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BORN JANUARY 11, 1812.
DIED FEBRUARY 27, 1893.
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WZ 100 W557W 1893
56410060R


NLM D5ETfiM37  A
    NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
ARMY  MEDICAL LIBRARY
FOUNDED 1836
    WASHINGTON, D.C.

_____                       —
NLM052984378 
 
 
SERMON

   PREACHED BY
REV. EDMUND  B.  WILLSON,
       c \\
              AT THE
NORTH CHURCH, SALEM,
SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 1893.
PRINTED BY REQUEST OF THE

  ESSEX INSTITUTE. 
           PRINTED BY
    SALEM PRESS PUBLISHING AND PRINTING CO.
           SALEM, MASS.


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NATIONAL LIBRARY  OF  MEDICINE
BETHESDA, MARYLAND   20014 
SERMON.
   If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall  be full of
 light. Matt, vi: 22.

             HE single eye is the good eye  which sees
               things as they are.  He is a happy man who
               sees  clearly before him his path in life.
               For though it is not in man that walketh to
 direct his steps, so as to determine what shall  befall him,
 it is in him to determine what manner of man he will be
 and on what lines  of life he will move.
   Jesus is reported as having said just before, "where your
 treasure   is  there will  your heart  also be."  What has
 worth to the clear-seeing eyes will draw the affections.
   He is reported  as saying just after : "No man can serve
 two masters."  A man can serve two, or even more per-
 sons, interests, motives or ends  that  do not clash.  But
 only one can be master.
   He is reported to have  said at another time to his dis-
 ciples : "Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you ;"
 signifying not  that  they  were not  following him  from
 choice, but that their choice was compelled  as it  were  by
 an irresistible something in  him which  selected  them, as
the magnet selects and  dnuys to itself what belongs to it.
  This single eye, this  compelling choice, this following
                                           (3)
4034A-k 
4
the lead of the affections are so many symbols of that de-
cisive power of spiritual concentration, which in  Jesus
wrought  his mighty works and is  in  sharp  contrast with
that distracted mind  and not-clear vision  of those who
seem drawn many ways at once, and whose  great want is
some one overpowering and  controlling motive worthy to
rule,—a desire and purpose mastering all other desires, re-
ducing them to order and producing harmony by silencing
all lesser and opposing motives, and giving  by concentra-
tion or singleness of vision unity and power to the life.
  I could not anticipate when  speaking to you last Sun-
day  of one aged, leading and life-long member of our
communion just gone, that another of the same household,
and  certainly not less worthy  of commemoration would,
by his almost immediate departure, invite us again to per-
sonal reminiscence and biographical retrospect.
  It is but a few weeks since  that, as I was illustrating the
rare success and  productiveness of some lives which are
yet even  exceptionally quiet  and retiring in habit, I men-
tioned as a most  pertinent example the President of the
Essex Institute then a good while retired from active duty
by what  seemed  a  prostrating and incurable  invalidism.
He has followed to his rest after a  week the  elder brother
of whom I spoke last Sunday morning at some length.
His  history furnishes a notable illustration  of what  large
results that singleness and clearness of vision, which se-
lects an object or end to live for and holds  steadily to it
for the years of a long life, may accomplish.  It might be
put as Jesus put it—accomplished by one who is  more
chosen and called to his work than he is conscious of choos- 
5
ing it, so adapted does he seem to it.   It  is natural se-
lection.  Nature selected  him for it.
  In the first place, the end sought was a worthy and noble
one ;  in  the second place, it was distinctly comprehended
in all its nobleness ; in the third place, it was pursued with
an unwavering  steadiness of aim and constancy of faith
that refused to be  turned back  by obstacles or discourage-
ments, and finally compelled  even obstacles to become
allies.
  In  pronouncing the  end  or object  to which  Doctor
Wheatland devoted his life, a  worthy and noble one, my
meaning is not that he saw in their perfected shapes from
the beginning the  very institutions and  agencies of social
education and elevation which  he did so much to create,
foster and  develop into their present forms.  His vision
was  by no means  so  narrow and definite as that.  More
broadly  his vision comprehended all possibilities behind
these nearer ones; they were   indefinitely large.  They
comprehended, as  the hymn we sing  has it,
             " Whate'er is friendly to our race."
To  what outlined and formal proportions his vision would
shape itself he  could not foresee.  This would appear as
he went  on. Time and the beginnings and the possibilities
would determine  that.   He no doubt builded better than
he knew.  All do so who build in  faith  and seriousness,
