To the Memoirs of the American Academy he contributed articles On the Adoption of a Uniform Orthography for the Indian Languages of North America; on the Pronunciation of the Greek Language; on Father Rasle and on Lord North's Island. In the North American Review are to be found his Observations on the Importance of Greek Literature (1820), a review of Du Ponceau's Dissertation on the Chinese System of Writing, in volume forty-eight, and a paper on the Cochin-Chinese language, in volume fifty-two. To the Encyclopædia Americana he contributed an article Ŏn the Indian Languages of America. He was a contributor to The Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the New York Review, the American Quarterly Review, and the American Jurist. His chief legal publications are an article on The Agrarian Laws in the Encyclopædia Americana, an article on Egyptian Jurisprudence in the fifty-first volume of the North American Review, a Lecture on the Alleged Uncertainty of the Law, and a Review of the International McLeod Question. He also delivered a eulogy on Dr. Bowditch, and an address before the American Oriental Society. The prominent traits of Pickering's moral life are alluded to by Sumner in his mention of "his modesty, his sweetness of temper, his simplicity of life, his kindness to the young, his sympathy with studies of all kinds, his sensibility to beauty, his conscientious character, his passionless mind."* NATHANIEL BOWDITCH. NATHANIEL, the fourth son of Habakkuk and Mary Ingersoll Bowditch, was born at Salem, Massachusetts, March 26, 1773. His father, after following, as a shipmaster, the calling of his ancestors for several generations, retired from the sea, and engaged in the business of a cooper. He could not afford to bestow upon any of his family of seven children any advantages of education beyond those afforded by the common schools of the town, and these they enjoyed for a few years only, as Nathaniel was summoned at the early age of ten to work in his shop. He was soon afterwards apprenticed to a ship-chandler, and while serving his time, gave significant evidence of his mathematical talents, by devoting to the slate every spare moment which was not occupied in the perusal of some book. He was so indefatigable a reader, that at an early age he went through an entire encyclopædia letter by letter. On the 11th of January, 1795, Bowditch sailed Nather Bowditch from Salem as clerk to Captain Henry Prince, of the ship Henry, for the Isle of Bourbon. The vessel returned after a year's absence, and he sailed a second time, as supercargo, in the Astræa, to Lisbon, Madeira, and Manilla. A third voyage followed to the Mediterranean, and a fourth to the East Indies, succeeded by others in the same direction, until the year 1804, when he left the * Address, p. 8. sea and became president of a Marine Insurance Company in his native city. During his seafaring life he took a deep interest in the instruction of sailors in navigation, and with such success, that the fact of having sailed with him became a strong recommendation to seamen who had enjoyed that privilege, and was often the cause of their promotion. He was at the same time a thorough student, acquiring Latin in order to master Newton's Principis; French, to obtain access to the valuable mathematical works in that language; and Spanish, German, and Italian, for general literary purposes. In 1800 he published his New American Practical Navigator, a work which originated in a series of corrections which he commenced of John Hamilton Moore's book on the same subject. These grew so numerous, that he wisely judged it best to publish an independent work. It became widely successful, and is the universally adopted guide in the American marine, and to a great extent in the naval service of England and France. Happening, in 1802, to be detained in Boston by a contrary wind on the Commencement day of Harvard, he strolled to the church in which the exercises were held, and had the surprise and gratification of hearing his name called as a recipient of the degree of Master of Arts. It was the first and most welcome of a long series of similar public recognitions of his services. In 1806 he published an extremely valuable chart of the harbors of Salem, Beverly, Marblehead, and Manchester, and in 1823 removed to Boston, to take charge as Actuary of the newly formed Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company, an office which he retained for the remainder of his life. While thus occupied, he was complimented by the offer of the Hollis Professorship of Harvard College, of the Professorship of Mathematics in the University of Virginia, and of the Professorship of Mathematics at West Point: so that his ability was substantially recognised by the whole country. Meanwhile he wrote papers on astronomy for the transactions of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, contributed to the Analyst and Mathematical Diary edited by Dr. Adrain, wrote articles for the American edition of Rees's Cyclopædia, the article on Mcdern