customed, very properly, to express their regret, at the loss of an associate, and valued officer. Mr. Peck's injunction should not be considered as expressive of his disapprobation of a custom, highly important in such an institution; no such opportunity should be lost of impressing on the minds of youth, the value of a virtuous, and honourable, literary, and scientific life. To Mr. Peck's personal character alone, this dread, even of posthumous praise, is to be ascribed, and in the short account of his blameless life, which it may be permitted to one of his earliest friends to give, as a very feeble expression of tenderness and respect, the causes of this uncommon fear of exciting public attention, will be perceived. It is not however, from private feelings alone, that this brief sketch of Mr. Peck's biography is presented. The institution of which he was a member, and the state of which he was a distinguished citizen, have a claim to the just praise of his talents and knowledge which he was too diffident to permit to be noticed, and we have a right to make this sacrifice of private duty, for higher and more important objects.

There was nothing about Mr. Peck's life or character which could furnish the materials of a highly wrought picture; nothing which would address itself to the passions or to the imagination; it was simply the example of an unaided, retired individual, struggling during the greater period of his life against every discour agement, upborne by his genius, and love of study, constantly adding new stores to a powerful mind capable of comprehending all that it received from reading and observation, and of analyzing, arranging and preserving it.

and

Mr. Peck was admitted Bachelor of Arts at Cambridge in 1782. He was destined for commercial pursuits, and passed a regular apprenticeship in the compting-house of the late Hon. Mr. Russell. His exactitude and industry acquired for him the confidence and lasting friendship of that distinguished merchant. Mr. Peck's father was a man of very great genius in the mechanic arts; he was the most scientific as well as the most successful naval architect, which the United States then produced.

The ships built by him were so superior to any then known, that he attracted the attention of congress, and was employed by them to build some of their ships of war. But his talents did not bring him the pecuniary reward, which all who recollect the superiority of his skill have admitted was his due, and disgusted with the world, he retired to small farm at Kittery, and with a splenetic temper, resolved, that his models, founded, as his son always affirmed, on mathematical calculations, should never be possessed by a country, which had treated him with such ingratitude. The failure of the father's schemes defeated professor Peck's prospects as a merchant, and at an early age, he too, imbued, not a little, with his father's discontentment with the world, (a very pardonable error in a young man, who venerated his father's talents and virtues) retired to the same obscure village, to pass the whole of that period of life, which nature has designed should be the most active.

During nearly twenty years, professor Peck led the most ascetic and secluded life, seldom emerging from his hermitage; but his mind so far from being inactive, was assiduously and intensely devoted to the pursuits to which the bent of his genius and taste inclined him. At a time when he could find no companion, nor any sympathy in his studies, except from the venerable Dr. Cutler, of Hamilton, who was devoted to one branch of them, Botany. Mr. Peck made himself, under all the disadvantages of very narrow means, and the extreme difficulty of procuring books, an able and profound botanist and entomologist. But his studies were not confined to these two departments only; in zoology, ornithology, and icthyology, his knowledge was more extensive than that of any other individual in this part of the United States, perhaps in the nation.

One trait in his character ought here to be noticed; and the more so, because the opposite defect is the most prevailing one in our country. What he did know, or attempt to study, he studied profoundly, and if this knowledge failed in extent, it was in all cases, owing to want of health or means. To those who knew him well, before his removal from his obscurity to Cam

bridge, it appeared astonishing, how, with advantages so slender, and under discouragements so chilling, he could have acquired so much.

It was principally with a view to draw this learned and indefatigable labourer in natural history from his retreat, that the subscription for a professorship of natural history at Cambridge was commenced. This has once been denied; but the writer of this article, and one of his friends, having been the most active circulators of the subscription, and fully and entirely acquainted with its origin, know it to be true. Mr. Peck was elected by the subscribers the first professor, and it is due to his memory to say, that he resisted the first solicitations most feelingly, and with great zeal. He desired his friends to recollect the hermit life he had led, and that, at so advanced a period, after habits of seclusion had been so long rooted, it would be impossible for him to come forth into active life, and to give to his favourite pursuits all the interest, and the charms of eloquence, of which they are susceptible, but which he feared he was not qualified to do.

