Matthew Fontaine Maury, the Pathfinder of the Seas

by Charles Lee Lewis

Now, as to the kind of man they found him to be, he was in the first place one who was remarkable for his great breadth of mind. The editor of the Southern Literary Messenger was of the opinion that Maury’s astronomical researches had served to “enlarge all his perceptions and give greater breadth to all his views”. That may be true, but he seemed to have had the natural capacity for taking a broad and extensive view of questions, some of which were world-wide in their scope. This is particularly noteworthy in his scientific researches, and his manifold extra-professional interests also amply exemplify the great sweep of his imaginative mind.

There was a certain charm to Maury’s conversation and presence that drew people irresistibly to him. Nathaniel Parker Willis felt this charm. “He made me subject”, wrote Willis, “to his personal magnetism, and while with him I had secretly vowed myself and my pen to the service of his interests and reputation thenceforward.... He was, unconsciously to himself, to me an exquisitely interesting study of character. I had long heard of him, and knew what the public generally knew of his pursuits; but my conviction was strengthened every day that he was greatly undervalued by common repute, and that he was of a far deeper intellect and much more of a natural philosopher than the world with all his repute gave him credit for.... Under his exceeding modesty and reserve, there seemed to be a vein of the heroic and romantic so hidden that he was seemingly unconscious of it, and I was quite sure before I parted with him that he was one of the sans peur et sans reproche class of men; yet willing to pass for only the industrious man of science which the world takes him for. Under the strong magnetism of his sincere and simple manner, I formed an irresistible attachment to him, and longed to set the world right as to his qualities”.[11]

Some considered that the source of this charm lay in his strong and powerful imagination, which lifted him above the man of mere intellect and often lent the charm of eloquence to his conversation and to his lectures. Others were impressed with the simplicity and naturalness of his character, which in its quiet unostentatious manner was very prepossessing. His manners were, indeed, as simple and unpretending as a child’s, and he had as keen a relish for a joke as the jolliest Jack Tar that ever shipped with him.

Maury had a very modest estimate of his own work. He did not claim to have discovered anything. “I only bring together”, he wrote, “the observations that others have made, and then leave it to the observations themselves to discover their own meaning in their own way. Sometimes, indeed, I do become the mouthpiece of these observations and proclaim to the world what they reveal to me. But in this I consider myself merely as an instrument. I am fortunate, indeed, when I succeed in rightly interpreting the meaning of the observations, and am happy always to find concurrence in the opinions expressed or entertained by older and wiser”. His investigations on every subject were directed toward some practical benefit to his fellowmen, and he often quoted with appreciation the saying that he who made two blades of grass grow where only one had grown before was a benefactor to the world.

This practical attitude toward his work and toward life in general led Maury to have very definite ideas about education. These appeared to some extent in his scheme for a Naval School, but they were more fully revealed in his letters. Latin and Greek, he thought, should not be given the place of first importance as compared with mathematics and chemistry, and he declared that West Point was the only tolerable institution in the United States because of the absence there of the humbuggery of the Learned Languages. Female seminaries he considered to be “downright cheats” because of the superficiality of the knowledge imparted there. He was opposed to the neglect of the study of English, so prevalent in the schools and colleges of his day, and thought that Spanish, French, and German were languages well worthy of study. Naturally, he laid great stress on the value of mathematical, geographical, and other scientific studies. “As for the sciences”, he declared, “more is now annually developed in every department thereof than was ever known, dreamed, or thought of, by the ancients”.

Maury himself had been largely self-educated, but his speeches as well as his writings show that he had read widely and discriminatingly. He was well read not only in science and naval history and biography, but also in the classics, and often quoted passages from Shakespeare, Byron, Dante, and the Bible; in the course of a single speech he referred intelligently to Plato, Plutarch, Seneca, Goethe, Bacon, Newton, and other authors. He is said to have been fond of reading aloud to his family from Scott’s novels and poems, Shakespeare’s plays, and the works of many other British poets, particularly Wordsworth and Mrs. Hemans.

The Civil War interfered materially with the education of Maury’s sons. His eldest son Richard spent some time at the University of Virginia, while John Herndon was placed in the Virginia Military Institute. This interference was a source of great disappointment to their father who had shown the keenest interest in their education, or, as he expressed it, “putting on their armor for the battle of life”. This same cordial interest in young men is manifest in his addresses before college students, and appears frequently in his correspondence. One letter in particular is of great interest, in this connection, because of the light it throws on Maury’s character as well as for its revelation of his ideas on education. The last portion of the letter, which was written to young Hamilton Lieber at the time he was on the point of entering the United States Naval Academy as a midshipman, is as follows: “Your future position in life and your standing in the navy depend upon the degree of energy with which you shall acquit yourself of the duties required of you as a Midshipman. If you be idle and inattentive now, you cannot hereafter recover the ground that you will lose. Letting the opportunities now afforded you pass unimproved, you cannot expect hereafter to contend, except at great odds, with your comrades for the honors of the profession.

“Make it a rule to make everything while you are young bend to your profession. The books that you read for amusement, let them be professional books instead of novels—which I hope you will never read—read the lives of eminent naval men. I commend to your particular attention Mackenzie’s ‘Life of Decatur’ and the ‘Life of Admiral Collingwood’. Take these two characters as your examples, and always have them in your eye; make them in all things, except the duel and the course toward Barron, your models.

“I say never read novels, but eschew them while you are young as I hope you will strong drink—because they are as destructive to the wholesome habits of the mind as mint-juleps are to those of the body—they both enervate and unfit one for hard study or hard labor—and as a beverage both are very pleasant. But hate them both, I pray you, my young friend, for they are poisons.

“Make it a rule to ask yourself at night what you have learned during the day, and do not be content until you get a reply, and always learn something if it be only the meaning of a word from the dictionary.