Astronomy in the twentieth volume of the North American Review, and an account of the comet of 1806 in the fourth volume of the Monthly Anthology. In 1829, the first volume of his great work, the translation and amplification of La Place's Mechanique Celeste, appeared. In studying the original work, Bowditch had frequently been arrested by the want of demonstration of the means by which results had been arrived at, the author presupposing a greater familiarity with the subject on the part of his reader than could reasonably be predicated of any but himself. In Bowditch's own words, "I never come across one of La Place's 'Thus it plainly appears,' without feeling sure that I have got hours of hard study before me to fill up the chasm, and find out and show how it plainly appears." In the task of filling up these chasms, and presenting the whole in a form for English readers, he succeeded so well, that La Place is said to have remarked, "I am sure that Dr. Bowditch comprehends my work, for he has not only detected my errors, but has shown me how I came to fall into them." He commenced the work in 1815, and it formed the constant occupation of his laborious life up to the time of his decease. The second volume appeared in 1832, and the third in 1834. Each of the three contains about a thousand quarto pages. He was attacked, while engaged in correcting the proof sheets of the fourth, by a disease which proved fatal, but continued his occupation in the intervals of relief from pain almost until the time of his death. He refused to allow its publication by subscription, waiting until his means would allow him to bear the expense of the issue of five volumes of about a thousand pages each, saying that he would rather spend a thousand dollars a year for such an object than in keeping a carriage. The work met with a better sale than he anticipated, but was still a source of pecuniary loss to him. Dr. Bowditch was an eminently practical business man, and executed the important moneyed trusts committed to him by his official position with great success. He accomplished the great results of his life by untiring and systematic industry. He rose early, in winter two hours before dawn, and when not occupied in his office, was almost always to be found in his library, where it was his delight to be surrounded by his family, an affectionate disposition forming one of the many fine traits of his character. He went out but little, but was always glad to see his friends, taking great delight in social intercourse and lively conversation. He was universally esteemed for the purity of his life, his integrity, and consistent course. He was familiarly known, in allusion perhaps to his moral as well as scientific career, as "the Great Pilot." His last disease was a scirrhus of the stomach, which for four weeks before his death rendered it impossible for him to swallow solid food or scarcely any liquid. He suffered little from hunger, but continually from thirst, which was partially relieved by moistening his lips with cold water. His frame wasted away, but his mental faculties remained unclouded, and his last act on the morning of his death was to recognise and address with the feeble powers of sight and voice which remained to him, each member of his family gathered around his couch. "You see," he said, "I can distinguish you all, and I now give you my parting blessing. The time is come; Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word." This was on Friday, March 16th, 1838. He was buried on the following Sunday morning, beneath Trinity Church, Bo ton. The merits of Bowditch entitle him to a high rank among the mathematicians of the world. They have been carefully stated by Pickering in his Eulogy before the Academy of Arts and Sciences.* His commentary was an original work, and he made many discoveries of his own. Notices of Bowditch's Life and Character appeared shortly after his death, in the Eulogy * May 29, 1888. delivered at the request of the Corporation of Salem, by Judge Daniel Appleton White, and in the discourse of the Rev. Alexander Young. These celebrate the sincerity, simplicity, and modesty of his character. His vivacity is recorded in an anecdote preserved by Judge White: -"A late venerable lady, as remarkable for her sagacity as for her love of goodness, after her first interview with Dr. Bowditch, observed, ‘I admire that man, for he is a live man.' He was truly a live man in his whole nature and constitution, in his mind, conscience, soul, and body. Life was in his every thought, feeling, and action. So rapid were his thoughts on all subjects, that his judgment would often appear intuitive to those who could not follow his mind in its logical process, or perceive the steps to its conclusions. An instantaneous spring of hearty glee or mental delight, would sometimes, notwithstanding his natural and delicate sense of decorum, set all rules of etiquette at defiance, and exhibit itself in the same open and joyous manner, whether he were at the fireside of a friend, or at the governor's council-board."