Page:A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury.pdf/171

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the years immediately preceding the breaking out of the war between North and South, Maury delivered a number of popular lectures in various cities of the North and West, and his correspondence during that period, both private and official, is full of interest. In making a selection from numerous letters, it is with intent to illustrate his character and the direction his thoughts and opinions took, from more than one point of view. In the present chapter we introduce a letter on the harmony between science and revealed religion, another on the labours of General Smith of the Virginia Military Academy, and two letters of advice to his young married daughters. Then follow some letters and notices relating to his course of lectures. The letters to Bishop Otey are memorials of a warm and lifelong friendship; while Maury's address on the study of physical geography, when he laid the corner-stone of the University of the South in East Tennessee, is a fitting conclusion to the period of peaceful work.