inner life. If even one had besought him to remain, he would not have gone back; but he had not yet completed his survey; his pay was good; he was in need of money; they could not advise him otherwise; and he went back, never to return.

To the study of medicine Percival was doubtless inclined by the example of his father. Soon after leaving college he began his studies with Dr. Ward, his father's successor in Berlin. The Doctor had a large medical library, and Percival asked leave to come and "look over his books." It was readily granted, and before the Doctor was up the next morning, his pupil was at the door waiting to begin his studies. During the day, as Dr. Ward passed in and out, he saw Percival apparently only fumbling over the books. He told him that he ought to take up the elementary books first; but Percival gave no heed to his remark. Thus employed for several weeks, he at length inquired about the library of Dr. Ives, in New Haven. Dr. Ward now took him to task for spending his time without serious devotion to his studies. He replied, that he had looked over nearly all the books. The doctor then told him he should begin with Physiology, and took down a volume to show what he meant. Percival said he had looked that over; and, to test his word, the Doctor asked a series of questions, to which he replied almost in the words of the book. The Doctor went through with his library in the same manner, and found that Percival had its contents at his tongue's end. He then studied with Dr. Ives, and took his degree at New Haven. At the request of friends he began practice in his native town. But while yet early in the practice, he was consulted in several cases of malignant fever which baffled his skill. A number of patients in the same family died in quick succession. This so affected his spirits that he refused further attendance. He soon found, too, that it was no easy matter to collect his bills. Being in need of money, he went the circuit to procure it. But one wished to pay him in farm produce, another thought his bill ought to be less, another pleaded hard times, still another was not at home; and he returned so disgusted, that he threw his bills in the fire, and never practised again. He then turned his steps to New Haven, from which place a certain scientific lecturer, by the name of VOL. LXVII. - 5TH S. VOL. V. NO. II.

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Whitton, being about to sail for Charleston, Percival agreed to accompany and assist him in his lectures; but Percival's love of scientific accuracy and Whitton's mercurial temper soon obliged them to part. Percival now took an office in Charleston, intending to practise his profession; but unwilling, with no patients, to endure the restraints of an office, he locked his door, and gave himself to pursuits more congenial to his taste.

In connection with his medical studies botany was a favorite pursuit. One of his earliest poems, yet in manuscript, shows an insight into the secret language of flowers, a communing with their symbolic beauty, which is surprising in one so young. In his Senior year at college he studied botany with Dr. Ives, who still clings in his old age to his early love of the science. Botany was then in its infancy in this country. Colden, near the close of the last century, was among the first to introduce the Linnean system, and Muhlenberg, Barton, Elliott, and Ives were active disciples, gleaning what they could from books and nature. Pursh's "Plants of North America" had then just come out in London, and Dr. Ives engaged Percival to translate it for publication from the Latin; but after nearly completing the first volume, with a fortnight's constant labor, and when Dr. Ives had gained a large list of subscribers, he grew sick of his work and left it unfinished. was, however, much pleased with the proposal that he should become curator of the botanical garden which Dr. Ives was just then starting at New Haven, and only a severe illness turned him from it. He afterwards delivered a course of lectures on botany, at Charleston, and always kept up his interest in the science, as both his poetry and love of solitary rambles sufficiently attest. It was a great delight to him, of a summer day, to take a long walk in company with a few intimate friends, and we have been told that he became almost another man amid the wild beauty of our scenery; but unless with those who had a kindred nature, he quenched his enthusiasm, and talked only as a man of science. ✔

He

He made an epitome of Wilson's Ornithology while in college, and always had a quick eye to detect the habits and species of the lower orders of creation. He also made exten

sive notes in geography, and by his translation of Malte-Brun has left an enduring monument to his knowledge and accuracy. He had made such wide incursions in the natural sciences, that, in 1827, no man was found better fitted to correct the scientific part of Webster's Dictionary, and even while a student had begun his researches in geology; yet before he begun his survey of Connecticut, he had kept the circle of science unbroken by a particular study of any one branch. Percival had no little pride in his geological discoveries, and his graduating oration on "The Comparative Value of a Scientific and Military Reputation," somewhat blindly prefigures his own destined path. He was a thorough and profound man of science; but, like so many leading minds, he saw farther than he could reach.

