
 thus pay a public tribute of respect to the memory of their mother. 
 Willingly do we perform this sacred duty. It is indeed fitting 
 that they who in life were inseparably connected, no less by the 
 bonds of an earthly marriage, than by the more intimate union of 
 mind and heart, should forever remain associated in the memory 
 
 * The publication was indeed decided upon in a family conclave, in which there was 
 no dissenting voice. 
 
112 MEMOIR. 
 
 of every reader of this work, as those to whom he is jointly and 
 alike indebted for any pleasure or profit which he may have 
 derived from its perusal. 
 
 As early as 1826, Dr. Bowditch first perceived in his wife the 
 symptoms of that fatal disease which had deprived him of two 
 sisters, and which, after the lapse of eight years, was to remove 
 from him a still nearer friend. At intervals during this period, 
 his wife enjoyed her usual health, and her accustomed cheerfulness 
 never deserted her. She gradually became more and more feeble. 
 Aware of her situation, and resigned to it, no one except her 
 confidential medical adviser heard from her lips those convictions 
 of her approaching end, which she knew, if expressed to them, 
 would send sadness to the hearts of her husband and children. 
 They were not, however, deceived. When, a few days before 
 her death, she was borne in a chair by two of her sons into that 
 library where she ever delighted to sit, it was only her pale 
 countenance and debilitated frame which told us — and they did, 
 alas ! tell us but too truly — that soon one seat would be vacant, 
 and one voice silent, in that assembled household. The blow, 
 however, fell suddenly and heavily at last. We were awakened 
 at midnight, and told that the fatal hour had come. To him who 
 first reached her apartment she extended her hand, and, giving 
 to his a gentle pressure, — a proof of consciousness and of love, — 
 she murmured a few words so feebly that they did not reach his ear, 
 but they were distinctly heard by her attendant : " My dear, you 
 have come to bid me farewell." She died also in the presence 
 of her eldest children. The unbroken slumbers of the youngest 
 left them, for a few hours longer, happily unconscious of their 
 
MEMOIR. 113 
 
 loss; and one was destined to learn the event in a distant land, 
 who therefore had not a personal knowledge of those consoling 
 circumstances which a brother's pen could at best but inadequately 
 describe. It was truly, as the historian of America" has said, 
 when speaking of a similar death-bed, " too serene for sorrow, 
 too beautiful for fear." The wish which she had often expressed 
 had been granted. She died before her husband, April 17, 1834, 
 and was followed to the tomb only by those few whose home had 
 ever been gladdened by her presence.! 
 
 Dr. Bowditch bore this heavy calamity as a Philosopher and 
 a Christian. The early morning witnessed the funeral obse- 
 quies which he attended ; and that forenoon saw the Actuary of 
 the Life Insurance Company engaged in his usual routine of 
 business, and at intervals examining the proof-sheets of this 
 work, upon whose progress he was never more to look with 
 a pleasure heightened by her participation; and the kindly 
 ministrations of time were aided by this cheerful discharge of 
 duty, and by this devoted pursuit of science, till he was himself 
 summoned to receive the glorious rewards of eternity. To the 
 stranger he appeared as he had ever done before. To his friends 
 and family his character displayed a strength and grandeur never 
 until then fully appreciated. Most deeply, however, did Dr. 
 
 * George Bancroft. See his History of the United States, Vol. I. p. 3S8. 
 
 t Trinity Church, in Boston, was rebuilt after Dr. Bowditch removed to this city ; and 
 he became proprietor of one of the new tombs constructed beneath it. On the day of his 
 wife's funeral, he executed an instrument transferring this tomb to his four sons in trust, as 
 the future burial-place of himself and his descendants. That trust has already been fulfilled 
 towards himself, and also towards a granddaughter, born subsequently to his death. 
 vol. iv. d d 
 
1H MEMOIR. 
 
 Bowditch feel this loss ; and sometimes, particularly during his 
 own last illness, he alluded to it with much sensibility. His 
 countenance, after her death, exhibited, more frequently than 
 before, a degree of thoughtfulness sometimes amounting almost 
 to sadness. Indeed, he frequently stated to his children, though 
 the fact may not have been apparent to the public, or even to his 
 friends, that though life had still many charms for him, it had lost 
 forever what he had always regarded as its brightest attraction. 
 And we felt that this event had devolved upon us additional duties 
 of filial tenderness and regard towards him who had been so 
 severely bereft. 
 
 The various other incidents of Dr. Bowditch's life, during his 
 residence in Boston, which led to the display of his peculiar 
 talents and virtues, were few of them so conspicuous and 
 remarkable as to be especially deserving of selection, though 
 scarce one can be mentioned which would not add greater 
 clearness to the reader's previous impressions. He one day 
 fearlessly seized a carman Avho was cruelly beating a horse, and 
 obliged him to desist by the mere alarm which his vehement and 
 indignant manner inspired, though in bodily strength wholly his 
 inferior. When Lafayette visited this country, Dr. Bowditch 
 found himself, he hardly knew how, in the street near his chariot 
 wheels ; and amid the acclamations of the multitude, he too 
 waved his hat and joined his voice to the praises of a virtuous 
 and honorable life, which were then spontaneously rising from 
 countless numbers of grateful citizens. 
 
 When a Roman Catholic school, in the adjoining town of 
 
MEMOIR. U5 
 
 Charlestown, occupied by defenceless females,* was attacked at 
 night, and its frightened inmates dispersed by the imprecations 
 and torches of a band of deluded fanatics, he felt indeed that 
 the fair fame of the state had received a deep, if not an indelible 
 stain, and that the same town which is memorable as the scene 
 of the first of freedom's battles in modern times, would also 
 exhibit a monument of the most ruthless violation of private 
 rights. He most openly expressed his abhorrence of this act, 
 and calling upon the Bishop, whose church and residence almost 
 adjoined his own, said to him, " Though our forms of worship 
 are the most opposite and widely separated of all the creeds by 
 which the Christian church has ever been divided, upon this 
 ground I make common cause with you. This act has awakened 
 me from a pleasant dream of security, and shown to me that the 
 fanaticism of one class of this our orderly community, if it had 
 the power, would not want the will, to attack with fire and sword 
 all those whose peculiar modes of faith or religious institutions 
 should happen to excite suspicion or incur hatred." And he 
 at the same time gave him a small sum toward the immediate 
 relief of those whom the flames had deprived of the necessaries of 
 life. In recollection, doubtless, of this incident, the bells of the 
 Catholic church were prevented, by orders from the Bishop, from 
 beino- rung during Dr. Bowditch's last illness, — although it was 
 at the season of Lent, — " that the last days of a good man 
 miirht not be disturbed." 
 
 * The immediate cause of this outrage was the supposed confinement of a female 
 against her will ; and this belief was chiefly occasioned by the popular prejudice against 
 Catholics, convents, and nunneries. 
 
116 MEMOIR. 
 
 Such, indeed, was his respect for the law of the land, that, 
 when he had but a few days to live, he expressed the determination 
 to make the effort to seethe Governor of the Commonwealth, should 
 he again call to inquire respecting his health, that he might 
 assure him of the pleasure he felt at a recent act, by which 
 he considered the law to have been suitably vindicated ; namely, 
 the disbanding of certain military companies, for an open violation 
 of discipline on a day of public parade. The interview accord- 
 ingly took place. 
 
 The existence of domestic slavery in the Southern States of 
 the Union is a subject of so much importance, and its discussion 
 has been the source of so much excitement in the community, 
 that it may perhaps be proper briefly to state Dr. Bowditch's 
 views in regard to it. Considering slavery to be one of the 
 greatest of moral evils, his whole principles and sympathies were 
 on the side of the oppressed. He scorned the selfish and timid 
 considerations by which many were led to refrain from or to 
 check the free discussion of its character and tendency. It was, 
 however, a subject upon which he thought and acted for himself. 
 The blacks he regarded as a race of men naturally less intelligent 
 than the whites ; and he believed that their present servile condition 
 had so degraded them, that an immediate emancipation, extorted 
 from the slaveholders, while it would find the slaves ill fitted for 
 self-government, would also prevent the experiment from having 
 that fair chance of success, which would be afforded by a cordial 
 cooperation of their former masters. He would gladly have seen 
 a national debt, even of immense magnitude, voluntarily incurred 
 for the purpose of accomplishing this object, and at the same time 
 
MEMOIR. 117 
 
 indemnifying the slaveholders, and thus securing to the slaves 
 their aid and good-will. Indeed, under the original compact made 
 between the several states, he did not think that the moral right 
 existed in the free states to attempt to compel the emancipation 
 of the slaves without making such compensation. And though 
 Congress has exclusive jurisdiction within the District of Columbia, 
 he did not think that, even there, the measure of the immediate 
 abolition of slavery should be introduced, without first obtaining 
 the consent of tho.se states by which the District was ceded to the 
 general government. He had the greatest horror at the thoughts 
 of the proposed annexation of Texas to this Union, and was 
 delighted with Dr. Channing's pamphlet, as he would also have 
 been with Mr. Adams's speech in Congress upon this subject. He 
 was in like manner utterly hostile to the admission of any new 
 slave-holding state into the Confederacy. He often said that he 
 never wished to shake hands with, or even to see, a northern man 
 who, surrounded by free institutions at home, had voted for any 
 extension of the evils of slavery. Such a person he deemed 
 rightly characterized as one of the " white slaves of the north." 
 Though he did not himself approve of all the views and measures 
 of those who advocated the immediate abolition of slavery, he 
 admitted that no great moral or religious revolution had ever been 
 accomplished except through the agency of a few enthusiastic 
 and excited spirits, whose apparently excessive and over-zealous 
 efforts at last aroused the many to a sound, moderate, and 
 successful reformation of abuses. Such he hoped would be the 
 issue of the like efforts in the present instance. He considered 
 the movement begun which would sooner or later prove fatal to 
 this institution. 
 
118 MEMOIR. 
 
 Upon one occasion, Dr. Bowditch was introduced by a friend 
 to a stranger, who had heard much of his reputation, and was 
 obsequious and almost servile in his manner of addressing him. 
 Dr. Bowditch replied with stateliness and reserve. After the 
 interview was ended, the stranger said, " If there does not go 
 an aristocrat, there never was one ; " to which remark the friend 
 replied, " He an aristocrat ! I care not how many such we have 
 among us. The truth is, you treated him as one, and he despised 
 you for your cringing manners, and want of a proper self- 
 respect." 
 
 At the time when Dr. Bowditch was preparing to leave forever 
 the home of his ancestors, almost his last act had been to repair 
 with pious reverence the dilapidated monument beside which he 
 had seen his grandmother's remains deposited,* and beneath which 
 reposed the ashes of all her relatives of many former generations 
 — the tomb of John Turner. In September, 1835, the board 
 whose peculiar province it was to take care of the burial-grounds 
 of Salem, finding several tombs out of repair, advertised them for 
 sale, and unceremoniously ejected the remains of some who, in 
 their day, had been Salem's greatest benefactors. The act was 
 at first the result of a want of due consideration in two or three 
 
 * Dr. Bowditch often mentioned that his grandmother, on her death-bed, refused to be 
 buried in this tomb, saying that, many years before, at the funeral of one of the family, a 
 mourner took up her father's skull, and holding it before her, said, " This is the skull of an 
 Indian warrior." She seemed to have a prophetic dread of the possibility of the outrage 
 subsequently to be committed, and preferred that her remains should be consigned to the 
 safer custody of her parent earth. 
 
