science has recently written of Prof. Lovering's articles that they impressed him as few others had ever done. "It will surprise him to know it; yet it is true that the ideas then presented, and with an elegance worthy of their breadth and power, affected the whole tenor and tendency of my thoughts, and thus of my subsequent life. At this moment I could repeat by memory long passages from these articles. They were upon 'The Internal Equilibrium of Bodies,' 'The Application of Mathematical Analysis to Physical Research,' 'The Divisibility of Matter,' etc." And he compares the style of parts of them with that of the most classic passages in Babbage's "Ninth Bridgewater Treatise."
Mr. R. W. Emerson published the following notice for the "Dial":[1] "We rejoice in the appearance of the first number of this quarterly journal edited by Prof. Peirce. Into its mathematics we have not ventured; but the chapters on astronomy and physics we read with great advantage and refreshment. Especially we thank Prof. Lovering for the beautiful essay on the 'Internal Equilibrium and Motion of Bodies,' which is the most agreeable contribution to scientific literature which has fallen under our eye since Sir Charles Bell's book on the hand, and brings to mind the clear, transparent writings of Davy and Playfair. Surely this was not written to be read in a corner, and we anticipate the best success for this new journal."
Prof. Lovering is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston; was its corresponding secretary for many years; was afterward its vice-president, and its president since 1880. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, of the American Historical Society of Philadelphia, of the California Academy of Sciences, and of the Buffalo Historical Society. In connection with the work of the United States Coast Survey from 1867 to 1876, he had charge of the computations for determining differences of longitude in the United States and across the Atlantic Ocean, by means of the land and cable lines of telegraph. He was for some years one of the trustees of the Tyndall fund for the endowment of scientific research, and is now one of the trustees of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Besides the papers already mentioned. Prof. Lovering contributed other articles to the "Memoirs" and "Proceedings" of the American Academy, and scientific articles and reviews to the "Proceedings of the American Association," the "American Journal of Science," the "Journal of the Franklin Institute," the "American Almanac," the "North American Review," the "Christian Examiner," "Old and New," and "The Popular Science Monthly." The following is a list of these contributions:
- ↑ Vol. iii, p. 131.