We have already alluded to his reports on matters of physical science. The last of them, on the Geology of Wisconsin, is only an abstract of a much more extensive work still in manuscript; but, in this abridged form, it describes with precision the exact relative position, and every nicety of distinction, of the rocks of the State. No such accuracy has been attempted in any of the other State reports. It is curious to observe the utter absence of any theories in this report. Percival said that he purposely avoided them, regarding it as his duty to present facts alone to the people; but that he had theories, and that his exhaustive collection of facts, especially in regard to the Trap, was made in order to verify theories which he did not divulge, he never denied. Many theories peculiar to himself have not stood the test of more recent scientific observation. The detection of the curvilinear (crescent form) arrangement of Trap, which he gives in detail in his report, is due to him alone. In a letter to Sir Charles Lyell, who came to see him when in the United States, dated October 23, 1843, he says, in allusion to efforts to rob him of this discovery: "This system of arrangement was long since observed by me, as early indeed as when my attention was first directed to geology, (when a student,) from the circumstance that my native place was in the very centre of the larger Trap formation of Connecticut.” Alluding to the statement in his report, he says: "In the early part of 1837, I prepared a full report, (now in manuscript,) in which

I laid down my arrangement of the Trap in far more minute detail than in my published report." He was frequently employed to make explorations in various sections of the country, and if he had lived, his survey of Wisconsin would doubtless have been the copestone of his scientific fame. His accurate memory, minute research, active imagination, and good scientific judgment were the secret of his success.

Of Percival as a philologist, we will first let him speak for himself in a letter to Professor Ticknor, dated February 17, 1834:

"When I was with you last, you asked me what languages I had read. I first repeated the languages in which I had read, but remarked·· that I had done so in connection with my study of German Philology. I did not profess to read them regularly. I then said that I read the Roman and Germanic languages with some ease, but particularly so, Italian, French, and German. Such is the fact, and, to avoid misstatement, I will now say that, beside Greek and Latin, I have studied most particularly Italian, French, and German, — in the next class, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, and Swedish, and that, comparatively, in the order here given. I have been over the grammars of many other languages, and have read and translated them, more or less analytically. I have studied the Mithridates, and for several years have read what I have met on the subject of the affinities of languages with interest. To some extent, I have pursued comparative etymology. All this I have done, I may say truly, from the love of the pursuit, not for public display."

In the same letter he speaks of the Basque, of which he was then a "three days' scholar," and, though he had no dictionary, gives the translation of a Basque poem, with nearly two pages of notes. A week after, he gave an oral lecture before the Connecticut Academy of Arts, on the grammar of the same language:

"In addition to the French, Italian, and Spanish of his earlier years, he delighted in constantly adding to his stores of German, ancient as well as modern, expressing in it his choicest thoughts and feelings. Not content with gratifying his romantic tastes through the study of the Gaelic and Welsh, and his curiosity and sympathy with the stern and heroic, by mastering the Norse, Danish, and Swedish, he was indefatigable in his devotion to the Slavonic tongues.. The Russians

were found to be unexpectedly interesting from the tenderness of sentiment among their peasantry; the vigor and spirit of the Polish did not disappoint him; the Hungarian Magyars were peculiar as well as wild; and in the Servians he took extreme delight."*

There was indeed not a language or dialect (save the Turkish) of Modern Europe with which he was unacquainted, and in the modern languages of India he had made extensive studies. While in Wisconsin, he succeeded in learning something of the language and history of the Indians whom he met with. Among the papers which he left is an unfinished English Grammar, and he is known to have spent much time in collecting materials for a universal grammar. He also made profound investigations in etymology, and has left many studies on this subject, which we hope some competent scholar will bring to light. He had great zest for hunting out the analogies and hidden origin of words, and one of the chief reasons why he could not revise Webster's Dictionary through more than two letters of the alphabet was his pertinacity in having the etymology of every word correct. We state this fact as it is reported to us from New Haven, without intending in this place to throw any suspicion on the correctness of the etymologies of the twenty-four letters which remained. His love of accuracy and truth in the minutest things amounted almost to a passion. Indeed, an editor has told us that, when there happened to be mistakes of the printer in the numerous articles which he wrote for his paper, Percival often said that it almost made him sick. In the letter to Professor Ticknor from which we have already quoted, he says: "My object in studying languages has been mainly twofold, to understand them analytically so as to catch the precise shades of meaning, particularly in all works of genius, and to learn their philological (etymological) relations and affinities. This last was what first interested me in the study of language, and I have never yet lost that interest." He did not approve the mode of studying languages in our universities, but insisted that the sciences should precede languages, and the modern languages - those most akin to our mother tongue-should be studied before

* Vol. I. pp. xxxvii., xxxviii.

↑ Ibid., p. xxxi.