MEMOIR. 119 
 
 individuals, members of this board ; but finding themselves actually- 
 committed by it so far that they could not retract, they induced 
 their associates officially to adopt and defend the measure. The 
 tomb in question was thus violated. Dr. Bowditch was indignant 
 at an act which was alike revolting to his private feelings, at 
 variance with every dictate of humanity and civilization, and 
 which, if acquiesced in, would be a permanent public disgrace 
 to the city which he loved. He headed an address to that board, 
 and subsequently one to the selectmen. The public press 
 was loud in its denunciations of the act. The board reconsidered 
 their decision. None indeed, apparently, at last regretted it more 
 sincerely than themselves. Dr. Bowditch said, on this occasion, 
 that had the act been rendered necessary for the promotion of 
 any public object, he would have cheerfully surrendered his own 
 private wishes to the interests of the community. Accordingly, 
 when, a short time afterwards, the city authorities of Boston 
 wished to lay out an avenue or public walk through one of the 
 burial-grounds, — and had met with such sincere and vehement 
 opposition from two or three individuals, whose relatives were 
 there buried, that a useful public measure was in danger of being 
 abandoned, — Dr. Bowditch waited on those gentlemen, and, 
 sympathizing as he did most fully in all their feelings, yet wholly 
 succeeded in conquering the repugnance, which he satisfied them 
 ought to yield to other and higher considerations. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch was in person under the common size. His 
 hair, originally of a light color, was entirely gray at the age of 
 twenty-one years, and gradually became of a silvery whiteness. 
 His high forehead, bright and penetrating eye, open and intelligent 
 
120 MEMOIR. 
 
 countenance, are, we think, accurately shown in the annexed 
 engraving- ; though the changes which, with the rapidity of 
 lightning, passed across those expressive features, as they in 
 turn exhibited the feelings of benevolence, or the most intense 
 thoughtfulness, — at one moment radiant with smiles, and at 
 another dark with virtuous indignation, — can never be realized 
 but by such as have themselves seen and studied there the outward 
 manifestation of all that was most excellent and beautiful in his 
 character. His, indeed, was a face never to be forgotten. 
 Intellect there altogether predominated over sense. 
 
 He always possessed great bodily activity, and late in life he 
 might often be seen running along or across the streets with as 
 much quickness as in youth. In his daily walks, indeed, he 
 seemed constantly eager to outstrip all his competitors. He 
 was very methodical in his habits of exercise, seldom walking 
 less than five or six miles each day. He fully appreciated 
 the importance of this practice to a person of sedentary pursuits. 
 Throughout the summer, he was in the habit of driving with 
 a horse and gig eight or ten miles in the afternoon ; and during 
 one or more seasons, he mounted his horse and rode before 
 breakfast.* 
 
 * He always drove with great rapidity. A friend, who was riding at a very moderate 
 rate, was once passed on the road by him, and when they next met said, " You whisked by 
 me like the tail of a comet." At another time, a person called upon one of Dr. Bowditch's 
 sons, and, after a few remarks upon the furious mode in which some young men were in the 
 habit of driving, demanded of him compensation for a slight injury which had been thus 
 occasioned, as he believed, by him. The supposed youthful offender proved to be Dr. 
 Bowdhch himself, by whom, however, the blame of the accident was laid wholly upon the 
 
MEMOIR. 121 
 
 It has been strikingly said of him that " he teas a live man /" * 
 All his processes of body and of mind, all his thoughts, all his 
 actions, were full of life. When any thing pleased him, he would 
 rub his face with his hands, or rub his hands together, with an 
 expression of the most free and unrestrained delight ; and when 
 any thing displeased him, and he felt excited enough to determine 
 to speak, he always, as he said, found himself upon his feet, 
 without knowing how he got there ; and except in a standing 
 position, his tongue never became effectually loosed. On such 
 occasions, his vehement and earnest manner was most impressive 
 in its effect upon the beholders, and it truly appalled the individual 
 against whose unjustifiable opinions or conduct his censures were 
 directed.t 
 
 other party. He once attended Commencement at Cambridge with quite a spirited horse, 
 and in the evening started to return to Salem. His horse, however, seemed very unwilling 
 to move, and almost insisted upon turning into the yard of a clergyman's house on the road. 
 Dr. Bowditch resorted to the argument of the whip, and at last reached Salem, after a drive 
 at the rate of about three or four miles an hour. On the contrary, a country clergyman, 
 who had also attended Commencement, was very much alarmed at the rapidity with which 
 his horse carried him home, and at his impetuous and almost ungovernable movements. The 
 double mystery was easily explained ; and when the clergyman received back his own animal, 
 he said, " I am delighted, Dr. Bowditch, that my poor beast fell into such good hands. If the 
 mistake had happened, as I was afraid it had, with some gay young collegian, my horse would 
 have been terribly beaten." Dr. Bowditch said that his conscience smote him as he listened, 
 and thought how little cause there was for this self-congratulation. 
 
 * See anecdote in Judge White's Eulogy, p. 57. 
 
 t It has been observed of Dr. Bowditch, that, " though no ' rude and boisterous captain 
 of the sea,' there may have been occasions when a happier combination would have been 
 produced, had the same measure of the fortiter in re been blended with more of the suaviter 
 m modo." (North American Review, January, 1S39.) We do not deny that such instances 
 sometimes, though they rarely occurred. Dr. Bowditch, in a conversation with his eldest son 
 
 VOL. IV. // 
 
122 MEMOIR. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch generally enjoyed excellent health, the result, 
 beyond doubt, of his regular and temperate habits. At the age 
 of thirty-five years, however, his life was considered in danger 
 from the disease of which, at that precise time, (1808,) his two 
 sisters were dying. He, like them, was attacked with the 
 alarming symptom of bleeding from the lungs. Upon this 
 occasion, his friend Thomas W. Ward, Esq., relinquished all his 
 own engagements, and devoted himself to the invalid during a 
 journey of several weeks. As they were leaving an inn in a 
 town about twenty miles from Salem, the landlord beckoned to 
 Mr. Ward, and asked him where his friend lived, and, on being 
 told, advised their return, in the apprehension that the latter could 
 not even live to reach the next stage in their intended route. By 
 the invigorating effect, however, of the exercise thus taken in the 
 open air, his disorder was checked, and his health completely 
 reestablished. Until this time, he had never tasted wine. It was 
 then prescribed as a medicine. When a young man, — but at 
 what precise age is not known, — he had agreed to sit up with a 
 friend who was ill, and, being unwilling that so much precious 
 
 upon this subject, once said, " There is a gentleman in this city, (naming him,) who possesses 
 such courtly manners, that he can utter a bitter sarcasm, or express profound contempt, in the 
 most mild and conciliatory language. Such, however, is not my case. If 1 am obliged to 
 measure my words, or even to think the least about them, I lose the substance of what I 
 intended to say. When I feel that I cannot remain silent, I speak — and in such terms that 
 no one can misialcc my meaning. But, my speech being ended, the whole affair is over. I 
 pour out, indeed, the contents of my vial of wrath, but I then let it be seen that it is left 
 empty." And though it is certain that his was not that guarded demeanor, which, upon every 
 occasion of life, prevents the utterance of a word which it may be desirable to recall, it is 
 also certain that this was a source of more regret to himself than of pain to others. 
 
MEMOIR. 123 
 
 time should be icily spent, he passed the whole night in 
 mathematical computations. He was much alarmed, the next 
 morning, to find his vision obstructed by little motes or specks 
 passing before him in grotesque variety and constant succession. 
 It was ascertained that he had taxed his eyes beyond their powers, 
 and it was two years before he was able again to use them freely. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch removed to Boston a few months before the 
 necessary arrangements could be made for his family to join 
 him in that city. Hardly had he been there two days, when, 
 under the influence of a disorder to which he had never till then 
 been subject, he fell senseless in the street. It happened that 
 the hospitable mansion of the same friend, to whom, as just 
 stated, he had before been so much indebted, was now freely 
 offered him as a temporary home. Only once again did this 
 vertigo cause him to fall in a similar manner ; and then great 
 indeed was the consternation excited in his family as they 
 perceived a crowd approaching bearing his apparently lifeless 
 body, while, from a wound in his head, blood was flowing 
 profusely. A tendency to this species of attack, however, always 
 continued. But, ascertaining that it was brought on by exercise 
 immediately after eating, and that it was always carried off by 
 sitting down and resting a few minutes, he avoided its exciting 
 cause, and thus never experienced any subsequent ill effect from 
 it. It was rarely, however, after this, that he walked alone. And 
 often, when attended by one of his sons, has he stopped to look in 
 at the window of some shop which they were passing, or even 
 walked in, and asked for a seat, because he felt the sure indications 
 of approaching danger. He well knew the delicate organization 
 
124 MEMOIR. 
 
 of human life, upon which depend alike all the functions of the 
 body and of the mind, and he often expressed his surprise that 
 what seemed so fragile should yet be able to resist so much. One 
 of his favorite quotations, indeed, was that of the beautiful lines 
 by Watts — 
 
 " Strange, that a harp of thousand strings 
 Should keep in tune so long ! " 
 
 And it should ever be remembered that the publication of this 
 work was commenced after he knew that he could no more 
 expect the robust and fearless health of his youthful days. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch always continued his habits of early rising. 
 He greeted the rays of the morning sun of summer as they first 
 entered his library, and by hours of study anticipated its tardy 
 beams in the winter. Often has he been heard to exclaim, as it 
 then first met his eye, 
 
 " See, from ocean rising, bright flames the orb of day ! " 
 
 with as much enthusiasm as at that period of his life when he had 
 made the same glorious luminary his guide over the trackless deep. 
 
 The following may not be uninteresting as a strictly accurate 
 description of each day of his life, for all the period of his 
 residence in Boston : * — He had formerly been in the habit of 
 walking before breakfast, but during this period he breakfasted 
 immediately after rising, in the winter by candle light, and 
 always before the rest of his family. He then applied himself to 
 
 • Sec the similar account, drawn up by us at the recjucst of Judge White, and printed iu 
 the notes to his Eulogy, p. 70, &c. 
 
MEMOIR. 125 
 
 mathematics, gaining from two and a half to three hours' study; 
 after which he walked about a mile and a half, attended by one 
 of his sons, and commenced the business of the day at his office 
 a few minutes after nine o'clock. There also, as has been stated, 
 mathematics was the occupation of all the moments left at his 
 own disposal. He frequently walked home in the forenoon for a 
 few minutes, as he found his eyes strengthened and refreshed by 
 being at intervals in the open air for a short time.* Every day 
 at two o'clock the office was closed, and he then walked as before, 
 being usually accompanied by a friend who still lives to find 
 in the recollection of this daily intercourse one of the most pleasing 
 reminiscences of the past. He dined at a quarter before three, 
 P. M. After dinner he indulged in a short "siesta," which 
 lasted from fifteen minutes to an hour, sometimes even longer. 
 He always awoke bright, and prepared to recommence his studies, 
 which he pursued for about an hour and a half to two hours. 
 He always, near the close of the afternoon, went to his office 
 again, though it was not open for the transaction of business, 
 to see if any thing needed his attention or explanation ; and in 
 the latter months of the year, he was frequently detained there a 
 considerable time. He then walked a third time, usually with 
 one of his sons, and returned to tea. At all his meals, his diet 
 was perfectly simple. His health was indeed, latterly, wholly 
 dependent upon the observance of a very exact and particular 
 regimen. During the evening he continued his studies, and from 
 
 * It was from this motive that lie performed his ablutions as regularly and frequently as the 
 most pious Mussulman. A basin of cold water was as habitually resorted to by him upon 
 entering or leaving his house, as his books were at other times. 
 VOL. IV. ffff 
 
126 MEMOIR. 
 
 time to time joined in conversation with his family, or threw aside 
 his books to devote himself to his visiters and friends. It has been 
 well remarked, that " you never saw the mathematician, unless 
 you inquired for him," * as mathematics was a topic which he 
 never obtruded upon any one. He had other and most abundant 
 resources of knowledge, with which he could instruct or amuse. 
 He always expected the members of his household to be at home by 
 ten o'clock. The house was then closed, and he usually retired 
 between ten and eleven. There is no doubt that, taking the whole 
 year together, he got as much as six, and perhaps eight hours a 
 day, for his mathematics, besides the time devoted to his business 
 and other pursuits.! 
 
 Dr. Bowditch was never fond of reading works upon logic, 
 or even upon moral philosophy, or any abstract speculations upon 
 the nature and powers of the soul. He felt his mind perplexed 
 rather than enlightened by most treatises of this sort. They 
 produced, he said, upon him the effect described by Milton, as 
 produced upon those who 
 
 "reasoned high 
 Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, 
 Fixed fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute ; 
 And found no end, in wandering mazes lost." 
 
 He felt that he was a free and an accountable agent, and he did 
 
 * Christian Review, September, 1S38. 
 
 t Astronomy even entered somewhat into his management of his family. Thus his 
 children, for the first few years of their lives, on going into the library in the morning, if they 
 had behaved well during the preceding day, received three dots on the arm from his pen, 
 which he called " (he Belt of Orion." 
 
