7636. RITTENHOUSE (David), Mechanician.—
Rittenhouse, as an astronomer,
would stand on a line with any of his time;
and as a mechanician, he certainly has not
been equaled. In this view he was truly great;
but, placed alongside of Newton, every human
character must appear diminutive, and none
would have shrunk more feelingly from the
painful parallel than the modest and amiable
Rittenhouse, whose genius and merit are not
the less for this exaggerated comparison of his
over zealous biographer.—
To John Adams. Washington ed. vi, 307.
(M.
1814)
