the flank movement to the right, which he recommended in council on the night of the second January, 1777; and at Ticonderoga, in the same year, I beheld him rising superior to the selfish obligations which fetter mankind; and, by preferring the safety of the army confided to his charge, to the bloody honours which were within his reach, he voluntarily plunged himself into the gulph of popular detraction. Well do I remember his reply to me, when, deploring the necessity of our retreat: It must be so, my boy. 'Tis not in mortals to command success, but we'll do more, we will deserve it. I know I could save my character by sacrificing the army; but were I to do so, I should forfeit that which the world could not restore, and which it cannot take away, the approbation of my own conscience.”

DAVID RITTENHOUSE, L. L. D. F. R. S.

AN eminent philosopher, was descended from ancestors who emigrated from Holland and was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, April 8, 1732. The early part of his life was spent in agricultural employments; and his plough, the fences, and even the stones of the field were inarked with figures, which denoted a talent for mathematical studies. A delicate constitution rendering him unfit for the labours of husbandry, he devoted himself to the trade of a clock and mathematical-instrument-maker. In these arts he was his own instructor. During his residence with his father in the country, he made himself master of Newton's Principia, which he read in the English translation of Mr. Mott. Here also he became acquainted with fluxions, of which sublime invention, he believed himself, for some time, the first author. He did not know for some years afterwards, that a contest had been carried on, between Newton and Leibnitz, for the honour of that great discovery. At the age of twentythree, without education and without advantages, he became the rival of the two greatest mathematicians in Europe.

In his retired situation, while working at his trade, he planned and executed an orrery, by which he represent

N

ed the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, more completely than ever before had been done. This master piece of mechanism was purchased by the college of New Jersey. A second was made by him after the same model, for the use of the college of Philadelphia, where it has commanded, for many years, the admiration of the ingenious and learned. In 1770, he was induced, by the urgent request of some friends, who knew his merit, to exchange his beloved retirement for a residence in Phíladelphia.

In this city he continued his employment for several years; and his clocks had a high reputation, and his mathematical instruments were thought superior to those imported from Europe. His first communication to the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, of which he was elected a member, was a calculation of the transit of Venus, as it was to happen June 3, 1769. He was one of those appointed to observe it in the township of Norriton. This phenomenon had never been seen but twice before, by any inhabitants of our earth, and would never be seen again by any person then living. The day arrived, and there was no cloud in the horizon; the observers, in silent and trembling anxiety, waited for the predicted moment of observation; it came, and in the instant of contact between the planet and sun, an emotion of joy, so powerful, was excited in the breast of Mr. Rittenhouse, that he fainted. On the ninth of November following, he observed the transit of Mercury. An account of these observations was published in the transactions of the Society. In 1775 he was appointed one of the commissioners, for settling a territorial dispute between Pennsylvania and Virginia; and, to his talents, moderation, and firmness, was ascribed, in a great degree, its satisfactory adjustment, in 1785. He assisted in determining the western limits of Pennsylvania, in 1784, and the northern line of the same state, in 1786. He was also called upon to assist in fixing the boundary line between Massachusetts and New York, in 1787. In his excursions through the wilderness, he carried with him. his habits of inquiry and observation. Nothing in our mountains, soils, rivers, and springs, escaped his notice. But the only records of what he collected are private letters and the memories of his friends. In 1791, he was chosen president of the Philosophical Society, as succes

