LITMIR.BIZ

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      In considering the importance of the 1889 paper, Lenzen emphasized the significance of Peirce’s “second atmospheric effect,” the effect of the viscosity of air on the motion of a pendulum. Peirce had introduced this correction in his report for 1876 (W4:104–106) but only as an a posteriori correction. In the 1889 paper he applied and compared both a priori and a posteriori corrections, for he had designed the Peirce pendulums to facilitate just such a comparison for the viscosity correction. The theory Peirce applied was that of G. G. Stokes, but the formula Peirce used for his calculations took account of more factors than did Stokes’s formula. Lenzen concluded that it was unfortunate that Peirce’s “highly original discussion of the second atmospheric effect” had not been published, for it would certainly have been of interest to “Professor Stokes, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, and in charge of the British Gravity Survey.” Lenzen closed his study with the following assessment: “In the light of a review that I have made of the development of pendulums for the determination of gravity, it is my firm judgment that the experimental and theoretical work represented in Peirce’s Report on Gravity at the Smithsonian, Ann Arbor; Madison, and Cornell was the best work of its kind in the nineteenth century.”⁵¹ However, as was pointed out above, Peirce’s report was far from finished, and had it been published without improvements, his innovations might well have gone unheeded.

      Life for the Peirce’s in their new house, during its renovation in the summer of 1889 could not have been idyllic. Overseeing construction and running the estate would have been pressure enough, but Peirce was expected to give full days of attention to his work for the Coast Survey, and somehow find time to write his definitions. Besides, many other lines of thought were constantly working themselves out under his pen. In August, Peirce published in the Nation a review of St. George Stock’s Deductive Logic (sel. 35). It was Peirce’s first review for the Nation since reviewing Abbot’s Scientific Theism (W5: sel. 46) in 1886. Peirce’s review of Stock was the kind of review an author dreads; the best Peirce could say was that “it would be impossible for a man who has been studying and teaching logic at Oxford for seventeen years to write a thoroughly bad book on the subject,” but he added immediately that any teacher who decided to use Stock instead of Bain “would be doing his pupils an injury.” Peirce was not one to mince words. He declared that “the best expositions of the subject” force students step by step to see the close connection between “formal rules and the trains of thought which actually go on in their own mind” and that every logic text should have at least a brief treatment of symbolic logic. Stocks book failed on both counts. Peirce announced that “there is no subject in which there is more urgent need of a new book,” probably knowing he would soon resume his own effort to fill that need (see W5, sels. 54–56). By the end of 1890, he was working to transform his correspondence course lessons into a text book entitled “Light of Logic.” The fragment that the present editors have entitled “Reasoning” (sel. 37) probably dates from early 1890 and may have been written with such a book in mind.

      By the end of September the first phase of construction at Quicktown was complete. Peirce wrote to Jem with some satisfaction that “our house” is “very comfortable, very pretty” and “not in the least in the Queen Anne nor any other style. It is our own original style” (30 September 1889). He continued with a description of his estate and plans for its development and added: “I am confident that we shall eventually make money from this place.” But this was to remain the elusive silver lining. Peirce’s enthusiasm for Quicktown, his dream of a comfortable, even elegant, country life with Juliette, had already begun to fade. In part this was due to the combined demands of managing the renovations, running the farm, and his professional work, but that was not all. He continued his letter to Jem: “But now I must turn to quite another side of the canvass.” The other side was “dear Juliettes health.” Peirce told Jem that her diseased lungs were even worse than they had been the previous year when she had been warned not to spend her winters in the North. Clearly, she would have to winter elsewhere again this year. To make matters worse, Juliette had become very depressed, a condition Peirce might have been prone to as well.⁵² On 11 July in an outburst of anger and frustration, Peirce struck a domestic helper, Marie Blanc, and a few days later was charged with assault. Joseph Brent speculates that Peirce may have lost his temper while attempting to upbraid Miss Blanc for not following Juliette’s orders.⁵³ Such domestic tension could only have added weight to the pall that was descending over Quicktown. The case was not resolved until October when Peirce pled guilty to one count of assault and was fined twenty-five dollars plus court costs. Everything taken into account, life for the Peirce’s in the summer and fall of 1889 had taken a decided turn for the worse and tensions were mounting. But Charles and Juliette were resilient and still usually hopeful. In November they added significantly to their land holdings by purchasing an additional 1200 acres of woodland. Apparently Peirce was growing used to his new life. He continued his 30 September letter to Jem: “This living in the country is highly conducive to reading long works in many volumes. I have not a rage for reading; indeed I think an impulse to study and an impulse to read are rather antagonistic; but I get through a good many books here. I find nothing wears better than Sainte Beuve.”

      Had Peirce and Juliette been content with modest country living, with an excellent library to fill their idle hours and with only infrequent trips back to New York for a fashionable dinner or an evening at the theater, they might have managed to avoid the terrible poverty that lay ahead. But they seemed determined to amass a great estate—adding yet another five hundred acres the following year—and modest living seemed to be out of the question. When it became necessary to deal with Juliettes winter convalescence, much of Peirce’s inheritance had been used up—the greater part that he had already received. Yet cost does not appear to have been a factor. Peirce explained to Jem that because of Juliette’s depression, he thought it “absolutely indispensable that she should be where she finds amusement” (30 September 89), and he thought that Sicily might be the place for her. As it happened, Jem had been in Europe for nearly three months and would be there for several more. Relations with Jem had improved since Aunt Lizzie’s death, and Peirce was relieved to have him there to watch out for Juliette.

      On 21 November 1889, one day after Peirce had finally submitted his long overdue gravity report, a notice appeared in the Milford Dispatch announcing that Juliette would soon make a journey abroad for the winter in quest of health. Six days later Peirce watched Juliette and their dog, Bliss, board the SS Entella in the New York harbor, bound for Naples. Two days later Peirce wrote to Juliette: “What a terrible afternoon & night it was after you sailed! How did you get through? I was terribly anxious.” He told her he had seen the Pinchots, who lived in New York City except for the summers, and they had invited him to dinner, but he had declined because he did not have dress clothes with him. He had taken his Thanksgiving dinner at the Century Club with John La Farge and Clarence King. “I expect to get away this afternoon, but may not. They haven’t been very polite to me at the Lenox, & are evidently trying to get rid of me. I could not stay there with the least self-respect. I don’t pay enough…. Dear little girl! I do nothing but think of you, & can’t help talking too much about you. Good bye! Write from Gibraltar.”

      Indeed, Peirce could not stop thinking about Juliette or his money woes. He wrote to his friend Annibale Ferrero, an Italian mathematician and geodesist who lived in Florence, to ask if there was not some position for him in Europe. He indicated that he would be prepared to leave the U.S. at once—perhaps hoping secretly to find a way to join Juliette while she convalesced. He had inquired of G. S. Hall a few weeks earlier about the possibility of a position at Clark University, so apparently he had begun shedding his illusions about Quicktown. Ferrero wrote back on 25 November urging Peirce to be patient. He was sure there could be something for Peirce with the International Geodetic Association, something appropriate to a scientist of his international reputation, but that sort of arrangement could not be hurried. With Juliette away, Peirce decided to spend as much time as he could in New York to see if he could find a way to turn his writing into cash. By now he must have understood that the correspondence course would never bring him much income and that if the farm were ever to make a profit, it would not be soon. He may have been feeling a little more secure about his Coast Survey salaiy, having just turned in the long report, but he had promised, quite unrealistically,

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