and put heart into their work.   Yet he saw more beyond
what  he  was building, as what was to come after.
  In his early manhood he began the search for knowledge :
not simply for the  glory of it, as would appear, or that he
might be rich in large accumulations, or exhibit great store 
6
of learning, but that he might put his acquisitions to use.
As  he  travelled—partly for health—he  made  use  of his
opportunities to observe and  study, and think over plans
of life ; so that he brought home not only a sharpened ap-
petite for knowing, but some gathered fruits, and brood-
ing thoughts of what to try to do.   And looking around
him modestly in this his home community, and taking note
of the things most needing to be done and things seeming
possible, he quietly went about doing them in his own
fashion, pretty  much unnoticed.  He put out no prospec-
tus of new and  large operations, but took the materials at
hand, went among his fellows with suggestions, which af-
ter the usual amount of delay, objections and discussion
bore fruit.  By the time that harvest was ripe—usually a
good while before—he  had forecast the next step, and was
ready  with  further suggestions, and plans  more or less
matured  as to the direction the advance should take next,
and how to  compass it.
  He was interested in education  and studied ways and
means of improving the schools.   He was  an early and
zealous if not the foremost promoter of the selection  of
Salem as a seat for one of the Normal Schools of the state.
He was not covetous of the honor of connecting his name
with any new or  good thing if he could get it done.   He
sought to enlist such as had means,  such as had influence,
euch as had powers of  persuasion in the carrying forward
of  his plans, and never  betrayed  any sign  of envy or of
hurt to his pride  if the credit of any success went to them.
He saw  respectable and  venerable societies devoted  to
scientific and historical research whose histories had had 
7
honorable beginnings,  but had come to the languishing
period, and showed but a feeble vitality, and he  labored
to revive them, to arouse interest, to raise funds, and by
combining their resources, insufficient for a separate main-
tenance, to make them sufficient in combination.   So he
brought those who were working apart to work together.
Gradually he  gathered helpers about him.  This was an
intelligent community.   There were men in it  who more
and  more appreciated the  importance of what  he was
doino-.  Some  could not at once see the use of  all that
gratuitous  toil and drudgery  to  which he submitted  in
gathering old papers, pamphlets, MSS., relics, curiosities,
cast-aside  furniture,—much of which  seemed to them
nondescript rubbish ; but they came to believe  that he
knew what he wanted  and what he would  do with it;  so
they let him collect and began to lend him  a little help in
it, and little  contributions  came in to his cabinets and
museums and  various collections.   And by and  by here
were mere boys forming their little associations and col-
lections.  They had caught this healthy  habit of going
through the world with their eyes open and their thoughts
about them.   And there grew up little by little a cluster
of institutions and activities of an intellectual and educa-
tional sort about here, such as  has rarely if ever been seen
equalled in any other community of the size of this, un-
less  it were a university town or the seat of some  impor-
tant institution of  education,—and a parallel even  in such
a community  I  imagine it would  not be easy  to find.
They did grow up here ; they were natural products ; came
quietly, first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn 
                          8
in the ear; but none the less was the soil to be tilled ; and
it was in no small part the  hand of the diligent husband-
man whose work I am tracing that helped it to be.
  He was always at work for the people.  He seemed to
resort little to the centres of learning: and investigation
for fellowship with the learned.  They knew him as of
their guild and appreciated  his labors.   But  instead of
affecting to spend his time  in seeking them and associat-
ing with them exclusively, or in a select and separate way,
he sought to bring them here as fellow-workers with him,
and to induce them to  impart to the community at large
of their  riches.   They recognized him as of their order
and came at his call, glad to find here a group of recep-
tive and intelligent listeners.  So he made friends with
Cambridge professors and those of other colleges and in-
stitutions and such as had the gift of instructive and scien-
tific exposition.   Here some of the literary men found a
more than usually congenial  atmosphere  in which to ex-
press themselves.   Here the men who had made new and
wonderful discoveries and inventions liked to make early
exhibition of their experiments and accomplishments.
  Do I claim for this one man all these wonderful results ?
By no means.  Doctor Wheatland was himself a product
of this  ripe American civilization which has  known no
better soil for its planting and unfolding than this spot.  It
had been the home of Doctor Prince and Doctor Bentley and