* JOHN RANDOLPH. JOHN RANDOLPH was born at Cawsons, the estate of Col. Theodorick Bland, his maternal grandfather, Prince George County, Virginia, June 2, 1773. He was the son of a wealthy planter, and descended in the seventh degree from Pocahontas. When a little over two years old he lost his father. He was, however, tenderly reared by his mother, who in 1778 was married to St. George Tucker. His delicate constitution prevented his engaging in the usual athletic sports of childhood, and at a very early age he acquired a taste for books, his first favorites being the Fairy Tales, the stories in the Spectator, Shakespeare, and Voltaire's Charles XII. In 1781 the family were obliged to leave their residence at Matoax, in consequence of the invasion of Virginia by Arnold. Randolph was soon after placed at the school of Walker Maury at Orange County, and on the removal of the establishment to Williamsburg, followed his teacher to that place. After passing a few months at Princeton and Columbia Colleges, he completed his course at William and Mary, and studied law with his uncle, Edmund Randolph, at Philadelphia. In 1794 he returned to Virginia, and on coming of age in the same year entered on the personal management of his large estate. In 1799 he became a candidate of the Republican party for Congress, in the Charlotte district. His first speech was made upon the hustings at the March court, and was an answer to an address on the Federal side by Patrick Henry, who had been induced to overcome his early objections to the recently adopted constitution, and run as a candidate for the Legislature. The occasion felt to be the last on which Henry could ever appear before the public, by whom he was idolized, attracted a great concourse, who listened with interest to the young man as well as the veteran. Both, though representing opposite opinions, were elected. Randolph, with the exception of the three intervals of two years each, retained his seat in Eulogy on the Life and Character of Nathaniel Bowditch, Salem Encyclopædia Americana, Supplt. the House of Representatives for thirty years. He was a thorough-going advocate of the doctrine of state rights. His first speech was in support John Rand Aph of a bill to reduce the army, in which some unguarded expressions respecting the military profession led to a scene a short time after at the theatre, where some officers of the army took occasion of points in the play to make remarks offensive to Randolph, who communicated a statement of the affair to Adams, who brought it before Congress, where a report was made that no "breach of the privileges of the House had been committed by the offenders." This was rejected, but no further action taken. A In the question of the purchase of Louisiana, Randolph sided with Jefferson. He opposed the embargo, the war of 1812, the re-charter of the United States Bank, and the Missouri Compromise. One of his most marked efforts was his speech in 1822 against a resolution which had been offered expressing the sympathy for the Greeks then struggling for independence. similar movement was at the same time in progress in South America. In 1826, after the appointment by Adams of Clay as Secretary of State, Randolph referred to the affair as "the coalition of Blifil and Black George-the combination, unheard of till then, of the puritan with the blackleg." This led to a challenge from Clay. The celebrated duel which followed is described by Randolph's biographer. "The night before the duel," says General James Hamilton, of South Carolina, Mr. Randolph sent for me. I found him calm, but in a singularly kind and confiding mood. He told me that he had something on his mind to tell me. He then remarked, 'Hamilton, I have determined to receive, without returning, Clay's fire; nothing shall induce me to harm a hair of his head; I will not make his wife a widow, or his children orphans. Their tears would be shed over his grave; but when the sod of Virginia rests on my bosom, there is not in this wide world one individual to pay this tribute upon mine.' His eyes filled, and resting his head upon his hand, we remained some moments silent. I replied, 'My dear friend (for ours was a sort of posthumous friendship, bequeathed by our mothers), I deeply regret that you have mentioned this subject to me; for you call upon me to go to the field and to see you shot down, or to assume the responsibility, in regard to your own life, in sustaining your determination to throw it away. But on this subject, a man's own conscience and his own bosom are his best monitors. I will not advise, but under the enormous and unprovoked personal insult you have offered Mr. Clay, I cannot dissuade. I feel bound, however, to communicate to Colonel Tattnall your decision.' He berged me not to do so, and said, he was very much afraid that Tattnall would take the studs and refuse to go out with him.' I, however, sought Colonel Tattnall, and we repaired about midnight to Mr. Randolph's lodgings, whom we found reading Milton's great poem. For some moments