MEMOIR. 127 
 
 not care to analyze very nicely the source of this feeling. He also 
 considered the time spent in reading most works of imagination 
 unprofitably employed. He preferred history and biography. 
 Boswell's Johnson delighted him. Raynal's History of the Indies 
 he read in early life with great interest, and he never forgot its 
 facts or its peculiarities of style. The Eloges of Cuvier he 
 regarded as master-pieces. There was, indeed, hardly a striking 
 anecdote of any of the eminent men of the present and of former 
 times, which he did not seem to have gathered up in the course 
 of his miscellaneous reading ; and his excellent memory placed 
 them constantly at his disposal. He mentioned with approbation 
 the remark, "Why read any thing which you cannot quote?" 
 Not that he was himself ever in the least degree pedantic, 
 or ostentatious ; but only because he valued fact far before 
 fiction. 
 
 Of late years, certainly, his reading was almost exclusively 
 confined to mathematics. He owned the works of Scott, which 
 he highly valued for their true delineations of nature, and for their 
 freedom from the immorality which characterizes the pages of 
 some of the earlier novelists ; but he rarely indulged himself in the 
 recreation of reading even his works of fiction. He reserved 
 them, as he said, till the thermometer stood at 90°, and he read 
 them when he did not feel the energy to devote himself to abstruse 
 studies. His recollection of the characters and incidents of these 
 novels was remarkable. He would dwell with delight on Jeanie 
 Deans, and often recall some of the amusing and characteristic 
 scenes of the Antiquary. The earlier volumes of Lockhart's 
 
128 MEMOIR. 
 
 Life of Scott had been republished in this country before he died, 
 and he had read them with avidity and delight. There were 
 many traits in the character of Scott, as there described, which, 
 as we think, greatly resembled his own ; and those later volumes, 
 which carry the reader with a saddened interest to the closing 
 scene of his life, and which Dr. Bowditch never saw himself, 
 spoke to us, who had been thus recently bereaved of a parent in 
 every respect equally entitled to our love, with a peculiar pathos. 
 We had seen the same lofty virtues displayed through many years, 
 which invested the poet's death-bed with its high moral interest ; 
 and we actually beheld the euthanasia which, though mentioned 
 by Scott, we fear he was himself hardly able fully to realize ; and 
 many of the precise expressions which had fallen from the dying 
 lips of the one, had been also used by the other. — The works of 
 Byron, on the contrary, Dr. Bowditch never admitted into his 
 library ; and many years ago he owned a small French work, in 
 four volumes, which had been presented to him during one of his 
 voyages, but which Avas not a book of very exemplary morality. 
 It had engravings which attracted the notice of one of his sons, 
 when he had begun to study French. Soon after, the books 
 disappeared : Dr. Bowditch had burned them, though he had kept 
 them many years on account of the donor, and the really beautiful 
 execution of the work. He subscribed to very many periodicals, 
 and by glancing his eye over them cursorily, he seemed to find 
 out what articles were worth a careful perusal, and made himself 
 master of whatever was important. 
 
 lie used playfully to denominate as "the poet's corner" that 
 
MEMOIR. 129 
 
 part of his library where were to be found Shakspeare, Pope, 
 Milton, &c. ; * and it is quite a remarkable fact, that upon the 
 inside of the two leather covers, in which he kept the proof-sheets 
 of this work while in the process of publication, and which were 
 therefore constantly before him, he had entered in his own hand- 
 writing extracts from Burns's " Cotter's Saturday Night," and the 
 following stanza of Hafiz, the Persian poet, as given by Sir 
 William Jones : — 
 
 "On parents' knees, a naked, new-bom child, 
 Weeping thou sat'st, whilst all around thee smiled. 
 So live, that, sinking in thy last, long sleep, 
 Calm thou mayst smile, whilst all around thee weep." 
 
 So likewise there and in his Newton's Principia, we find copied 
 by him verses of Voltaire and other French writers in honor 
 of that illustrious author. t Among the poets of America, Bryant 
 was his favorite. He has often said that he thought " The Old 
 Man's Funeral" was one of the most beautiful poetical pieces in 
 the English language. Never can it be hereafter perused by us 
 without recalling one of the most interesting and touching scenes 
 at the close of his own life. Dr. Bowditch often delighted to 
 
 * He, a few years ago, expressed his satisfaction at having been tempted to read Milton 
 again, by the beauty of a new Boston edition of that author. — Mr. Young's Eulogy, p. 81. 
 
 t Upon these covers he had also written the mottoes, " Ohne Hast, ohne Rast," (Goethe,) 
 and "Ne tentes aut perfice;" with extracts from Virgil, Ovid, Lucretius, Halley, Cumberland, 
 Bolingbroke, and Charles Lamb. Among the lines quoted from Voltaire are the following 
 upon " The Academicians who measured the Earth in Lapland : " — 
 
 " Vous avez recherche dans ces lieux pleins d'ennui, 
 Ceque Newton connut sans sorter de chez lui.'' 
 
 vol. iv. h h 
 
130 MEMOIR. 
 
 quote the stanzas " On two Swallows that flew into a Church 
 during divine Service," commencing - , 
 
 " Gay, guiltless pair, 
 What seek ye from the fields of heaven ? 
 
 Ye have no need of prayer, 
 Ye have no sins to be forgiven." 
 
 The author * was his friend, and he deemed that Boston might 
 well be proud to own him as her son. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch was fond of music, and when young played a 
 good deal on the flute ; but he soon abandoned it altogether, as 
 leading to an unprofitable employment of time, and the formation 
 of bad habits. For the same reasons, he through life altogether 
 abstained from the use of tobacco in any of its forms, and never 
 played at any game of cards. Chess he also avoided, as not 
 affording any relaxation of body or mind, and as leading to no 
 useful or practical object. Dr. Bowditch was rarely induced to 
 pass an evening at the theatre. Fictitious representations of life, 
 either under tragic or comic aspects, always left upon his mind 
 a feeling of dissatisfaction with its realities. But when he did go 
 to hear some popular actor, his laugh was more loud and cordial, 
 or the starting tear betrayed itself more readily, than if this had 
 been an excitement to which he was more habituated. Much as 
 he was gratified by the sight of innocent hilarity, he did not feel 
 at home in the ball-roorn or crowded assembly. He seldom, it 
 might almost be said never, went into general society, but nothing 
 contributed more to his happiness than a familiar intercourse with 
 his friends. 
 
 * Charles Sprague, Esq. 
 
MEMOIR. 131 
 
 Dr. Bowditch was very quick in his judgments of character, 
 and having formed his opinion, he was slow to change it. A 
 moral failing once noticed in any one, he always associated with 
 the idea of that individual ; and a character which once attracted 
 his respect and love he ever continued to regard with interest, 
 apparently overlooking the slighter blemishes which a more intimate 
 acquaintance may have disclosed. He had a few particular 
 friends, in whose society he especially delighted. Thus while he 
 lived at Salem, and also during his residence in Boston, there 
 were three or four individuals with whom he associated more than 
 with all his other friends and acquaintance together. They were 
 the companions of his daily walks, and at their houses almost 
 exclusively he made his evening visits. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch showed a like constancy and perseverance in 
 any course of life, or in the prosecution of any measure which he 
 had undertaken. Deciding only after due deliberation, he acted 
 without the slightest hesitancy or vacillation of purpose. He 
 believed fully in the scripture, " Unstable as water, thou shalt 
 not excel." He has often reproved the use of the expression 
 " I can't do it ; " saying, " Never undertake any thing but with 
 the feeling that you can and will do it. With that feeling success 
 is certain ; and without it failure is unavoidable." 
 
 Dr. Bowditch's intercourse with his family was entirely free 
 and unreserved. No feeling of restraint was ever inspired by his 
 presence. Among his children, he was himself a child. One 
 occasion is remembered, when, after partaking with them in some 
 
132 MEMOIR. 
 
 frolic, he laughed at his own want of dignity, and proceeded 
 humorously to contrast the scene around him with a description 
 of the formal observances and requirements of past times. 
 A model for the imitation of all parents, he avoided every thing 
 calculated to interrupt the mutual confidence and familiarity which 
 existed between him and his family. Though readily granting any 
 reasonable favor, he was never weakly indulgent. Inculcating 
 by precept and example the most valuable lessons of life, affection 
 ever prompted and directed his admonitions, and a sound judgment 
 always controlled the impulses of affection. The censure of an 
 instructer uniformly brought with it the weight of a father's 
 displeasure; since Dr. Bowditch never weakened the authority 
 which he had thus delegated to another, by expressing a doubt 
 whether, in any particular instance, it had been judiciously 
 exercised. He devoted much of his own time (though not so 
 much of late years as formerly) to the instruction of his children, 
 particularly the elder ones ; his chief endeavor being to awaken 
 in them a taste for mathematics. He persuaded one of his sons 
 to learn French when very young, by the stimulus of a small 
 compensation for the translation of a certain number of pages. 
 The result satisfied him, however, that this was inexpedient. The 
 best works in the language were read before they could be duly 
 appreciated, and they could never afterwards be read with the 
 interest of a first perusal. His experience, also, led him to 
 acquiesce in a child's pursuit of any study, though comparatively 
 useless in itself, if voluntarily undertaken, and prosecuted Avith 
 ardor; as he believed that it might be attended with incidental 
 advantageous results, and that it would certainly assist in forming 
 a habit of industry. 
 
MEMOIR. 133 
 
 If a predisposition were manifested for any occupation in life, 
 the father candidly stated his own opinion, and enforced his 
 views by such arguments as occurred to him, but left the final 
 choice of bis child free. In one instance of this kind, he, by 
 his advice, induced the adoption of a profession other than that 
 for which a slight preference had been at first felt ; while in 
 another case, he readily yielded at last his own wishes to the 
 strong predilection which one of his sons manifested for a seafaring 
 life; judging wisely in both cases. He often spoke of the feeling 
 of independence resulting from the consciousness that one is able 
 to maintain himself by his own exertions, saying that " A man 
 whose capital is in his head is free from all anxiety about 
 investments, and has a much more certain income than any one 
 else." He early impressed upon his sons the necessity which they 
 would be under of earning their own livelihood, and he regarded 
 it as a most fortunate necessity. One of his eulogists says, " He 
 would not, as we happen to know, have accepted the offer of a 
 fortune for one of his sons, at the risk of any unpropitious influence 
 upon his opening mind and character." * 
 
 As his children grew up, they became his companions. His 
 most intimate friends were those who day by day met around his 
 own fireside. To them his most secret thoughts were disclosed, 
 except only in those cases where silence was a duty which he 
 owed to others. Each of his children may well apply to him 
 (as was indeed done by one of them who communicated in 
 a letter to a younger brother the information of his dangerous 
 
 * Judge White's Eulogy, p. 50. 
 vol. iv. i i 
 
134 MEMOIR. 
 
 illness) the beautiful language in which Marcia speaks of 
 
 Cato : — 
 
 " Though stern and awful to the foes of Rome, 
 
 He is all goodness, Lucia — always mild, 
 Compassionate, and gentle to his friends ; 
 Filled with domestic tenderness, — the best, 
 The kindest father ! I have ever found him 
 Easy and good, and bounteous to my wishes." 
 
 We feel assured that only one who had often seen Dr. Bowditch 
 by his own fireside, could have penned the resolutions received 
 after his decease from the Faculty of a neighboring university, 
 (Yale College,) which state 'that they " respectfully and feelingly 
 sympathize with the children of the illustrious deceased, whose 
 memory, justly dear to the country which he honored, is cherished 
 still more affectionately by those who were so happy as to call 
 him their father."* 
 
 * We have thought that the reader might be interested in the following remarks of Rev. 
 N. L. Frothingham, D. D., being an incidental notice of the death of Dr. Bowditch, in a 
 discourse delivered at the First Church in Boston, on Sunday, March 25, 1838: — "We 
 need not wait for the consummations of a future world, to see that the righteous spirit is more 
 than a match for death. It wins the victory even now. The eyes of the public have been 
 turned, within a few days, to a remarkable instance of this ; and they will long remain fixed 
 upon so serene and noble a spectacle. A great man has been struck down among us. A 
 wood man has gone his way from us. His was a mind eminent among the loftiest, and as 
 benignant as it was strong. His renown, that travelled over the world, was the least portion 
 of his deserts. His unaffected goodness was as noble as his genius. His character was as 
 striking as his fame. Who, that ever saw him, forgot him? There was a divine stamp set 
 upon his clear, high brow. A healthy vigor looked out of his cheerful but thoughtful eyes. 
 He was in the midst of the abstractcst science, and in the midst of the world's busiest interests, 
 at the same time, — not absorbed by the one, not disturbed by the other, seeing calmly through 
 
MEMOIR. 135 
 
 We have endeavored, by these various details, to lay before the 
 reader such facts and circumstances as would in some degree 
 
 both. Strangers might well turn as he passed, to ask who he was ; and his most intimate 
 friends would feel that they themselves knew of him but the half. 
 
