Percival was indifferent and even disinclined to female society.  There is a common story that he had conceived an aversion to the whole sex in consequence of a youthful disappointment in love.  I know nothing concerning this alleged chagrin, but I am confident that he cherished no such antipathy.  He never, in my hearing, said a hard thing of any woman, or of the sex; and I remember distinctly the flattering and even poetic appreciation with which he spoke of individual ladies.  Of one who has since become a distinguished authoress of the South, he said, that “her conversation had as great an intellectual charm for him as that of any scholar among his male acquaintances.”  Of a lady still resident in New Haven, he observed, that “there was a mysterious beauty in her thoughtful face and dark eyes which reminded him of a deep and limpid forest-fountain.”  But although he did not hate women, he certainly was disinclined to their society,—­an oddity, I beg leave to say, in any man, and a most surprising eccentricity in a poet.  Constitutional timidity may have founded this habit during youth; for, as I have already observed, his modesty was sensitive and almost morbid.  Then came his multitudinous studies, which absorbed him utterly, and in which, unfortunately for Percival, if not for the ladies, these last took so little interest that conversation was not mutually desirable.  A remark he made to a scientific friend, who had just been married, will, perhaps, throw some light on the subject.  “How is this?” said he; “I thought you were wedded to science.”  This was all the felicitation he had to offer; and without asking for the bride, he plunged into the discussion which was the object of the visit.

In 1835 commenced the geological survey of Connecticut, and I became Percival’s companion in labor.  To him was intrusted the geology proper, and to myself the mineralogy and its economical applications.  During the first season, we prosecuted our investigations together, travelling in a one-horse wagon, which carried all our necessary implements, and visiting, before the campaign ended, every parish in the State.  Great was the wonder our strange outfit and occupation excited in some rustic neighborhoods; and very often were we called upon to enlighten the popular mind with regard to our object and its uses.  This was never a pleasant task to Percival.  He did not relish long confabulations with a sovereign people somewhat ignorant of geology; and, moreover, his style of describing our business was so peculiar, that it rarely failed to transfer the curiosity to himself, and lead to tiresome delays.  In New Milford, an inquisitive farmer requested us, in a somewhat ungracious manner, to give an account of ourselves.  Percival replied, that we were acting under a commission from the Governor to ascertain the useful minerals of the State; whereupon our utilitarian friend immediately demanded to be informed how the citizens at large, including himself, were to be benefited by the undertaking,—­putting