he did not permit us to say one word in relation to the approaching duel; and he at once commenced one of those delightful criticisms on a passage of this poet, in which he was wont so enthusiastically to indulge. After a pause, Colonel Tattnall remarked. Mr. Randolph, I am told you have determined not to return Mr. Clay's fire; I must say to you, my dear sir, if I am only to go out to see you shot down, you must find some other friend.' Mr. Randolph remarked that it was his determination. After much conversation on the subject, I induced Colonel Tattnall to allow Mr. Randolph to take his own course, as his withdrawal, as one of his friends, might lead to very injurious misconstructions. At last, Mr. Randolph, smiling, said, 'Well, Tattnall, I promise you one thing, if I see the devil in Clay's eye, and that with malice prepense he means to take my life, I may change my mind. A remark I knew be made merely to propitiate the anxieties of his friend. Mr. Clay and himself met at 4 o'clock the sueceeding evening, on the banks of the Potomac. But he saw no devil in Clay's eye,' but a man fearless, and expressing the mingled sensibility and firmness which belonged to the occasion. "I shall never forget this scene, as long as I live. It has been my misfortune to witness several duels, but I never saw one, at least in its sequel, so deeply affecting. The sun was just setting behind the blue hills of Randolph's own Virginia. Here were two of the most extraordinary men our country in its prodigality had produced, about to meet in mortal combat. Whilst Tattnall was loading Randolph's pistols I approached my friend, I believed, for the last time; I took his hand; there was not in its touch the quivering of one pulsation. He turned to me and said, Clay is calm, but not vindictive-I hold my purpose, Hamilton, in any event; remember this. On handing him his pistol, Colonel Tattnall sprung the hair-trigger. Mr. Randolph said, Tattnall, although I am one of the best shots in Virginia, with either a pistol or gun, yet I never fire with the hair-trigger; besides, I have a thick buckskin glove on, which will destroy the delicacy of my touch, and the trigger may fly before I know where I am.' But, from his great solicitude for his friend, Tattnall insisted upon hairing the trigger. On taking their position, the fact turned out as Mr. Randolph anticipated; his pistol went off before the word, with the muzzle down. "The moment this event took place, General Jesup, Mr. Clay's friend, called out that he would instantly leave the ground with his friend, if that occurred again. Mr. Clay at once exclaimed, it was entirely an accident, and begged that the gentleman might be allowed to go on. On the word being given, Mr. Clay fired without effect, Mr. Randolph discharging his pistol in the air. The moment Mr. Clay saw that Mr. Randolph had thrown away his fire, with a gush of sensibility, he instantly ap proached Mr. Randolph, and said with an emotion I never can forget:- I trust in God, my dear sir, you are untouched; after what has occurred, I would not have harmed you for a thousand worlds.'"* In 1829, declining a re-election, he retired from Congress. He was soon after chosen a member of the convention for the revision of the constitution of his state, and distinguished himself in that body by his opposition to change. One of his most celebrated speeches was called forth in this convention on a proposal to provide the mode in which future amendments should be made in the new instrument. This is one of its marked pas sages: Benton has also given a history of this affair.-Thirty Years' View, i. 70. Doctor Franklin, who, in shrewdness, especially in all that related to domestic life, was never excelled, used to say that two movings were equal to one fire. And gentlemen, as if they were afraid that this besetting sin of republican governments, this rerum novarum lubido (to us a very homely phrase, but one that comes pat to the purpose), this maggot of innovation, would cease to bite, are here gravely making provision that this Constitution, which we should consider as a remedy for all the ills of the body politic, may itself be amended or modified at any future time. Sir, I am against any such provision. I should as soon think of introducing into a marriage contract a provision for divorce, and thus poisoning the greatest blessing of mankind at its very source at its fountain head. He has seen little, and has reflected less, who does not know that "necessity" is the great, powerful, governing principle of affairs here. Sir, I am not going into that question, which puzzled Pandemonium-the question of liberty and necessity: Free will, fixed fate, foreknowledge absolute; Sir, I but I do contend that necessity is one principal instrument of all the good that man enjoys. The happiness of the connubial union itself depends greatly on necessity; and when you touch this, you touch the arch, the key-stone of the arch, on which the happiness and well-being of society is founded. Look at the relation of master and slave (that