 " I can hardly bear to hear him described chiefly as an Astronomer or a Mathematician, — 
 though among the most illustrious that have lived, — he was so honestly, heartily, bravely, 
 entirely, a man. There was something in him brighter than talent, and deeper even than that 
 profound knowledge which led the way with a modest silence where there were few intellects 
 that could so much as attend him. It was the light and depth of a true soul. While he 
 demonstrated the subtlest problems, and scaled starry heights, he displayed the simplest, the 
 most practical, the most engaging worth. It was an instruction to behold him. All the 
 affections of youthful life beamed from his face. His feeling was as keen as his intelligence. 
 To be with him was a wholesome delight ; for his was the energy and the very inspiration of 
 good sense, — a free, natural, unseducible spirit, playful and sublime. He was full of 
 humanity. And in using that word, I do not understand it in the technical sense in which it is 
 commonly taken, being applied often to the weakly charitable, and assumed often, as if it 
 were exclusively their own, by visionary schemers and itinerant philanthropists. But I mean 
 that he was rich in the elements and endowments that best distinguish our nature ; wise 
 beyond books ; benevolent without theory, or feebleness, or parade ; active, affectionate, 
 manful ; pursuing his way without fear or favor ; poised upon himself, and seeming to be lifted 
 by a calm philosophy above all the groveling interests, and fanciful systems, and transient 
 fashions, and heated delusions of the world, 
 
 " Alas, that such a one should be withdrawn in the midst of his labors and glory ! But 
 that : alas ' he left for others to say. For himself, it was neither expressed nor felt. He left 
 life as cheerfully as he had traversed it. There was no difference between his last days 
 and those which had gone before them, but that they were still more admirable. He had 
 thought as a philosopher. He showed now the most precious fruits of his thought. He 
 submitted and suffered like a Christian disciple. He expired like a saint. Such a 
 ' euthanasia,' as he himself called it, with nothing but peace and hope in it. exhibits the 
 full power of Christian principle. It ought not to be confined to the know ledge of a few, 
 and cannot be. It will spread as far as his name, and do good, as his studies had done 
 before." — MS. 
 
136 MEMOIR. 
 
 enable him to form his own judgment respecting the most striking 
 peculiarities which marked the habits and character of Dr. 
 Bowditch. We thought it not advisable to attempt an elaborate 
 analysis of what we felt ourselves incompetent fully to measure 
 and comprehend. In his general manners he was affable and 
 courteous, social in his feelings, and in all the domestic relations 
 most kind and tender. Crowned with the honors of science, he 
 retained the modesty and simplicity of a child. Endowed with 
 the highest genius, none was more wholly free from pride. 
 Frank, open, and naturally without reserve, he could yet be 
 most cautious and discreet. No less ardent than steadfast in his 
 attachments ; easily seeing and sincerely regretting the foibles 
 or faults of his friend, he yet loved him still. Having a boundless 
 extent of mental and moral resources, their varied display gave 
 to the longest intimacy the interest of a recent acquaintance. 
 With a benevolence as universal and as active as ever dwelt in 
 the heart of a philanthropist, his treasures of knowledge were 
 freely imparted to the world : and much of his valuable time, 
 and of the small earnings of his honorable industry, was devoted 
 with judicious and unostentatious liberality to the promotion of 
 the happiness and welfare of others. Holding in slight estimation 
 the services which he thus rendered, he manifested a lively and 
 enduring sense of kindness received. Quick and excitable, indeed, 
 when he saw the occasion, he was yet most placable and forgiving, 
 and never harbored ill-will for a moment. The occasional indis- 
 cretions of an ardent temperament he redeemed by displays of the 
 most magnanimous virtue. Devoted to the loftiest speculations, he 
 was not neglectful of the most trifling and minute duty. Undeterred 
 by fear, uninfluenced by any prospect of advantage, he followed 
 
MEMOIR. 137 
 
 truth, and obeyed conscience ; and the popular clamor, and even 
 the coolness of some whose friendship he valued, were alike 
 unheeded. He possessed an energy, promptness, and decision, 
 equal to every emergency, and which insured success in each 
 undertaking. He endeavored to save each moment of time, and 
 apply it to the uses of eternity. Governed by the highest and 
 purest motives, the most distinguishing and beautiful trait of his 
 character was his perfect integrity. Never was he more truly 
 indignant than at the want of this quality in others. Any 
 thing, indeed, mean or dishonorable, and especially any thing 
 like fraud, equivocation, or falsehood, always received his sternest 
 rebuke.* It has been truly said, that, in questions of morals, 
 you could no more becloud or mystify him than in questions of 
 quantity ; that whatever he saw in right or wrong, he saw as 
 clearly as in plus or minus ; and that he carried out a practical 
 obedience to whatever he believed, alike in both cases. f 
 
 On January 1st, 1838, Dr. Bowditch, to the casual observer, 
 seemed likely to enjoy many more years of health and strength. 
 Nor had he himself any idea that his brief days were already 
 numbered. To a female annuitant who then called at the office 
 for her quarterly payment, he said he felt "very well;" but she 
 
 * Thus, many years ago, in Salem, one of his sons, at a female school, being in an 
 apartment with one other boy, threw a ball which broke a mirror ; and his comrade advised 
 concealment. He was so much pleased when his son told the truth immediately about the 
 affair, that, though he was then obliged to live with rigid economy, and the payment was 
 really inconvenient to him, he bought a new mirror, and expressed far more pleasure at the 
 son's performance of so high a duty as telling the truth, than he did regret at his carelessness. 
 
 | Christian Review, September, 1S38. 
 vol. iv. k k 
 
138 MEMOIR. 
 
 was to receive her next payment from the hands of a stranger. 
 He had attained the precise age at which two of his ancestors 
 had been called to the tomb ; and in the midst of this apparently 
 perfect health, in the full and active enjoyment and exercise of all 
 his faculties of body and mind, and surrounded by so much to make 
 life desirable, his own summons came to quit it. He received it 
 with the calmness of a Philosopher, and the cheerfulness of a 
 Christian. After having experienced slight pain and uneasiness 
 for three or four months, about the end of December, he mentioned 
 his symptoms to his third son, — a physician, — who wished him 
 immediately to submit to his prescriptions. He replied that he 
 had not then leisure to be ill; that the affairs of the Life Insurance 
 Company required his constant attention ; and that he could not 
 put himself under the hands of the doctors until after the payments 
 of the first part of the month of January had been completed. 
 As soon as possible, however, after the period thus mentioned, 
 his son, who considered the symptoms to be of an alarming 
 character, persuaded him to call in the aid of the same eminent 
 medical adviser and friend,* to whose attentions his mother had 
 been so much indebted during her protracted illness. Almost 
 immediately it was decided that the disease under which he labored 
 was a tumor in the abdomen, of a dangerous and probably a fatal 
 character. The symptoms rapidly became more and more decided, 
 and at intervals the most acute pain was experienced, lasting 
 sometimes for twenty or thirty minutes, and from which relief 
 could only be obtained by means of hot applications. His stomach 
 now rejected all solid food, and could only bear the slightest 
 
 • .Tamos Jackson, M. D., now President of the American Academy of Arts and 
 Sciences. 
 
MEMOIR. 139 
 
 quantity even of liquid, and sometimes none at all. Death by 
 starvation was in prospect. A general debility of the whole 
 system was the unavoidable consequence of the small degree of 
 nourishment which he was able to take. He became emaciated 
 to a degree of which even his consulting physician, with all 
 his extensive practice, had never before seen an instance. The 
 disease had wholly gained the mastery over his body. But 
 his mind seemed to acquire strength and energy as the crisis 
 approached. He was fully apprized of his danger, arranged all 
 his worldly affairs, and executed his will in a manner with which 
 he expressed himself perfectly satisfied. He continued to sit in 
 his library part of each day, until the day before his death, when 
 he for the first time was unable to rise from his bed. He rode 
 to his office every day until February 17, not quite four weeks 
 before his death. It was an elevating spectacle to see such an 
 unconquerable spirit struggling to discharge every duty, even 
 when the body had almost refused to perform its functions, and 
 when death was most legibly written upon the countenance. 
 Subsequently, the secretary of the company, by his desire, came 
 each day to his house with such papers as required his signature, 
 or with the books for him to examine ; and as lately as the 7th 
 of March, he transmitted to the company whose affairs he had so 
 long superintended, the complete account of the transactions of 
 the preceding month, drawn up as usual ; and with it he sent a 
 farewell communication, which he had dictated and signed. In 
 this he states that his declining health would probably make it 
 the last which he should ever address to them, and takes an 
 affectionate leave of those who had had the control of the 
 institution, and of those who had been associated with him in 
 
140 MEMOIR. 
 
 its management. He also alludes to the length of time during 
 which the institution had been under his charge, and earnestly 
 commends its interests " to that Providence which had seen fit to 
 bless their efforts to make it deserving of public regard." To this 
 letter he received a most affectionate reply, not attested as an 
 official act by the secretary of the company, but personally signed 
 by each of the twelve directors, who assured him in the strongest 
 terms of their respect and regard, of their conviction of the value 
 of his past services, and of their deep and sincere sorrow for his 
 serious illness. The promissory note upon which he made the 
 endorsement before mentioned, has upon it the latest specimen of 
 his hand-writing. 
 
 In like manner he continued to correct the proof-sheets of this 
 volume ; and within a week of his death, he said that the sheet 
 which he was then revising contained the discussion of a difficult 
 problem ; that M. Poisson thought he had made an improvement 
 upon the method of the author, whereas he believed he had shown 
 that, on the contrary, the supposed improved method was fairly 
 deducible from that of La Place : and he added, " I feel that I 
 am Nathaniel Bowditch still — only a little weaker." The last 
 page upon which his eye was ever to rest, was the thousandth, 
 though no part of the volume subsequent to the six hundred and 
 eighty-fourth page has received that final revision which he was 
 accustomed to bestow upon it, after the friend before alluded to 
 had laid before him the list of typographical errata, which he had 
 discovered.* The reader will therefore pass a charitable judgment 
 
 • Whenever one hundred and twenty pages were printed, Dr. Bowditch had them bound 
 
MEMOIR. 1 41 
 
 upon this latter portion of the volume. Dr. Bowditch hoped to 
 be spared to finish its few remaining pages. It called forth the 
 last efforts of his powerful intellect, and afforded him amusement 
 and solace almost as it were to the -hour of death. 
 
 He continued to take a lively interest in all such passino- 
 events as he considered to have an important bearing upon the 
 welfare of the community. He was able to see a few, and only 
 a few, of his most valued friends ; and he conversed with them 
 and with his family upon his approaching separation with the 
 utmost resignation and calmness. To two of his most intimate 
 friends, then absent in Europe, he sent a message, assuring them 
 of his continued attachment. Throughout his illness he was only 
 " watched by eyes that loved him." The kind offices of others 
 were not needed. Filial hands alone ministered to his wants ; 
 filial hearts alone anticipated his wishes. To his eldest daughter, 
 as she stood hour after hour behind his chair, or beside his bed, 
 gently rubbing his head in the manner which had ever been 
 agreeable to him, he playfully remarked that her fingers were like 
 " Perkins's Tractors," and that the process itself was " Terrible 
 Tractoration." He said of her to one of his sons, " I feel 
 respecting Mary to-day, as I did the day when she was born ; " 
 and to the inquiry how he then felt, he replied, " It was the 
 happiest day of my life, for I then first had a little daughter." 
 
 in a pamphlet form, and sent them to Professor Peirce, who, in this manner, read the work 
 for the first time. He returned the pages with the list of errata, which were then corrected 
 with a pen or otherwise in every copy of the whole edition. 
 VOL. IV. / I 
 
142 MEMOIR. 
 
 He once said to her in a smiling manner, " You seem to my 
 eyes to be forty years old. This expression in itself may not 
 be flattering to you ; but I mean by it, that you have compressed 
 the services of many years into the brief period of my illness." 
 And one day, as he was examining his papers, and burning those 
 he thought of no value, he met a copy which he had made several 
 years before of those beautiful lines in Scott's Marmion — 
 
 " O woman, in our hours of ease, 
 Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, 
 And variable as the shade 
 By the light, quivering aspen made, 
 When pain and anguish wring the brow, 
 A ministering angel thou ! " 
 
 This he handed to her, saying that of the compliment contained in 
 the two last lines she was certainly deserving. * 
 
 With no less assiduity did his younger daughter delight to 
 discharge such kind oflices as did not require the greater skill 
 and experience possessed by her elder sister ; and he who of late 
 years had always assented to her request to be the companion 
 of his noon-day walk upon the Sabbath, and who indeed had 
 always regarded her with peculiar tenderness as the child of his 
 
 * During his illness, he examined and burned very many papers ; and after his death, 
 it was found that he had probably, in this manner, and at this time, destroyed all the 
 correspondence between himself and his wife before and after marriage ; and also a manuscript 
 folio volume, in about seventy pages of which his eldest son had, several years before, recorded 
 ihe details of his early life, as taken down from his own lips, and which volume had been left 
 •in his library that the narrative might be continued from time to time. 
 