Doctor Bowditch and others who, if less known, had some-
thing of their quality.  Its brave and intelligent mar-
iners and its sagacious commercial factors had been taught
already to  lay under tribute the  rarely visited shores of 
9
foreign lands, civilized and barbarous, as also those of the
most remote and secluded islands, for whatever thing,
native  or created by  man,  could illustrate the natural
history or the civil  history of man;  nor to omit to bring
of the natural products of every soil and clime.  But he
was more than receptive.  He recognized  opportunity,
and he made opportunity.  With a discerning and single
eye he saw what needed to be done to preserve and to
pass on this  rich civilization to posterity, bettered too,
by at least so much as one quiet man with his eyes open,
his wits about him and his heart in it, could do to increase
and deepen its  benefactions.   And observe again that his
object was always to extend these helpful influences among
the people.   If he could bring  Professors Agassiz and
Gray and Norton and others of eminent ability to speak
here from time to time, it was not that it might shed rep-
utation upon himself, but that the  minds of the  people
of the young especially might be aroused,  their tastes
guided and their minds enlarged.   He made it his business
to watch for and encourage  every inquiring mind about
him in its first  curious explorations  for knowledge.  He
had no  scorn for small  and feeble beginnings.  No man
or woman, or curious child,  need think the book of the
universe closed and sealed against investigation even from
one whose life was given to labor and industry.  If a real
thirst for knowledge existed  it could secure even in what
could be saved  from leisure hours some acquisition worth
striving for; and, if he did not himself possess the knowl-
edge you sought, he would tell you  where to go for it.
He was always eager to extend these social and e(hicational 
10
influences.   Salem, if it had  arrived at anything of ben-
efit to itself as to its educational advantages,  must carry
it through Essex county, and then beyond, and all abroad.
Correspondence, exchange  and  fellowship with  all as-
sociations elsewhere seeking similar ends, namely, the in-
crease of human knowledge and the elevation of men and
society, he sedulously cultivated.
  I remember most distinctly how much I was impressed
when I first became a citizen of this place by the aspect
of things here and how soon  I observed this man's influ-
ence in much which interested me most.   Here was a re-
markable centre  and  gathering-place for young men,
students  they called themselves I suppose,  many of whom
have since made for themselves names of distinction, and
who as they have scattered widely have carried with them
the enthusiasms fostered in this congenial climate : pro-
fessors, teachers,  lecturers, explorers, they are still in the
various  fields  of science.  How came they here?  They
were not pupils of Doctor Wheatland.  Something drew
them, chose them,—they came by natural selection.   But
when I inquire how it happened that the conditions were
made so  favorable  for them to pursue their studies here,
to act upon each other and to  stimulate each other  in their
chosen pursuits, I find that  the one chiefly watchful and
diligent  to make ready the conditions and help forward
the result was, as I am sure  no one would deny, Doctor
Wheatland; that his was the  leading influence in creating
this Salem school of young scientists.  He was their chief;
their central figure about whom  they ranged  themselves.
  Perhaps nothing filled me with greater admiration  at 
11
that time than the—to me—novel and original institution
called  a "field meeting" of the Essex  Institute.  I had
never seen or heard of anything like it.   I  do not know
whether he originated it or not.   It has since declined in
popular favor, somewhat, I believe, though  it still has all
its original capabilities if it had the same  leadership.   It
was then in the  full tide of success, and I never missed
an opportunity in those early days of my ministry of at-
tending one unless  it was impossible.   It seemed to me
the most thoughtfully devised and simply managed method
of extending and popularizing knowledge, of quickening
mental life, of teaching the  value of observation and of
opening the book of nature to the  study of the young and
curious of all ages, of which I could conceive. Here came
a  little group of specialists to a country town of the
county, few, perhaps none of them, very learned yet, even
in their own department of  science; but, though rating
themselves as students and collectors only,  possessing so
much  knowledge that they could study the locality and
and discuss its history and its natural history intelligently.
And this  they did.    After a morning spent in exploring
the vicinity, divided into parties according to their tastes
and special studies, and accompanied by any who chose
to join them in the walk and the search,  they assembled at
mid-day, and after partaking  of the refreshments they had
brought with them,  they made their reports to an audience
composed half of members of the Essex Institute and their
