There have been very few men, even among those
possessed of extraordinary talents, who have been so entirely
unskilled in the arts that attract popular attention, and
have nevertheless attained to such eminence during
their own lives, as did David Rittenhouse. The people
of provincial Pennsylvania fully believed they had found
among themselves in the farmer's lad of the Wissahickon
one upon whom the divine light of genius had fallen, and
they came to him with offerings of homage, as well as of
pounds, shillings and pence, perhaps all the more willingly
because he shrank from the honor with an appearance of
shyness, if not of timidity. His career more nearly
resembled that of Franklin than that of any other of his
contemporaries. Both began life in an obscure way and
under adverse circumstances; the fame of both as philosophers
and men of science extended over the world; both
were drawn into the politics of their day, and living in
the same city, and being of the same way of thought, bore
- ↑ The principal authorities consulted and used in the preparation of this paper were Barton's Life, Renwick's Life, Rush's Memoir, Colonial Records and Archives, Votes of Assembly, Sargent's Loyalist Poetry, Pennsylvania Gazette, Pennsylvania Packet, The Chronicle, Jacobs MSS., Jefferson's Works, Adams' Works, Miller's Retrospect, Life and Times of Dr. William Smith, Rittenhouse's Oration, Du Simitiere Papers, Accounts of Pennsylvania, Graydon's Memoirs, Life of Judge Henry, Journals of Congress, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Columbian Magazine, MS. Minutes of the Democratic Society, and the Portfolio.