MEMOIR. 143 
 
 old age, now made a like affectionate return for these her efforts 
 to please him. His eldest son he once addressed in the language 
 of Scripture, " My first-born, my beloved." He employed him to 
 draft his will, and all his various letters and other documents. 
 His second son attended to his requests in regard to all matters 
 of business, and the arrangement of his pecuniary affairs. He 
 was particularly desirous to discharge all his debts, however 
 trifling, before he died, or to leave the means for their instant 
 discharge afterwards. To this son he mentioned, the day before 
 his death, a female, of whose little concerns he had always taken 
 care, and said to him, " I wish you to call upon her before you 
 visit any one else, after attending my funeral, and inform her 
 that I have transferred her to your charge, and that you will 
 supply my place to her through life." His two eldest sons no 
 longer resided under the parental roof, and as they were one 
 evening leaving his presence, he said to them, " Farewell, my 
 sons ; my blessing goes with you." His third son had the peculiar 
 privilege, as his medical attendant, to pass nearly all of each day, 
 and the whole of each night, in his apartment, enjoying an 
 unreserved intercourse with him of the most elevating character ; 
 and boundless indeed, to a degree, as he admits, far beyond his 
 deserts, was the gratitude which owned his constant attentions. 
 His youngest son was, like the elder ones, absent from his father's 
 house, but upon learning his illness, each evening saw him a 
 visiter there ; and on the last night but one of his life, when an 
 elder brother intended to act as a watcher, he asked and readily 
 obtained his father's consent to be allowed that privilege. The 
 teachings of that night he will never forget. He had asked his 
 father for a kiss when leaving him upon one of these evening 
 
144 MEMOIR. 
 
 visits, and received the reply — " Kiss you, my dear ! Yes, if I 
 die in the act ! " At another time he said, " I leave behind me a 
 family of love, which, I rejoice to believe, will long continue a 
 united household, after I shall have been removed from it by 
 death." To her who in early years had been left alone among 
 strangers, he recalled the dying words of the sister who had then 
 intrusted her to his care — " Promise to be a father to my child ; " 
 and he stated that he had always endeavored to redeem the 
 pledge then solemnly given, and had never intentionally made any 
 distinction between her and his own children ; and that he had 
 made an adequate provision for her by his will, that she might 
 not feel herself dependent even upon them, though he doubted 
 not for a moment, that each of them would always be ready to 
 welcome her to his home and his heart. He then thanked her for 
 that performance of household duties which had so much lightened 
 the labors of his wife and himself, and added that if any occasion 
 had ever occurred (which there had not, to his knowledge) when 
 he had shown her less affection than the kindest parent ought to 
 have shown to the most dutiful daughter, she must overlook and 
 forget it as accidental. In various ways he constantly showed the 
 most considerate affection for his family. Thus he said that he 
 had himself found great consolation, after the death of friends, in 
 reflecting that they met their fate with a cheerful and resigned 
 spirit ; and he added, " I am happy that I can leave to you the 
 same consolation." And Ave indeed saw in him a soul perfectly 
 calm and serene. Two nights only before his death, after awaking 
 at midnight, and speaking a few moments very impressively 
 respecting his approaching end to two of his sons who were 
 
MEMOIR. 145 
 
 present, he yet sank again, apparently in less than five minutes, 
 into the most tranquil sleep. 
 
 To one of his sons, who, as he thought, was not always 
 sufficiently careful of making remarks which, though innocently 
 intended, might give offence, he said that upon a certain occasion 
 he had himself, in speaking to a female friend, alluded to one of 
 her features as not handsome ; and that after she had gone, his 
 wife blamed him for doing so, because the lady in question might 
 have received the impression that he thought her countenance 
 disagreeable ; when in reality there was scarce a being in the 
 world, to whom they were both more attached, or upon whose face 
 they were always more delighted to look ; that this advice of his 
 wife, dictated by the truest kindness of heart, he had often 
 reflected upon, and, as he hoped, had been benefited by it. He 
 then said, " There is no friendship or connection so intimate as to 
 justify a disregard of a constant endeavor to please;" and added 
 that upon one occasion, when his wife had appeared in the library 
 in a new dress, and he, happening to be engaged in his studies, 
 had not noticed the circumstance, she seemed quite disappointed, 
 and said to him, " I purchased this dress on purpose to please you, 
 as being of your favorite color, and now you do not seem to care 
 the least about it." He added, " I immediately left my books, told 
 her she must lay the blame not upon me, but upon mathematics; 
 that the dress suited my taste exactly ; and thus succeeded in 
 restoring her cheerful looks. And ever afterwards," said he, 
 " through life, I endeavored, whenever she came into my presence, 
 not to omit to express towards her, outwardly, something of that 
 pleasure which I always really felt." 
 
146 MEMOIR. 
 
 To another of his sons he was speaking of truth as never to 
 be in the slightest degree or upon any inducement disregarded, and 
 holding up his finger, and repeating the words with most solemn 
 emphasis, said, " Follow truth — truth — truth ! Let that be 
 the family motto." So many, indeed, are the touching incidents 
 of his last illness which throng upon the memory of his children, 
 that a selection is almost impossible, where each was such 
 an exhibition of moral greatness. He had expressed the wish 
 to be approached with smiles and cheerfulness. Feeling no 
 melancholy in his own soul, he was averse to the manifestation 
 of it in others. Observing, therefore, one of his family whose 
 countenance was marked with sadness, he called for his volume 
 of Bryant, and opening at his favorite piece, read, 
 
 " Why weep ye, then, for him who, having won 
 
 The bound of man's appointed years, at last, — > 
 Life's blessings all enjoyed, life's labor done, — 
 Serenely to his final rest has passed ? " 
 
 He then proceeded to read all the remaining lines, remarking upon 
 each, that he believed or hoped it was applicable to himself, or 
 that he thought it not so. His voice, though low, was throughout 
 clear and firm, and the incident was a truly impressive one. 
 
 Rarely was a complaint or murmur extorted from him even by 
 the most excruciating pain. One evening, as his eldest sons were 
 present, he said, " Much as it usually gratifies me to see you, your 
 presence now is unwelcome. I am suffering so much, that I 
 cannot enjoy the society of any one. You can do nothing for my 
 relief. I had rather you would go home." On another occasion, 
 when the torture he experienced was almost beyond endurance, 
 
MEMOIR. 147 
 
 he exclaimed, "Why was I born ! " After he had obtained relief, 
 one of his sons asked him why he had made that remark. He 
 said that he meant, " Why was I born to suffer so much ! But I 
 see the reason. It is that I may be weaned from this world." 
 
 Happily, a few weeks before his death, he had longer 
 intervals of ease. On one of these occasions, he asked a son if 
 he remembered the word, derived from the Greek, signifying an 
 easy death. Being answered in the negative, he said that in 
 Pope's Works there was a letter from Dr. Arbuthnot, which he 
 had not read for forty years, but which he distinctly remembered 
 as containing this word, with a note mentioning that that 
 excellent man died shortly afterwards ; so that he had always 
 associated the idea of an easy death with that of excellence of 
 character. The book was opened, and the letter found. The 
 writer says, " A recovery in my case, and at my age, is impossible. 
 The kindest wish of my friends is euthanasia." To this subject 
 he upon more than one occasion afterwards recurred, and, applying 
 it to his own situation, said, " This is indeed euthanasia." 
 
 The following is an extract from the private journal of his 
 third son, under date March 4, 1838, recording a dialogue which 
 took place between him and his father : — " He said, ' I have left 
 in my will the manuscript of La Place to the College. I wish 
 I had not done so ; for who will care any thing about it ? It is a 
 mere bagatelle.' I told him that, though in itself valueless, it 
 would be interesting, perhaps, at some future period, for the lover 
 of mathematics to look upon his original manuscript copy of so 
 great a work. ' O,' said he, ' the work will soon become obsolete, 
 
148 MEMOIR. 
 
 and nobody will look at it.' — ' Very true, it xcill become obsolete ; 
 and what work is there that will not become old 1 but still we honor 
 talent, even if the labors of that talent are superseded by later 
 writers.' — ' Yes,' replied father, ' Archimedes was of the same 
 order of talent with Newton, and we honor him as much ; and 
 Leibnitz was equal to either of them. Euclid was a second-rate 
 mathematician ; yet I should like to see some of his hand-writing. 
 My order of talent is very different from that of La Place. La 
 Place originates things which it would have been impossible for 
 me to have originated. La Place was of the Newton class ; and 
 there is the same difference between La Place and myself as 
 between Archimedes and Euclid.' " * 
 
 Not less interesting were many incidents which occurred during 
 his interviews with others. A young lady had been playing, by his 
 desire, upon a harmonicon. As the strains of the music rose and 
 
 * A similar anecdote is mentioned by Mr. Young, (Eulogy, p. 83,) of Dr. Bowditch's 
 admitting La Place to be altogether his superior, and saying, " I hope I know as much about 
 mathematics as Playfair." The word hope is probably a verbal mistake for think, since the 
 expression otherwise seems to imply a disrespect for Playfair, such as Dr. Bowditch did 
 not entertain, and to which, therefore, he could not, as we believe, have given utterance. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch was always of opinion that men are born with the same diversities of 
 intellectual, as of physical powers and stature. Thus he would speak of one as " a man of 
 small calibre," and say of another that he had reached his "couche de niveau." And he 
 considered as wholly absurd a remark once made in his hearing, " I have no doubt that any 
 man could become a mathematician if he only had time!" It seemed indeed, in his own 
 case, that he became a mathematician notwithstanding the leant of time ; and a striking 
 contrast is exhibited by Mr. Pickering, (Eulogy, p. 56,) between the long life of La Place, 
 exclusively devoted to the pursuit of science, and the comparatively short life of his translator, 
 of which so much was occupied by other important engagements. 
 
MEMOIR. !49 
 
 fell upon the ear, like that of the iEolian harp, he listened 
 intently ; and when the last cadence had died away, and the 
 musician approached to take her leave, he gave her an affectionate 
 greeting, and after she had retired said, "You must tell her that 
 she has been playing my dirge." A lady visited him, and as she 
 was quitting the apartment, he said, " Good night," twice, 
 with a tone of voice, and an expression of countenance, which 
 indicated his conviction that he saw her for the last time ; 
 and then he immediately added, " Good morning at the 
 resurrection." 
 