friends and half  of  such dwellers in the vicinity, old and
young, as were interested enough to attend.
  The more expert we will  say in geology, mineralogy 
12
and  archaeology now gave their interpretation of the geo-
logical formations of that locality, finding on that little
spot of the earth's crust the signs of how it had  come  to
be, hill and stream, rock and soil, the  processes of pre-
historic times  by which it was being made fit for man's
habitation ; with mineralogical specimens before them they
gave interesting information of the order of rock-making,
the succession of deposits, the agencies of sun, rain, and
weather, and  of internal and external  temperatures, in
shaping this bit of the world to its existing contour and
consistency.
  The botanist followed in turn  with talk of the forests,
the flowers, the plants, the vegetable growths of that same
territory; made known the methods of identifying families
and  species of trees and  plants,  with  leaf and  bud and
plant in hand to illustrate the  lesson, all given in the sim-
ple and familiar conversational style.
  Then came  the zoologist, whether ornithologist,  ento-
mologist, ichthyologist or ophiologist, with their accounts
of the animal  life of the region, with specimens  gathered
from the waters, the woods and fields,  to  give flavor and
color by illustration, and thus deeper impression to their
discourse.
  From fossil implements, graveyard inscriptions, family
and town  records,  the antiquarian  and  local  historian
brought interesting  fragments of  early settlement, family
history, the developments and changes of industries, the
statistics of schools and literary associations, of inventions
and architecture, and whatever  else would diversify, in-
struct and entertain  the meeting. 
13
  Now the most significant thing about all this was, to my
mind, its simplicity and efficacy as an educational agency.
It was a series of object-lessons gathered  from the ever-
open leaves of nature's  text-book, and  her uncollected
collection—if I may call them so—in natural history.  It
was not so much for the knowledge dispensed or gathered
in that hour that it had value, as it was for the quicken-
ing impulse it  gave to every listener, especially  to the
young, as it became a revelation of the wonderful  things
lying close at hand to every man and woman, boy and
girl,  in  his  or her own  however  isolated home.  It
opened  eyes  to see, it set  minds to thinking.  Without
other text-book or teacher than this open book of nature,
it became possible for each one to enter on a course of ob-
servation and experiment for himself by the roadside, in
his door-yard, in  the  brooks, pastures  and  woods of
the homestead ;—everywhere were these most interesting
and curious facts open to the discovery of one who had
eyes and would use them, who had the powers of thought
and would think.   The learned book would follow in time,
the more perfect science would come later.   Here was the
start, the  quickening of  mind,  the  faculty and the thirst
for observation and comparison set  going, the foundation
and beginning of all knowledge.   And this far-seeing man
perceived here the means of impulse and guidance,  in line
with all wise educational methods from Kindergarten to
University.
  Another fact, which early and greatly impressed me as
showing the wide  and wise beneficence  of this  man's
methods, was one which I  had never noticed to anything 
14
like the same extent elsewhere, kindred, to be sure, to
that just spoken of; the fact, namely, that an unusually
large number of persons engaged in regular and  exacting
occupations,  had  felt a marked intellectual stimulus from
this widely prevailing tone of thought.   Not only were
the sea-going men inspired with an interest to collect for
these museums, and educated by that interest, but here
were busy men and women in bank and factory, in shop
and garden, giving regular and  full time  to their respec-
tive professional, mechanical or mercantile pursuits, who
yet had found the fascination of some field of observation,
or research, or special reading  and study so great, that
they had surrendered a  large portion of  their leisure to
these pursuits, and found no other pleasure or  diversion
sufficiently attractive to draw them away from them.
  The measure of Doctor Wheatland's  influence will ap-
pear more and more fully as time goes on  and as we trace
back  to their beginnings some of the best features of the
social life of this city.  His eye was single.   His motives
were  pure and unselfish to a rare degree.   His  life-work
was a  continuous labor of love.  No man for earthly re-
ward would have given himself so heartily and wholly to
his  calling.   He  saw visions,  and dreamed dreams, and
built  castles with a  prolific imagination :  yet he was no
visionary.  He employed his imagination as faithfully and
laboriously in  devising  ways and  means as  in shaping
structures fair  to the eyes and  aspirations of those who
love their  kind.  Night and day his brain was busy with
his  creations, at first only imaginations, of the good to be
striven for.   If his hopes met with delay, disappointment, 
15
defeat, he was not soured,  impatient, despondent.  His