But his friends, who wished the country to do an act of justice to merit so long neglected, would not listen to his objections, and compelled him to accept the appointment. The board of visiters wished him to visit the scientific establishments of Europe, with which he complied. Having been with him, during a part of that tour, we are enabled to state confidently, that he was received by the men of science, in England and France, as a brother, and his merit was highly appreciated.

Mr. Peck inherited his father's taste for mechanical philosophy, and, as an artist, he was incomparable. His most delicate instruments, in all his pursuits, were the product of his own skill and handicraft. We shall never forget the astonishment of one of the first opticians of London, when Mr. Peck requested him to supply a glass which had been lost out of a microscope, made by himself, nor the warm friendship he discovered for him, when he was satisfied, that he was so able a self-instructed artist.

But professor Peck's knowledge and taste were not

confined to natural history and mechanics. We are aware, that with some men these qualifications are considered of secondary merit, but Mr. Peck had that delicate tact as to every subject of taste, which all men admit to be the proof of superior genius. He was a good classical scholar; more correct than those who make greater pretensions to it. He was truly and deeply a lover, and a correct judge of the fine arts. He was fond of painting, and sculpture, and architecture, without professing to have skill in them. No man who ever saw the exquisite accuracy and fidelity with which he sketched the subjects of his peculiar pursuits in entomology, or botany, could doubt the refinement of his taste. Of his character in social life-of his virtues, we are disposed to follow his own wishes, and to leave them to the recollection of a few friends who knew him intimately; they were of that pure, and simple, and sincere, and unaffected character, which such a life, devoted to such innocent and delightful pursuits, was calculated to produce. If greater probity, sincerity, honour, delicacy, are often to be met with, society must indeed be happy.

If it should be asked why, with such attainments, professor Peck has left no greater and more enduring public proofs of his learning and genius, we reply, by asking, where can be found a case in a young country, a country so much in want of such talents, in which a man of genius and profound erudition was suffered to pine for twenty years neglected and unknown? And could it be expected, after all his hopes and prospects had been so long chilled, that he would come out with a debilitated frame, a constitution broken down by study and meditation, with all the ardour and activity of early cherished and flattered youth? It is unjust to expect it, and yet professor Peck has left enough to convince every reading man and every feeling mind, that he was fully worthy of the honour conferred upon him, and such generous and honourable minds will only regret that our country and its seminaries had not availed themselves of his talents while health, and hope, and joy would have given energy and eloquence to his pen, and

thus have enabled him to erect for himself a better monument than this tribute of truth and friendship, and to produce for his country some work, which would have done it honour abroad, and have stimulated its youth to equal exertions in science. But he has not lived in vain; he has shewn what may be done without encouragement, and amidst all possible discouragements, and his cheerful, philosophical, and resigned exit proves, that a life, so employed, has its reward even on earth.

III. SAMUEL R. TREVETT.

[New-England Galaxy. Boston.]

ONE of the brightest ornaments of the navy is gone forever. Dr. SAMUEL R. TREVETT died at Norfolk on the fifth day of the present month.* He was in the thirty-ninth year of his age, and had just returned in the sloop of war Peacock, from a West-India cruise. His merits require no eulogium for his friends, but they deserve one for those who did not know him. Virtue should receive its reward, not for the honour of the dead, but for the benefit of the living.

He was born at Marblehead in the county of Essex, in Massachusetts, in the year 1783. He was the son of Captain Samuel R. Trevett, who commanded a company of artillery, and was distinguished for his coolness and gallantry on the memorable 17th of June, 1775, at the battle of Bunker Hill; and who is still living, in the service of his country, an active, intelligent, and honourable old man, deeply sensitive of this affliction, in all its extent and aggravation. The deceased received the rudiments of his education at Exeter, under the care of that excellent instructer, Benjamin Abbot, Esq. to whom New-England owes much for his assiduity and talent in forming the minds and fixing the morals of her youths. This pupil of his entered Harvard University in the year 1800, and, of course, graduated in 1804. Among his classmates, Trevett was noticed for his modesty, intelligence, and affectionate disposition. Most of his college acquaintance were his fast friends, and not one of them his enemy. The best judges of the head and heart * November, 1822.