 Exactly a week before his death, the President of Harvard 
 College, Mr. Quincy, had an interview with him, the following 
 account of which he reduced to writing immediately afterwards : 
 — He says, " I found him sitting in his chair, in his library, 
 emaciated, pale, and apparently wasted by his disease to the last 
 stage of life ; his mind clear, active, and self-possessed. He 
 spoke of his disorder as incurable ; that he felt himself gradually 
 sinking, and that he could not long survive. ' I have wished to 
 see you,' said he, ' to take my leave, and that you might have the 
 satisfaction of knowing that I depart willingly, cheerfully, and, 
 as I hope, prepared. From my boyhood, my mind has been 
 religiously impressed. I never did or could question the existence 
 of a Supreme Being, and that he took an interest in the affairs 
 of men. I have always endeavored to regulate my life in 
 subjection to his will, and studied to bring my mind to an 
 acquiescence in his dispensations ; and now, at its close, I look 
 back with gratitude for the manner in which He has distinguished 
 
 vol. iv. n n 
 
150 MEMOIR. 
 
 me, and for the many blessings of my lot. As to creeds of faith, 
 I have always been of the sentiment of the poet, — 
 
 For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight ; 
 His can't be wrong, whose life is in the right.' " * 
 
 Then he alluded to the lines of Hafiz, before mentioned, saying 
 of them, " ' They are lines of which I at this moment feel all 
 the force and consolation. I can only say, Mr. Quincy, that I 
 am content ; that I go willingly, resigned, and satisfied.' t After 
 this he spoke to me of his works, his gratification that the four 
 first volumes, which constituted the principal work, were so nearly 
 completed. ' There are only about ten pages wanting ; perhaps 
 I may live to finish them. I have been to-day correcting the 
 proofs.' He then showed me his will, explained his motives, asked 
 me to read it, and my opinion. In every respect, his state of 
 mind was such as at such a moment his best friends could have 
 wished, — calm, collected, rational, resigned, — looking confidently 
 for an existence beyond the grave, — happy in reflecting on 
 the past, and in anticipating the future. On taking leave, he 
 impressed a kiss on my hand, saying, ' Farewell ! ' ' On another 
 
 * Dr. Bowditch often repeated passages from Pope's " Essay on Man " and " Universal 
 Prayer." 
 
 -j- The following lines, which he had also copied on the covers of his portfolio, are 
 strikingly applicable to the frame of mind which he now manifested : — 
 
 " Parent of nature, Master of the world, 
 Where'er thy providence directs, behold 
 My steps with cheerful resignation turn. 
 Fate leads the willing, drags the backward on. 
 Why should I grieve, when grieving I must bear; 
 Or take with guilt, what guiltless I might share?" 
 
 Cleanthes, translated by Bolingbroke. Orig. Epist. 107. 
 
MEMOIR. 151 
 
 occasion, he mentioned the early impression made on his mind by 
 the remark of a Quaker lady, that the external symbols and 
 observances of religion were only valuable as indicating the 
 existence of an inward principle, and -a life in accordance with it. 
 
 Among those, also, who had the happiness of a like interview, 
 were two of his subsequent Eulogists ; one of whom (Judge 
 White) says, " Being deeply affected by his whole appearance and 
 conversation, and absorbed in the feelings which these produced, I 
 could not retain much of the language which he uttered, though 
 the general impression of what he said was indelibly fixed in my 
 mind. I recollect, however, very distinctly his expressions in 
 speaking of his early and deep feeling of religious truth and 
 accountability. ' I cannot remember,' he said, ' when I had not 
 this feeling, and when I did not act from it, or endeavor to. In 
 my boyish days, when some of my companions, who had become 
 infected with Tom Paine's * infidelity, broached his notions in 
 conversation with me, I battled it with them stoutly, not exactly 
 with the logic you would get from Locke, but with the logic I 
 found here, (pointing to his breast;) and here it has always been 
 my guide and support : it is my support still.' With feelings of 
 humility inseparable from the purest minds in such a situation, 
 he expressed the satisfaction which he felt from having always 
 
 endeavored to do his duty ' My whole life,' he said, ' has been 
 
 crowned with blessings beyond my deserts. I am still surrounded 
 with blessings unnumbered. Why should I distrust the goodness 
 
 * The well-known " Age of Reason," by Thomas Paine, was a work which at that time 
 had many readers in the community. 
 
152 MEMOIR. 
 
 of God? Why should I not still be grateful and happy, and 
 confide in his goodness?' And indeed why should he not?"* 
 
 In his interview with the other, (Rev. Mr. Young,) he dwelt 
 much upon the kindness and assistance which in early life he had 
 received in Salem, and expressed a like affection and gratitude 
 towards the city in which he was to end his days. Mr. Young 
 says that every one of the friends who then visited him " will bear 
 testimony to his calm, serene state of mind. The words which 
 he spoke in those precious interviews they will gather up and 
 treasure in their memory, and will never forget them so long as 
 they live." t 
 
 Durino- his illness, Dr. Bowditch was asked to state his 
 particular religious belief, and replied, — " Of what importance 
 are my opinions to any one ? I do not wish to be made a show 
 of." When mention was made of the various teachers of mankind, 
 inspired and others, (Socrates, Moses, &c.,) at the name of Christ, 
 he said, " Yes — the greatest of them all." He dwelt often upon 
 the fitness of the gospel to purify the heart and elevate the soul ; 
 and preferred to rest its authority upon these views, rather than 
 upon any other. A recent article in the Christian Examiner, upon 
 the point that a belief in miracles is not essential to a belief in 
 Christianity, received his approbation. 
 
 The Rev. John Brazer, D. D., of Salem, was a friend who 
 rarely visited Boston without passing the night under his roof, and 
 
 • Eulogy, p. 53. t Discourse, p. 94. 
 
MEMOIR. 153 
 
 whose own house had often had as an inmate for several weeks 
 a daughter of Dr. Bowditch. He, during the last illness of the 
 latter, offered up for him within his church a prayer which, in the 
 words of a correspondent, " touched all hearts." More than one 
 interview left his mind also filled with the same delightful 
 impressions. In one of them, Dr. Bowditch, after alluding to the 
 intimacy which existed between themselves, and also between 
 himself and certain absent friends, observed that he felt himself 
 " capable of faithful friendship." And in a brief public notice of 
 his decease, this clergyman observes, " And so he was, in a degree 
 never surpassed. Aching hearts can now testify to this ; and 
 there are some who feel that there is a void left in their affections, 
 which can only be filled by a reunion with him in another world." 
 Dr. Bowditch had requested his children to send to Dr. Brazer a 
 small legacy, saying, " I know that it will be grateful to my friend 
 to be assured that I thought of him with unabated love and 
 confidence in my dying moments." 
 
 He had through life delighted to attend to the interests and 
 feelings of many who were comparatively alone in the world ; and 
 for these services, they now expressed the warmest gratitude. A 
 short time before his death, he received from a young lady who, 
 being herself an invalid, could not in person express her sentiments 
 towards him, a letter, in which she addresses him as " her 
 dear father," and assures him that " his kindness fell not upon 
 stony ground, when it fell upon an orphan's heart;" and the 
 last person who had an interview with him, (except the members 
 of his own family,) was another lady, before alluded to, (p. 143,) 
 who expressed the delight which it had afforded her, and said that 
 
154 MEMOIR. 
 
 she never could have been happy if he had died without her 
 having had an opportunity of acknowledging her many and great 
 obligations to the best of friends. 
 
 He himself literally never forgot a kindness. Thus he 
 enjoined it on his children to transmit a legacy from him to the 
 widow of one of his early employers, as being his oldest friend, 
 "one whose affection had ever been to him as that of a mother, 
 knowing no interruption or abatement." And he remembered 
 in a similar manner a near relative, from whom he had always 
 received a sister's welcome when he visited Salem. 
 
 One little being alone stood to him in the relation of a 
 grandchild, the daughter of his eldest son. Desirous of leaving 
 for her some small token of his remembrance, a silver cup was 
 made by his directions, bearing the inscription, " Elizabeth Francis 
 Bowditch, from her grandfather, Nathaniel Bowditch, March 1st, 
 1838," which, a day or two afterwards, he placed in her own hands. 
 Though the image of that affectionate relative has long since 
 faded away from her infant memory, that visihle emblem will in 
 after years remind her of one who, on the day of his death, when 
 his failing senses led him erroneously to believe that he was 
 addressing her mother, said, " Give my love to the little one." 
 
 There was one who was a sister to him by marriage, as she 
 had always been in affection. Her daily visits during his illness 
 were ever most welcome. She was a wife, and is a widow ; 
 was a mother, and is childless. She asked him his belief in a 
 recognition of friends after death. He said to her, that, to his 
 
MEMOIR. 155 
 
 apprehension, it was not clearly revealed. She exclaimed, "Do 
 not say so. The chief consolation I have here, is the hope of 
 meeting my lost ones again." He saw her grief as she retired, 
 and in the course of that day told his family to be sure to inform 
 him when she next called, as he wished much to see her. She 
 came again. He said to her, " Let me assure you of my 
 conviction that if, in the future world, it will be best that we 
 should know again the friends we have here loved, that happiness 
 will certainly be ours. What I meant to say yesterday was, that 
 I do not think that Almighty Wisdom has explicitly revealed to 
 mortals its decrees in this particular. But of one thing I am 
 certain ; all will be for the best. I approach the unseen world 
 with the same reverence as I would the Holy of Holies, and 
 have no desire to draw aside the veil which conceals its mysteries 
 from my sight." 
 
 He had always entertained a most important as well as just 
 sentiment, to which he constantly recurred during his illness, 
 namely, that the highest intellectual cultivation and acquirements 
 are entirely worthless, when compared with moral excellence. 
 Often have we heard the author of this Commentary, during 
 his last days, say that the consciousness which he then felt that 
 throughout life he had endeavored to discharge its various duties, 
 and the humble hope that those efforts would be approved 
 hereafter, were far sweeter to him than any praises which he had 
 already received, or the thoughts of any reputation which might 
 await his name in future times as having been a faithful laborer 
 in the cause of science. 
 
156 MEMOIR. 
 
 Indeed, he valued his own peculiar studies for their elevating 
 moral tendency, and for producing, as it were, an indirect effect, 
 more important and lasting than their immediate results. Thus, 
 a few days only before he died, he listened with attention and 
 pleasure to a recent publication of Mrs. Sigourney, as it was read 
 to him by his eldest son, where that writer says, " The adoring 
 awe and profound humility inspired by the study of the planets 
 and their laws, the love of truth which he cherishes who pursues 
 the science that demonstrates, will find a response among 
 archangels." 
 
 His own life, indeed, which had been spent in search of the 
 true and the right, had led to that unwavering belief and trust 
 in the wise providence of God, and that humble and confiding 
 submission to his will, which dispelled from the chamber of death 
 the gloom which so often enshrouds it. His eye shone with 
 its wonted brightness. His feeble voice inculcated, in its low 
 and scarcely audible accents, its lessons of wisdom and love, with 
 an earnestness and solemnity that seemed almost like inspiration, 
 and spoke to the hearts of his hearers. Though his emaciated 
 countenance told of many an hour of severe pain, the patient 
 sufferer recalled the blessings he had enjoyed through life, and 
 gratefully acknowledged those which still surrounded him. He 
 was often, during his intervals of ease, playful and humorous in 
 his remarks, but without any levity of thought or manner. He 
 did not affect any indifference to life, but was perfectly willing to 
 quit it. His was 
 
 " Earth's lingering love, to parting reconciled." 
 
MEMOIR. 157 
 
 He approached his end with feelings the most becoming to the 
 man and the Christian. His spirit was perfected by the sufferings 
 through wbicli he passed. Truly we esteem it a high privilege to 
 have been present at such scenes. May the lesson of his life 
 and his death be read by us aright ! 
 
 On the morning of Friday, the sixteenth of March, at about 
 six o'clock, when his sight was quite dim, his third son told him 
 that he thought the time had come when he had better take leave 
 of all his children. He answered, " I know it ; I feel it." Each 
 in succession then approached ; and as the father returned the kiss 
 he received, he inquired who it was ; and in this manner he took 
 a most affectionate farewell of his children, all of whom were 
 gathered around his bedside. He said, ,' O ! sweet and pretty 
 are the visions that rise up before me. ' Now let thy servant 
 depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.' I say 
 these words not because I have entire love for all the * . . . . but 
 because I love the words, and feel kindly towards all * . . . ." 
 Upon drinking a little water, he said, "How delicious! I have 
 swallowed a drop — a drop from 
 
 ' Siloa's brook, that flowed 
 Fast by the oracle of God.' " 
 
 Soon after this time, he fell into a tranquil sleep, from which, 
 at about half past nine, he awoke, and once more desired to see 
 his family assembled ; then, looking round upon them, and 
 addressing each by name, he said, " There, my children, I have 
 known you all ; have I not, perfectly ? O ! it is beautiful to me 
 
 * His voice here became wholly indistinct. 
 
 VOL. IV. p p 
 
158 MEMOIR. 
 
 to see you all about me — pretty ! It is beautiful to me to bless 
 you all. May God forever bless you, my dears ! It is for the 
 last time that your father blesses you." It pleased Heaven, after 
 this, to afflict him with the most severe hodily suffering during 
 nearly three hours ; but about noon it left him, and the quiet, 
 tranquil state of body and mind returned. He addressed his 
 son with the epithet " my dear," and said, " It is coming ! I 
 am ready." And at one o'clock, Death gently set his seal upon 
 that placid countenance. 
 
