look at the index, which barely points to the authors whom he had consulted and the
subjects which he had investigated. If, with his vast accumulation of facts, he was
exceedingly cautious in his generalizations, and looked sometimes with a sort of
amused distrust on the popular theories of the hour, it should be regarded rather
as a virtue than a failing in these days of hasty inferences from very imperfect data.
He not only visited every quarter of the earth, but went through the whole range
of history wherever it could bear upon his subject, in quest of any thing that might
help him better to understand “ The Races of Man and their Geographical Distribution,
The Geographical Distribution of Animals and Plants, and The Chronological
History of Plants.” The field was vast; the laborer did not shrink from the work
which it imposed, but engaged in it and carried it on all the more earnestly on that
account. The ripest fruits of his labors are here placed before the reader.
Instead of attempting a sketch of the author’s Life, we give below Notices which
appeared soon after his death from persons who had seen him under different circumstances
and in different relations. It is hoped that the reader will excuse in them
a few repetitions. J. H. M.
[The following Notice, written hy Rev. J o h n H. M o r i s o n , was published in the “ Unitarian Review,”
April, 1S78.]
D ie d in Boston, March 17, of pneumonia. Dr. C h a r l e s P ic k e r in g , a very
remarkable man, whose life and uncommon powers of intellectual labor and attainment
have been employed among us for the advancement of science and the improvement
of our race.
He was the grandson of Colonel Timothy Pickering, a member of Washington’s
Cabinet, and one of the most distinguished men of his day. His father, Timothy,
son of Colonel Pickering, died before he was thirty years of age. Charles was born
in 1805, and with his brother Edward was brought up by their mother, Mrs. Lurena
Pickering, a woman of rare excellence, and well fitted to fill the most responsible of
all offices in the early training of two such sons. Very early Charles showed the
strong bent of his mind towards natural history, and would come home from his
boyish excursions loaded with plants, insects, birds, and quadrupeds. Lie was a
member of the class of 1823 at Harvard College, and graduated from the Massachusetts
Medical School in 1826. He practised medicine several years in Philadelphia,
and while there devoted much of his time to the American Academy of
Natural Sciences of that city, being an active member of that as of many other
scientific societies.
In 1838, Dr. Pickering was appointed Naturalist of the United States Exploring
Expedition, under the command of Charles Wilkes, U. S. N., and sailed with the
expedition on board the “ Vincennes.” This must have given him grand opportunities
for extending his favorite studies on a magnificent scale. And these oppor
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tunities for original observation were still further enlarged ; for soon after his return
from this voyage on the n th of October, 1843, he left Boston, and visited Egyi^t,
Arabia, India, and the eastern part of Africa, for observation. After his return, he
published, in 1848, “ The Races of Man, and their Geographical Distribution,” being
vol. ix. of the Exploring Expedition. In 1854, he had ready for the press “ The
Geographical Distribution of Animals and Plants,” being vol. xv. of the United
States Exploring Expedition ; but, in consequence of the slowness of our government
in such matters, only the first portion of this work has been printed.
The great work of Dr. Pickering’s life, “ The Chronological History of Plants,”
to which he had devoted sixteen years of laborious research, was only recently completed,
and is now passing through the press.
One has only to reflect on the titles of these books, to see how vast an extent of
knowledge was required to give to them the completeness at which Dr. Pickering
always and conscientiously aimed. We are not competent to judge of their merits ,
but we have no doubt of the immense stores of accurate and thoroughly digested
information contained in these volumes. He was himself a living encyclopaedia of
knowledge. We do not suppose that there was a more learned naturalist in the world,
if there was indeed one who had made more extended and minute original explorations.
His mind was capacious enough to hold, and tenacious enough to keep, all the
vast stores of knowledge which he had treasured u p ; but no one ever had less a
passion or a gift for display. He was the most modest of men. Only those who
knew him best, and who from similar pursuits could sympathize with him, were able
to see what a mine of knowledge he was.
His books are on too large a scale, and too much crowded with facts, ever to be
popular. They must serve rather as vast storehouses ; and from them teachers and
writers on natural history will draw the treasures which they may hold forth as gems
or jewels to attract and delight the popular mind. He had as little the faculty of
showing himself off, or making a show of what he knew, as any man that we ever
have known..
The great and solid qualities of such a mind, and such a character and life, cannot
be too em-nestly commended in this age of self-seeking, when men are so ingenious
and fertile in expedients to make a grand exhibition of their slender attainments,
like a Roman shop, where all the goods are exposed in the window.
Here was a man of large capacity, of the finest moral sensibilities, and the most
perfect integrity, engaged during a long life in the profoundest studies, asking
neither fame nor money, nor any other reward, but simply the privilege of gaining
knowledge and storing it up in convenient forms for the service of others. He was
fortunate and happy in his nearest relationships, and most exemplary in all his connection
and intercourse with others. But the love of knowledge was the one passion of
his life. He asked no richer satisfaction than to search for it as for hidden treasure.
It is said that we are a superficial people, and that we are always striving for
immediate effect. This is too much the characteristic of our age, though probably