The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-05-23
[From the Maine Farmer.l
Waller Wells.

[From the Maine Farmerl
Waller Wells.
write this name of our fellow citizen, now
so well known by his recent valuable service
in the photographic Survey of the State, not
merely Tor the purpose of expressing some
complimentary sentiments, but to call atten-
tion to the useful lesson of his life, to show
how he has taught us the importance ofreJfec-
tion as method of discovering principles and
estimating facts.
Much popular praise has been justly award
ed TO Governor Chamberlain for his recon-
incubation OF the photographic Survey. Ger
tainly his official advocacy of the measure was
very influential. and he gave it, at all times, a
most generous support.
But the idea and the plan and object of the
Survey did not originate with the Governor at
all. 1t was purely the suggestion of Mr.. Wells,
the result OF his own Independent thinking
and conception, and first advocated by him,
in terms which indicated beforehand all the
results now presented to the public admiration
in his full report. There is no sensible man
in the State, who has not gained from Mr..
Wells's researches and from his development
Of our physical science, a Tar higher and clear
er view OF our resources and capabilities. He
has given us reason to think better of our
State than we ever did before, and plant our
hopes OF the future of Maine upon tar more
satisfactory grounds than we were before
aware OF. He has shown us not only the mag
nitude and excellence of our manufacturing
power, but-it may so say-the reasons and
principles on which that power rests. Un-
questionably, he has discouered-and that by
reflection and study-the sources of what will
be, at no distant day, our highest general pros
perity, our greatest public wealth. The man.
ulacturing and mechanical industry, which he
has shown can be prosecuted, in many most
important particulars, to better advantage in
Maine than almost anywhere else in the world,
within similar area, will stimulate the pro-
ductiOn of every acre of our tillage land, and
restore and sustain our now la1guishing COM
merce.
This development of our means and true
methods OF growth and welfare as a State, has
been wrought out and presented to our peo-
pe-not by any one of our so-called "great
men"-not by any one of our members of
C0ngress-not by any candidate for senator
ship-not by a "pnblic man" of any kin1-
not by professional man-not even by apy
so-called practical man"-not by manufac-
turer or machnist-but by one, whose whole
manhood life had been simply that of modest,
patient, rejecting student. What Mr.. Wells
has done, has been the result of thinking.
Facts, of course he has had, and he has known
both how to gather facts and how to use them.
But it is often more important to know the
logic of facts than, if possible, to know the
facts themselves. What are the facts? is one
question-What do the facts mean is an
other, and often far more important than the
first. A hundred men may know fact and
look at it every day of their lives, but only one
of them may know where that fact came from,
or whittier it leads. 1t is the thinking man,
and only he, that knows the sense of facts, and
finds out the vitalizing principles or reasons
by which useful facts are connected together,
so as to form systems OF essential truth, and
systems of practical utility.
In temper and disposition Mr.. Wells would
have courted a most genial share in the prac-
tical activities OF educated young men. But
long-continued ill-health had made him an
involuntary recluse. Study was almost his
only resource. From his unobtrusive retire.
ment, quite number of years ago, he put
forth school book on Physical Geography,
which, where it is best known, is very highly
esteemed. Devoted to this theme, he has
continued for years most thoughtfully engag-
ed in those studies which at length disclosed
to him the interesting and valuable features
in the physical geography of our own State,
which are now grouped and embodied SO ac-
curately and ski.lfully in his report of last
winter. The existence and value of the pc
culiarities in the photography of Maine were
first pointed out by Mr.. Wells in several arti-
ticularly in that one, where he showed the
Importance OF more complete collection of
the facts, and recommended the making of a
Survey for the purpose, and the publication of
its results for the information OF manufacture
ers and capitalists in other States. 1t was
this article which was the true origin of the
photographic Survey.
The labor of condensing and analyzng the
descriptive and statistical facts appended to
tho rpnOrf bava boap vo 10
certainly, exceedingly well done-but the best
and most interesting fruits of Mr.. Wels's re-
Election are in the several chapters which form
the report itself, and which give not merely
the facts of our geography, but the reasons
and principles which underlie those facts and
connect them together. Water runs down
hill everywhere, and there are rivers IN Da-
mascus as well as in Samarla-but why the
rivers of Maine bear along such a vast and
fruitful p0tcer-what is the special and useful
meaning OF the peculiar configuratons and
slopes OF our mountain ranges and hills
what southern aspect we present to the ocean,
and what northern front TO the currents from
the polar atmosphere-what are the kinds Of
rock which wall in our streams everywhere,
and how their transverse ridges convert so
manv of our rivers into perpetual succession
| of cataracts, cascades and rIpples-how the
climate of Maine, made up so much out of
| the elements of soil and rock and mountains
and streams and ocean, is more salubrious
than almost any other part OF the world in
habited by bard-working men, and how the
thousands OF lakes scattered all over our sur
face, are not only spectacles of beauty but
reservoirs of power-these are questions to
which the rejecting skill of Mr.. Wells has
given us answers most interesting and most
reliable, and which cannot but awaken the
intellectual activity OF all other thinking men.
From the necessity of the case, only a few
strictly scientific books have been produced
in this State. But among them Mr.. Wels's
report is entitled TO a place in the very front
rank. And this is the result of study and re-
Election, with little or no help from external
activities-thc mInd-woIk Of risht-minded
man. Ii.