 He was buried on the morning of the following Sabbath. The 
 face of spring was hidden by the falling snow. The streets of 
 the city were silent and deserted. Every thing seemed to feel 
 the quiet of the day and hour. Dust was given back to dust : 
 the spirit had returned to God who gave it. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 We have thought that a few particulars respecting the library of Dr. 
 Bowditch, and its future intended appropriation, might be of some general 
 interest. Montaigne has said of the apartment which contained his books, 
 that he endeavored " to sequester this corner from all society, conjugal, filial, 
 and civil." Dr. Bowditch, however, did exactly the reverse ; he selected for 
 his library the family parlor. To us it will always be the scene of the most 
 happy associations. It will ever present one common centre of attraction, 
 bringing our hearts near together, and uniting us in the close and intimate 
 circle of brotherhood. It will recall a husband never so much immersed in his 
 studious researches, as to be forgetful of those little proofs of affection which 
 first won and ever secured in return the affections of the wife ; and a wife 
 never so much occupied with household duties and cares, as to neglect for a 
 moment the kindest and most considerate attentions which woman's love ever 
 prompted. A father's advice, also, and a mother's gentleness, will speak to us 
 from the inanimate objects around. There the present will be full of the past. 
 Nor will it be without its interest to many others. Who, indeed, that has ever 
 seen Dr. Bowditch in that library, will fail to acknowledge the truth as well as 
 beauty of the description given by one who was himself only an occasional, but 
 always a welcome visiter there : — " You saw the Philosopher, entering, with 
 all the enthusiasm of youth, into every subject of passing interest. You saw 
 his eye kindle with honest indignation, or light up with sportive glee; you 
 caught the infection of his quick, sharp-toned, good-natured laugh, and felt 
 inclined to rub your hands in unison with him at every sally of wit, or every 
 
160 MEMOIR. 
 
 outbreaking of mirthfulness. Let the conversation turn in which way it might, 
 he was always prepared to take the lead ; he always seemed to enter into it 
 with a keener zest than any one else. You were charmed and delighted ; the 
 evening passed away before you were aware, and you did not reflect, until you 
 had returned home, that you had been conversing with unrestrained freedom 
 with the first Philosopher in America." * 
 
 Though, of course, it cannot have the same degree of interest to others, 
 which is felt by the children of the deceased, we are confident, then, that 
 all who have ever been favored with an interview like that above described, 
 will be happy to learn that it is our hope and expectation, that for very many 
 years that apartment will remain as it was left by our father ; that the chair 
 in which he sat, the desk and the portfolio containing the last proofs of this 
 work which were ever submitted to him, the table around which were 
 usually seated his family and friends, and the noble array of works of science 
 which adorn the walls of the apartment, will all long remain undisturbed. 
 That collection is one which, in its particular department, we believe to be 
 unsurpassed, and probably unequalled, by any in the United States ; and as 
 no one of our number has in any considerable degree inherited the peculiar 
 tastes of his father, it is obvious that to us it will be of but little practical 
 utility. But we knew that he himself always freely lent his books to 
 every one having a fondness for scientific pursuits, and who had not the means 
 of otherwise obtaining them. We remembered, also, that a free diffusion 
 of knowledge was, indeed, ever the chief object of his own life ; and we 
 have dedicated " The Bowditch Library " to the use of the public, as far as, 
 in the exercise of a sound discretion, we deemed consistent with the safety 
 of the books loaned. 
 
 Many of the most rare and valuable works in this library were presents to 
 
 • President Wayland, of Brown University. Christian Review, September, 1838. 
 
APPENDIX. 161 
 
 Dr. Bowditch from various societies or authors in other countries, — a 
 circumstance which adds greatly to the interest of the collection ; and we 
 feel assured that, containing all the volumes which he habitually consulted 
 while preparing this work, and also all the manuscript proofs of his early 
 industry, this library will, as long as it shall exist, remain a most interesting 
 monument to the memory alike of the Ship-Chandler's Apprentice, and the 
 Commentator upon La Place. 
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 
 
 Note to page 28. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch, in his last illness, in answer to the direct question of the writer, replied 
 that he had made sir voyages ; and the anecdote respecting his being in Boston in July, 
 1802, attending to his vessel, which was wind-bound, seems to favor the supposition of 
 another voyage besides the five mentioned in the text. We find, however, that the ship Astrea, 
 Stanwood master, arrived in Boston, from Batavia and the Isle of France, July 10, 1802. 
 One who was an inmate of his family from the time of his second marriage, October, 1800, 
 says that he made but one voyage afterwards. Of that the journal is extant, to speak for itself, 
 beginning November, 1802. So that we believe the text to be correct. 
 
 Note to page 60. 
 
 There are extant several portraits of Dr. Bowditch : — 
 
 1. There are two miniatures, taken at the times of his first and second marriage, 
 apparently by the same artist. They have no merit either as likenesses or paintings. 
 
 2. About the year 1820, portraits of Dr. Bowditch and his wife were painted by James 
 Frothingham of Salem, which, though wanting in expression, are yet in other respects very 
 good. It was from his portrait of Mrs. Bowditch, that, after death, Miss Lalanne painted for 
 the writer the miniature which is engraved for this memoir ; certain alterations being introduced, 
 which have made the likeness more accurate. 
 
 vol. iv. q q 
 
162 MEMOIR. 
 
 3. The portrait by Gilbert Stuart was painted in 1828, and, even in its unfinished state, 
 is, we think, far superior to any other. A friend, who admired it very much, and selected the 
 frame for it, has written on the back, " The last work of Stuart. ' Sancte inviolateque 
 servatum sit.' " 
 
 4. The portraits belonging to the Salem East India Marine Society and the Salem 
 Marine Society, are by Charles Osgood, having been copied by him from Stuart's picture, 
 with the aid of a few additional sittinsfs. 
 
 Note to page 69. 
 
 In the farewell address of his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, the President, 
 delivered at the last anniversary meeting of the Royal Society of London, November, 1S38, 
 an outline is given of Dr. Bowditch's life, with the following summary of the merits of this 
 Translation and Commentary : — 
 
 " Every person who is acquainted with the original must be aware of the great number 
 of steps in the demonstrations which are left unsupplied, in many cases comprehending the 
 entire processes which connect the enunciation of the propositions with the conclusions ; 
 and the constant reference which is made, both tacit and expressed, to results and principles, 
 both analytical and mechanical, which are co-extensive with the entire range of known 
 mathematical science : but in Dr. Bowditch's very elaborate Commentary every deficient 
 step is supplied, every suppressed demonstration is introduced, every reference explained 
 and illustrated ; and a work which the labors of an ordinary life could hardly master, is 
 rendered accessible to every reader who is acquainted with the principles of the differential 
 and integral calculus, and in possession of even an elementary knowledge of statical and 
 dynamical principles. 
 
 " When we consider the circumstances of Dr. Bowditch's early life, the obstacles which 
 opposed his progress, the steady perseverance with which he overcame them, and the courage 
 with which he ventured to expose the mysterious treasures of that sealed book, which had 
 hitherto only been approached by those whose way had been cleared for them by a systematic 
 and regular mathematical education, we shall be fully justified in pronouncing him to have 
 been a most remarkable example of the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, and well 
 worthy of the enthusiastic respect and admiration of his countrymen, whose triumphs in the 
 field of practical science have fully equalled, if not surpassed, the noblest works of the ancient 
 world." 
 
APPENDIX. 163 
 
 Note to page 82. 
 
 The following are the children of Dr. Bowditch, mentioned in the order of their ages : — 
 
 1. Nathaniel Ingersoll Bowditch, a graduate of Harvard College, 1822, is engaged in 
 the practice of the law in Boston. 
 
 2. Jonathan Ingersoll Bowditch, having made a number of India voyages, is now president 
 of the American Insurance Company in Boston. 
 
 3. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, a graduate of Harvard College, 1828, having pursued the 
 study of medicine, is now established in that profession in Boston. 
 
 4. Charles Ingersoll Bowditch, born December 1, 1809, died February 21, 1S20. 
 
 5. A son, born July 7, 1813, died the next day. 
 
 6. Mary Ingersoll Bowditch. 
 
 7. William Ingersoll Bowditch, a graduate of Harvard College, 1838, now a student 
 
 at law. 
 
 8. Elizabeth Boardman Ingersoll Bowditch. 
 
 Note to page 108. 
 
 We have said that Mr. Young's Discourse contains some trifling errors. Prepared in the 
 course of a few weeks, it could hardly have been otherwise. Upon several points, we 
 ourselves were at first mistaken. In justice to him, it is proper to specify these errors, that 
 no vague impression of general inaccuracy may be left on the reader's mind. It is incorrectly 
 said, in p. 23 of his Discourse, that Dr. Bowditch's instructer was an Irishman named Ford, 
 and that when he solved the problem so quickly, he was actually punished for lying; in p. 39, 
 that he learned French without an instructer ; and in p. 59, that his knowledge of navigation 
 was picked up during the intervals of his voyages. The anecdote in p. 51, of the report 
 that "La Place once remarked, ' I am sure that Dr. Bowditch comprehends my work, for he 
 has not only detected my errors, but has also shown me how I came to fall into them,' " 
 may be correct ; but Dr. Bowditch never heard of it. The statement in p. 68, of his entire 
 abstinence from politics, is correct only of the latter part of his life. Such was his political 
 zeal in early life, that he once assisted in carrying an invalid upon his bed to the polls to vote. 
 The anecdote in p. 87, respecting his magnanimity in giving up the benefit of his chart of 
 Salem to one who had endeavored to appropriate it wrongfully to himself, is related as it was at 
 first told to us; but we are satisfied, from subsequent inquiries, that there was but one interview 
 
164 MEMOIR. 
 
 between the parties, and that the account, though it has a basis of truth, is probably very much 
 exaggerated. So in the anecdote, p. 33, respecting his solution of a question proposed by 
 an Englishman while at the theatre, it is not true that he proposed in return one which the 
 latter could not solve ; as is proved by a written account of this incident entered by Dr. 
 Bowditch in one of his common-place books at the time. In page 88, it is said that he, 
 latterly, usually took one glass of wine after dinner, and another in the evening ; and 
 seldom or never more. He took two glasses at each time, which he called his certain quantity. 
 
 Notwithstanding the numerous details and anecdotes collected by Mr. Young, it is believed 
 that the above are all the matters stated by him, relating to Dr. Bowditch, which require 
 correction or qualification. 
 
 We have not thought it necessary to quote from this Discourse, in cases where the original 
 information was obtained from conversations with us, or where the same materials were 
 placed by others at the disposal both of Mr. Young and ourselves. A statement of some of 
 these sources of information, will enable the reader to judge of the relative authenticity of 
 different parts of the present memoir. During some months before the removal of the 
 family from Salem, the writer, having a taste for antiquarian researches, spent several leisure 
 hours of each day in examining the public records and other sources of information, for 
 the purpose of tracing back his ancestry to the first settlement of that town. One of 
 our number went to Salem the week after his father's death, where he remained during 
 several days, making inquiries of those who had formerly been most nearly connected by 
 business or friendship with the deceased. He invited Mr. Young to join him in a visit to 
 Danvers, and the latter was thus present at the interview with the relations of Dr. Bowditch's 
 first instructress, of which he has given an account. He likewise procured a drawing 
 of the house his father there occupied, which Mr. Young caused to be engraved for his 
 Discourse. Among others, Captain Prince was inquired of respecting his recollections of Dr. 
 Bowditch. He referred us to a written account, containing anecdotes of the second, third, 
 and fourth voyages, which his son had drawn up a day or two before, and sent to Mr. 
 Pickering, (not taken down by Mr. Pickering from that gentleman's own lips, as was thought 
 by Mr. Young.) This account was afterwards lent by Mr. Pickering both to Mr. Young and 
 ourselves. The original journals of all Dr. Bowditch's voyages, except the second, are still 
 preserved in his library, and verify the accuracy of Captain Prince's dates, &.c, given in his 
 account. The whole series of the successive editions of the Navigator are also in the library, 
 the prefaces to which show very clearly the most important circumstances connected with 
 the commencement and progress of that work. All Dr. Bowditch's occasional publications 
 having been collected and bound together by him, we were enabled even to add one or two 
 
APPENDIX. 165 
 
 to those discovered by Mr. Pickering, who himself added several to the list given by Mr. 
 Young. Dr. Bowditch's manuscripts were given to the writer of the present memoir. 
 Among them is a separate file of all the letters received by him relating to the Mecanique 
 Celeste, and another containing all his diplomas, and letters offering him any appointments, 
 either of honor or profit. Every thing connected with the printing of the Mecanique 
 Celeste, and the management of the Life Insurance Company, and indeed most of the 
 recent incidents of his life, are, it is needless to say, within our own personal knowledge ; and 
 those of his last illness, especially, are indelibly impressed upon our memory. The information 
 which we possessed from these various sources, we were happy to communicate to Mr. Young. 
 Every one who reads them both, will perceive that in its really important details, his 
 Discourse agrees with the present memoir. The summary of character which is given by 
 him we believe to be a strikingly just one, and sufficient, if nothing else had ever been 
 written, to place before the reader quite a distinct and faithful portrait of Dr. Bowditch. 
 
