Page:Matthew Fontaine Maury 1806-1873.pdf/7



HERE is no hour within the life of Maury which stands out with more symbolic grandeur, none more pregnant in brief recital of his deeds and character, none of more permanent significance than the one here chosen as the Prologue of this chronicle. We are indebted, for the preservation of these details, to the Diary of Maury's daughter, Mrs. James R. Werth, who, as guest of the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, was present when the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon her father.

It was in the early summer of 1868 that this degree was there conferred upon four notable men: Thomas Wright, English Antiquarian and Translator of Egyptian Hieroglyphics for the British Museum; Max Müller, German Orientalist and Oxford Professor of Sanskrit Literature; Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate of England's Victorian era, and Matthew Fontaine Maury, American Author, Scientist, and Exile.

In scholastic cap, and gown of crimson cloth, these diversely gifted men might have sat as modern models for an immortal canvas! Civilization, Genius, and Religion, in noble majesty, seemed there enthroned in that centuries-old University in Cambridge, the City of Refuge, in England, the Asylum of the Exile! Four wise men from out of the West here brought their gifts and were here to receive from this great University the seal of her approval. The ceremony was at once brilliant and impressive. In accordance with immemorial custom, it was conducted throughout in Latin, but the comprehensive oration of the Dean, in introducing Maury, is here given in translation:

"I present to you Matthew Fontaine Maury, who, while serving in the American Navy, did not permit the keen edge of