sor to Dr. Franklin, and was annually re-elected till his death. His unassuming dignity opened to him respect. Soon after he accepted the president's chair, he made the Society a donation of three hundred pounds. He held the office of treasurer of Pennsylvania, by an annual and unanimous vote of the legislature, from 1787 to 1789. In this period he declined purchasing the smallest portion of the public debt of the state, lest his integrity should be impeached. In 1792, he accepted the office of director of the mint of the United States; but his ill state of health induced him to resign it in 1795. When the solitude of his study was rendered less agreeable by his indisposition than in former years, he passed his evenings in reading or conversing with his wife and daughters. In his last illness, which was acute and short, he retained the usual patience and benevolence of his temper. He died June 26th, 1796, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, in the full belief of the Christian religion, and in the anticipation of clearer discoveries of the perfections of God, in the eternal world. He was a man of extensive knowledge. Being intimately acquainted with the French, German, and Dutch languages, he derived from them the discoveries of foreign nations. His mind was the repository of all ages and countries. He did not enjoy, indeed, the advantages of a public education, but his mind was not shackled by its forms, nor interrupted in its pursuit of greater objects, by the claims of subjects minute and trifling. In his political sentiments he was a republican; he was taught by his father to admire an elective and representative government: he early predicted the immense increase of talents and knowledge, which would be infused into the American minds, by our republican institutions; and he anticipated the blessed effects of our revolution, in sowing the seeds of a new order of things in other parts of the world. He believed political, as well as moral evil, to be intruders into the society of man. In the more limited circles of private life, he commanded esteem and affection. His house and manner of living exhibited the taste of a philosopher, the simplicity of a republican, and the temper of a christian. His researches into natural philosophy gave him such ideas of the Divine perfections, for his mind was not pre-occupied in early life with the fictions of ancient poets and the vices of the heathen gods. But he did not

confine himself to the instructions of nature; he believed the christian revelation. He observed, as an argument in favour of its truth, that the miracles of our Saviour differed from all pretended miracles in being entirely of a benevolent nature. The testimony of a man, possessed of so exalted an understanding, outweighs the declarations of thousands. He died, believing in a life to come; and his body was interred beneath his observatory, near his house. He published an oration delivered before the Philosophical Society, 1775, the subject of which is the history of astronomy; and a few memoirs or astronomical and mathematical subjects, in the first four volumes of the transactions of the Society. Ibid.

JOHN RUTLEDGE

WAS born in the year 1759, and was the son of Dr. John Rutledge, who, with his brother Andrew, both natives of Ireland, arrived in Carolina about the year 1735, and there practised, the one law and the other physic. Dr. Rutledge married Miss Hext, who in the 15th year of her age gave birth to the subject of this memoir. At a very early period she was left a widow, and added one to the many examples of illustrious matrons who, devoting their whole attention to their orphan offspring, have brought forward distinguished ornaments of human nature.

The early education of John Rutledge was conducted by David Rhind, an excellent classical scholar, and one of the most successful of the early instructors of youth in Carolina. After he had made considerable progress in the latin and greek classics, he entered on the study of law with James Parsons, and was afterwards entered a student in the temple, and proceeding barrister, came out to Charleston, and commenced the practice of law in 1761. One of the first causes in which he engaged, was an action for breach of a promise of marriage. The subject was interesting, and gave an excellent opportu nity for displaying his talents. It was improved, and his eloquence astonished all who heard him."

Instead of rising by degrees to the head of his profession, he burst forth at once the able lawyer and accomplished orator. Business flowed in upon him. He was employed in the most difficult causes, and retained with the largest fees that were usually given. The client in whose service he engaged, was supposed to be in a fair way of gaining his cause. He was but a short time in practice, when that cloud began to lower which, in the course of ten or twelve years, burst forth in a revolutionary storm. In the year 1764, Governor Boone refused to administer to Christopher Gadsden the oaths which the law required every person returned as a member in the commons house of assembly to take before he entered on his legislative functions. This kindled the indignation of the house, as being an interference with their constitutional privileges, as the sole judges of the qualifications of their own members. In rousing the assembly and the people to resist all interferences of the royal governors, in deciding who should, or who should not be members of the commons house of assembly, John Rutledge kindled a spark which has never since been extinguished.

This controversy was scarcely ended when the memorable stamp act was passed. The British colonies were then detached from each other, and had never acted in concert. A proposition was made by the assembly of Massachusetts to the different provincial assemblies for appointing committees from each to meet in congress as a rallying point of union. To this novel project, many objections were made; some doubted its legality-others its expedience, and most its efficiency. To remove objections to conciliate opposition, and to gain the hearty concurrence of the assembly and the people, was no easy matter. In accomplishing these objects, the abilities of John Rutledge were successfully exerted. Objections vanished-prejudices gave way before his eloquence. The public mind was illuminated, and a more correct mode of thinking took place. A vote for appointing deputies to a continental congress was carried in South-Carolina at an early day, and before it had been agreed to by the neighboring states. Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch and John Rutledge were appointed. The last was the youngest, and had very lately began to tread the threshold of manhood. When this first congress met in