opprobrium, in the opinion of some gentlemen, to all civilized society and all free government). there are few situations in life where friendships so strong and so lasting are formed, as in that very relation. The slave knows that he is bound indissolubly to his master, and must, from necessity, remain always under his control. The master knows that he is bound to maintain and provide for his slave so long as he retains him in his possession. And each party accommodates himself to his situation. have seen the dissolution of many friendships—such, at least, as were so called; but I have seen that of master and slave endure so long as there remained a drop of the blood of the master to which the slave could cleave. Where is the necessity of this provision in the Constitution? Where is the use of it? Sir, what are we about? Have we not been undoing what the wiser heads-I must be permitted to say so-yes, sir, what the wiser heads of our ancestors did more than half a century ago? Can any one believe that we, by any amendments of ours, by any of our scribbling on that parchment, by any amulet, any legerdemain-charm-Abracadabra-of ours can prevent our sons from doing the same thing— that is, from doing as they please, just as we are doing as we please? It is impossible. Who can bind posterity? When I hear of gentlemen talk of making a Constitution for "all time," and introducing provisions into it for "all time," and yet see men here that are older than the Constitution we are about to destroy-(I am older myself than the present Constitution-it was established when I was a boy)-it reminds me of the truces and the peaces of Europe. They always begin: "In the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity," and go on to declare, "there shall be perfect and perpetual peace and unity between the subjects of such and such potentates for all time to come;" and in less than seven years they are at war again. A short time previous to this General Jackson, on his accession to office, tendered Randolph the mission to Russia. The office was accepted, and in August, 1830, the new minister arrived at his post. He left St. Petersburgh soon after in conse quence of ill health, and in October, 1831, returned home. His last political act was to speak to popular assemblies throughout his state in opposition to the proclamation of General Jackson against nullification, when almost too feeble to stand. He determined on another voyage to Europe for the benefit of his health, and left home to embark at Philadelphia. He stopped at Washington, where he had an interesting interview with his old antagonist Clay. He was exposed on his arrival in Philadelphia, on a stormy evening, to the cold and rain, his disease increased, and on the nineteenth of May reached its fatal termination. 66 Randolph's mental, like his physical organization, was of the most sensitive nature. Though an active public man, he was morbidly fond of retirement. Thoroughly honest, he scorned low means to attain high position, and his great sarcastic powers did not tend to increase the number of his friends. He was powerful in invective, and not sparing in its use. His speeches were always direct, and produced great effect. Some of his pointed phrases, like that of masterly inactivity," by which he indicated the course of passive resistance he deemed proper to be pursued by the opposition to the Adams administration, have already passed into proverbs, as his eccentricities, doubtless in an exaggerated form, have furnished material for collectors of anecdote. His temper was quick, his antipathies strong, but his disposition was kindly, and he was a thoroughgoing friend. Some of the most pleasant portions of his biography are these which admit us into his intimacies. He became deeply impressed by the truths of the Christian religion, and was a devout member of the Ancient Church of the Old Dominion, and of the England he so much admired. He greatly enjoyed his visits to London from his sympathy with the associations of the great historic city, and we have heard a story of his walking through the Strand with his arms crossed on his breast in token of the reverence of a pilgrim. By his will he manumitted his slaves, three hundred in number, and provided for their support. The validity of the instrument was disputed by the family on the ground of insanity in the testator, but was sustained by the court. That Randolph was at times insane there appears little reason to doubt. He felt his liability to attacks of this kind deeply. "I have lived," he said to Col. Benton, "in dread of insanity." The remark may be taken as a key to much that is strange in his career. His letters, interspersed through Garland's Life, present the man for the most part in his genial moments. A separate selection "from among several hundred" as the preface informs us, Letters of John Randolph to a Young Relative: embracing a Series of Years, from Early Youth, to Mature Manhood, was published in 1834.