faith that time would bring him his harvest seemed never
to waver.   He was  always  on the lookout for  recruits.
He was interested to know of each new-comer to town
whether he  was one  to help forward his public-spirited
designs in any capacity.   He reconciled those disposed to
work by themselves, to one another and brought them into
cooperation.   He dealt  gently with prejudices.  Though
naturally quick in feeling he had infinite patience with the
slow.  He was no partisan in anybody's contentions and
strifes.   Always a peacemaker, he would lend a hand to
any one, or any company endeavoring to make things bet-
ter for man, and  to make man himself better deserving,
and of more worth to himself.
   And the noblest example of all which he has left  us was
his unselfishness.  Most men need  appreciation, and feel
the slight, if in their generous endeavors to serve their
age, they receive inadequate recognition and credit for what
they  do.   Doctor Wheatland probably  valued the good
opinion of his  contemporaries as  we all do;  and  of late
years, as many of his plans have ripened to a noble har-
vest visible to all eyes, he has had this appreciation in no
stinted measure.   But he had many early discouragements
to struggle against.   Men did not see so far in advance as
he did.  His methods were quiet.   He carried the  strong-
holds of  objectors and  doubters individually, not  in the
mass ; by personal explanations ; by the exhibition of re-
sults already gained ; by  watching every opportunity to
make a new friend or seizing an  unexpected advantage.
The progress was slow,  tedious,  costly in time,  and in 
16
 expenditure of effort.  And when some  single,  unusual
 gift, or unexpected lift of the burden came, what was seen
 by the many was the last sudden and  exceptional gener-
 osity, and to the liberal giver went naturally and properly
 the meed of praise ;  but he to whom fell the long  and
 toilsome previous persuasion and study of means that led
 up to  it was more easily overlooked.  But want of pop-
 ular and immediate appreciation and response never seemed
 to dampen the ardor, or chill the  faith, or give pause to
 the industry of this friend of all good  causes.  Observe :
 of all good causes.  Because he seemed to foster the Essex
 Institute like a beloved  and only  child, you had only to
 know him more closely and intimately to know that he did
 not confine his sympathies or his efforts to this institution.
 Literally, "Whate'er is  friendly to our race"  could  count
 on  him as a friend.   Especially whate'er was friendly to
 that portion of our race which has the  fewest  friends  and
 the most need of them.  He was the President of  the
 Salem Fraternity from the beginning; an institution which
 sought to gather in  and minister  to the  needs  of those
 standing most in need of home influences, of a healthy,
 moral   environment,  refining  companionship,   rational
 amusement, industrial training and reading habits.
  Long an officer in the principal library association of the
 city (before the public library was  established), he was
one of those who gladly entertained and forwarded  the
endeavor to  devote that library  as  far as it would go and
in combination with others to the founding of  a free pub-
lic library in Salem.   All the appliances which he  could
gather, appropriate and adapt to educational uses, he was 
17
ever disposed to place at  the service of the public, or of
any individual pursuing any particular line of investiga-
tion.   He would extend to the schools all available helps
and privileges which could contribute to teachers or pupils
assistance and encouragement in their work.  What  one
of us did he not place under obligation by referring  him
to the sources of information upon some point or theme of
interest to him, modestly furnishing hint and suggestion
to facilitate his  labors, and rendering him all the aid  and
encouragement  in his power?
  I must bring to an end  my hasty enumeration of some
of the principal and best-known services rendered to  this
community by this man of the single  purpose and clear
vision.   Many another will bear more full and  adequate
testimony to the merit of his labors as a friend of science,
a  patron of learning, an attentive  observer and  ready
helper in establishing  important industries, and opening
new sources of prosperity to his native city.  I can hardly
believe  that  any other will accord  to him a more hearty
and venerating  appreciation of the spirit of generous self-
sacrifice in which he devoted his life, his counsel, his sub-
stance and all his abilities  to the welfare of his native  city
and the service of mankind.  Doing good was the business
of his life.   And the influence of his  life is not  ended.
It is just beginning.
          " .  .  .  They serve God well
          Who serve his creatures.

          What's done is what remains! Ah! blessed they
          Who leave completed tasks of love to stay
          And answer mutely for them, being  dead."
 
 
 
WZ 100 W557W 1893




56410060R

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
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NLM052984378