 Note to page 110. 
 
 The property left by Dr. Bowditch at his death, exclusive of his dwelling-house in Boston, 
 and the library, furniture, &c, in it, consisted of printed copies of this work, 
 
 valued in the inventory at $5,000 00 
 
 And other personal estate, valued at 31,571 33 
 
 Total, ■ $36,571 38 
 
166 MEMOIR. 
 
 The Translator ■presented this Work to the Institutions and Individuals named 
 in the following List, and perhaps to Others not known to us.* 
 
 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, Massachusetts. 
 
 Boston Athenaeum. 
 
 Salem Athenaeum. 
 
 Nantucket Athenaeum. 
 
 Harvard University, Camhridge, Massachusetts. 
 
 Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. 
 
 University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont. 
 
 Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia. 
 
 New York Philosophical Society. 
 
 Professor Adrain, of New Brunswick, N. Y. 
 
 Professor Anderson, of New York. 
 
 Professor Nulty, of Philadelphia. 
 
 John Pickering, Esq., LL. D., of Boston, Massachusetts. 
 
 Professor Peirce, of Harvard University. 
 
 Professor Renwick, of New York. 
 
 Professor Strong, of New Brunswick, N. Y. 
 
 Rev. Francis Wayland, D. D., President of Brown University. 
 
 Royal Society of London. 
 
 Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
 
 Royal Irish Academy. 
 
 Royal Astronomical Society of London. 
 
 British Museum, London. 
 
 Bodleian Library, Oxford. 
 
 " If any, to whom the translator intended to present it, have not received the work, and will inform us 
 of an opportunity of Bending it safely, it will be forwarded by us according to the wishes of our 
 deceased father. 
 
APPENDIX. 167 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 
 George B. Airy, Esq., F. R. S., Professor at the University of Cambridge, England. 
 
 Charles Babbage, Esq., F. R. S., London. 
 
 Francis Baily, Esq., F. R. S., London. 
 
 Henry Beaufoy, Esq., South Lambeth, London. 
 
 The late John Brinkley, D. D., Lord Bishop of Cloyne. 
 
 Davies Gilbert, Esq., F. R. S., London. 
 
 Sir William Hamilton, F. R. S., Professor of Astronomy in the Royal Observatory, 
 
 Dublin. 
 Sir John F. W. Herschel, F. R. S., Slough. 
 James Ivory, Esq., F. R. S., London. 
 John William Lubbock, Esq., F. R. S., London. 
 The late John Pond, Esq., F. R. S., Astronomer Royal, Greenwich. 
 Mrs. Mary Somerville, Chelsea Hospital. 
 William Vaughan, Esq., F. R. S., London. 
 Rev. William. Whewell, Professor at the University of Cambridge, England. 
 
 Royal Asiatic Society, Calcutta. 
 
 Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg. 
 
 Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm. 
 
 Royal Academy of Sciences at Copenhagen. 
 
 Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin. 
 
 Royal Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres at Palermo. 
 
 Royal Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres at Brussels. 
 
 Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris. 
 
 Royal Library at Paris. 
 
 Library of the University of Gottingen. 
 
 M. Arago, Paris. 
 
 Professor Bessel, Konigsberg. 
 
 Professor Encke, Berlin. 
 
 The late Baron Fourier, Paris. 
 
 Professor Gauss, Gottingen. 
 
 Professor Harding, Gottingen. 
 
 M. Lacroix, Paris. 
 
168 MEMOIR. 
 
 Marquis de La Place, Paris. 
 
 M. Legendre, Paris. 
 
 Signor Libri, Paris. 
 
 Baron Lindenau, Dresden. 
 
 Dr. Olbers, Bremen. 
 
 M. Poisson, Paris. 
 
 M. Puissant, Paris. 
 
 M. Schumacher, Altona. 
 
 Professor Struve, Dorpat, Russia. 
 
 D. B. Warden, Esq., Paris. 
 
 The late Baron Zach, Paris. 
 
 The Family of the Translator have presented the Mecanique Celeste to the following 
 Institutions and Individuals, viz. : — 
 
 Amherst College, Massachusetts. 
 
 The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, London. 
 His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, late President of the Royal Society. 
 The Right Honorable Henry Lord Brougham and Vaux. 
 
 Francis Beaufort, Esq., Captain in the Royal Navy, Hydrographer to the British 
 Admiralty. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 As a Supplement to this Memoir we annex the following Letter. 
 
 Boston, October, 1840. 
 Rev. John G. Palfrey, D. D. 
 Sir : 
 
 In your Eulogy upon Dr. Kirkland, late President of Harvard 
 College, recently published, after mentioning his resignation, you proceed as 
 follows : 
 
 " His pupils and the public were agitated and distressed by the currency of a report, to 
 the effect that the step was precipitated by his not having been treated, in every quarter by 
 those who acted with him, with the delicacy and respect due to his greatness and his infirmity. 
 But if, among the good men who shared with him the highest places of College authority, any 
 one could for a moment so unhappily forget himself as to offer disrespect to that venerable 
 excellence, which in better days it was impossible for disrespect to come near, it was not a 
 wrong which history has recorded, and it is not one, therefore, which history has to right; and 
 as, whatever private grief he may have had, his magnanimity did not permit him to proclaim it, 
 he would not have us choose this occasion for its redress. The corporation took the 
 position which might have been assuredly expected, when, at a meeting at which every member 
 was present, a vote was passed, expressing ' a full sense of all the benefits conferred by him on the 
 institution, over which,' it is added, ' he has presided for so many years, with singular 
 dignity and mildness, raising its reputation, and increasing its usefulness by his splendid talents 
 and accomplishments, his paternal care, and his faithful services.' " 
 
 This publication has in our opinion rendered necessary a few remarks 
 upon Dr. Bowditch's connection with Harvard College. 
 
170 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 When the late President of the University resigned his seat, having, for 
 several months, suffered from an attack of paralysis, it was currently reported 
 that Dr. Bowditch had treated him, when enfeebled by disease, with a disre- 
 spect upon which he durst not otherwise have ventured. He was therefore 
 denounced through the public press as " a Salem sailor," and called upon by 
 name to retire from the Corporation of the College. A charge so odious in 
 itself, and so entirely at variance with the whole tenor of his life, Dr. Bowditch 
 felt to be undeserving of any public notice or refutation. He prepared, 
 however, a manuscript volume of about 150 pages, entitled " Scraps of College 
 History," containing a simple and exact narrative of all he knew of College 
 affairs, and especially a statement of the several measures of reform which he 
 had felt it his duty to introduce and to advocate, and the circumstances attend- 
 ing or growing out of their discussion and adoption. His narrative he freely 
 showed to his friends, and even, at last, found it necessary to declare that if he 
 were any longer thus assailed, he might, perhaps, be induced to publish it — an 
 intimation which produced the desired effect. This was a measure to which he 
 did not wish to resort ; and he was convinced that no true friend of the 
 College or of the President would force it upon him. We should willingly 
 leave Dr. Bowditch's character as a man, and his claims as a benefactor of the 
 College to be decided by a perusal of this narrative. But we do not feel that 
 its details need now be resorted to. It is sufficient that they enable us to 
 assert, and, if need be, to prove, that the report above mentioned is utterly 
 false. To the last moments of life Dr. Bowditch continued to approve of all 
 he had said and done as a member of the Corporation. Ready, as he always 
 was, to make the most full amends or apology for any harsh or hasty remark 
 or action, there was not a word or an occurrence in the intercourse between 
 himself and the Head of the University, or any one else connected with its 
 management, which, had it been in his power, he would have recalled. While 
 Dr. Kirkland was in perfect health, and possessed his mental powers in their 
 full vigor, Dr. Bowditch had spoken to him with truth and freedom, and had 
 acted towards him with energy and decision under circumstances peculiarly 
 trying and painful — but only when, where and as, his sense of duty imperatively 
 required. He acted deliberately and calmly — never "unhappily forgetting 
 himself even for a moment." When infirmity fell upon and obscured the 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 171 
 
 splendid intellect of the President, none who know Dr. Bowditch need to be 
 assured that it was with greater reluctance and forbearance than ever before, 
 that he found himself still obliged to urge certain changes in the administra- 
 tion of the College. But under such circumstances he could not have treated 
 any one with unkindness or disrespect. 
 
 Dr. Bowditch died in the belief that he had lived down this calumny. 
 Little could he have anticipated that so soon after his death, upon a 
 most solemn and public occasion, an individual, recently at the head of one of 
 the departments of the College, and who, though not an officer of the institu- 
 tion at the period alluded to, had yet the means of knowing the truth, should 
 nevertheless have seen fit, under the disguise, indeed, of gentle insinuations, 
 and the show of much forbearance, distinctly to allude to this charge in a 
 manner which none of his hearers could misunderstand. 
 
 The mere insertion of this paragraph in the discourse when delivered, we 
 should not have noticed. But a printed eulogy, pronounced by request before 
 the Alumni of the University, detailing the character and services of one of its 
 most universally popular presidents — may be no ephemeral publication. It may 
 exist to be referred to by the future historian of the College. The industrious 
 antiquarian, a century hence, would perceive some secret meaning in this para- 
 graph, and would find the mystery solved in the newspaper charge against Dr. 
 Bowditch distinctly and publicly made, and never, until now, distinctly and 
 publicly denied. In a discourse like the present, every assertion — every 
 insinuation may, if uncontradicted, thus become matter of history. And if 
 wrong is done, " it is a wrong which history has to right." 
 
 We do, therefore, in reply to your remarks above quoted, make the 
 present full and explicit denial of their justice as applied to Dr. Bowditch. 
 We say that a regard for truth, rather than " magnanimity," led Dr. Kirkland 
 to refrain from making such a charge. He had no " private griefs " in this 
 matter for any friend or eulogist to " redress." It is true that when his 
 resignation was accepted by the Corporation, Dr. Bowditch was present and did 
 not oppose the vote then passed. He duly appreciated the graceful and dignified 
 
172 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 manners, the mild and kindly feelings, and the brilliant talents of the President, 
 and acknowledged him possessed of many qualities by which he was eminently 
 fitted for the station he so long held. He was desirous that he should retire 
 with honor from that station ; and cordially entertaining, as he did, many of the 
 sentiments embodied in that vote, he did not feel himself called upon to oppose 
 its adoption ; though in the narrative before mentioned, he states that he did 
 not, for reasons there assigned, give it his assent by voting in the affirmative. 
 
 It may be said that we have now been defending a parent's memory from 
 a mere fancied charge — one which you have not made. But on a former 
 occasion you have said of him, what was, indeed, undoubtedly true, that 
 " though ' no rude and boisterous captain of the sea,' there may have 
 been occasions when a happier combination would have been produced, had 
 the same measure of the fon titer in re been mingled with more of the suaviter in 
 modoP It is observable that the words here quoted by you bear a strong resem- 
 blance to the more concise newspaper epithet before mentioned. It would 
 almost seem that you must have had it in your mind. Any argument, however, 
 as to your meaning on the present occasion, is, we think, unnecessary. Nothing 
 can be more certain than that your remarks were intended to apply to Dr. 
 Bowditch. Had they been made in his life-time, he certainly would not have 
 left them unanswered. His children yet live ; and, through them, " though 
 dead, he yet speaketh." 
 
 N. I. BOWDITCH. 
 J. INGERSOLL BOWDITCH- 
 HENRY I. BOWDITCH. 
 WILLIAM I. BOWDITCH. 
 
BOSTON COLLEGE 
 
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