* DAVID HITCHCOCK. A VOLUME of the Poetical Works of David Hitchcock was published at Boston in 1806, with a * Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, and Blanchard. 8vo. pp. 254. Benton's Thirty Years' View, i. 473. Party Leaders; by Jo. G. Baldwin, pp. 135. Hugh A. Garland's Life of Randolph. prefatory memoir which, in connexion with the merits of the verses, furnishes matter for a passing notice. The chief poem of the volume, octosyllabic measure, is in four parts, and entitled, The Shade of Plato: or a Defence of Religion, Morality, and Government. It is written with remarkable ease and smoothness. The Shade of Plato appears, to clear up objections to the moral government of the world, in the question of fate and free-will, and "vindicate the ways of God to man," closing with some shrewd and sober expostulations on the tendency to revolutionary principles in vogue with the jacobinical doctrines at the beginning of the century. There were many lessons at that time from pulpit and editor's desk from the following text At this, I ask'd, is injury done, Or own no deity at all? Of what avail religious creeds, If men are honest in their deeds? If they'll not lie, nor cheat, nor steal? "Tis faith in one All-Seeing Eye, Not conscience, nor the world's applause, # Yet plain as is the sacred truth, It seems in modern days uncouth; And now in reason's boasted school, Is lash'd with boundless ridicule; Now human wisdom fain would prove, That there's no God who rules above; That all this boundless universe, Was once a huge ungovern'd mass; A vast, stupendous whirligig, Dancing to one Eternal jig, Till by an accident, outright, Matter on matter chanc'd to light; Substance, from one confused storm. All rush'd to embryotic form, And chaos, once convuls'd with jars. Produc'd the sun, and moon, and stars, And this terraqueous planet here, Without a God to interfere. And are these philosophic rules? Then tell me, ye enlighten'd fools, Whether an accidental case, Could balance worlds in empty space And bound their course thro' ether's realm. "The Knight and Quack: or a Looking-glass for Impostors in Physic, Philosophy, or Government; an Allegorical Poem," illustrates the same views of the world; while the remaining poem, "The Subtlety of Foxes," is a well drawn fable, exhibiting the logic of might over right. The author of these verses was born at Bethlem, Litchfield County, Ct., in 1773, the son of a poor and honest shoemaker, who managed, we are told, in a "sketch of the author's life" prefixed to his volume, to send the son to school "when want of money or clothing did not prevent." The father died in 1790. His bedside was tended by his affectionate and serious-minded son, who wrote some of his earliest verses, paraphrases of one of the Psalms, and of a portion of Luke, "principally in the night, while watching with his father in his last sickness." Having lost that protector, he worked at farming with one of the select men of the town for five months, and was then bound apprentice to a shoemaker, remaining under the direction of a guardian whom he chose. That he chafed a little under this course of life among these overseers is not to be wondered at, yet, as the sketch naively says, "though he might by ignorance or inadvertence sometimes deserve their displeasure, still, as he never received the average sum of one dollar per month (exclusive of board) for thirty-four months' work, he could not accuse himself, on the whole, of being in the least degree prejudicial to their interests." At the age of twenty he practised his calling for himself at West Stockbridge, and Great Barrington in Mass.; his first earnings of three or four dollars a month being “laid out in purchasing clothing to supply the place of a few rags, which, at that time, had become very unfashionable apparel for persons of his age." At twentysix he married, and at thirty-two reports himself, in the preface to his book, as poor and laborious, but enjoying "peace and contentment, with the addition of three children to his family, upon whom he dotes almost as much as the opulent do upon their riches." This is all we know of David Hitchcock. The Shade of Plato is certainly a remarkable production under the circumstances, to have been hammered out between the blows on the lapstone. WILLIAM BIGLOW. WILLIAM BIGLOW was born in Natick, Mass., September 22, 1773. In an account of his early years, published in one of the numerous periodicals, the Federal Orrery, to which he contributed, he says: I was born in a small country village, of reputa ble industrious parents, at a time when they were as poor as poverty herself. Nothing remarkable was at that time observed in me, except that I was, in the phrase of the hamlet, "a desperate cross body." This, however, must have been owing to some indisposition of body; for I naturally possess a very peaceable temper. At a proper age I was sent to school-five weeks, in winter, to a master, who could read; and as long. in summer, to an old maid, who could knit. Possess ing a strong attachment to books, I soon passed from my primer to my psalter, and thence in a short |