Concord Township.

matics, and philosophy. There existed nowhere better or higher schools of languages and philosophy than the Roman Propaganda and Sapienza. In them the Latin, instead of being all object, of study, was the text of the class-books, the medium of communication, the spoken and written language of the schools. In it Greek, Hebrew, the sciences, and philosophy were learned and expounded by the professors. The rare advantages within his grasp the young American student employed to the best advantage, and brought home a full share of the honors competed for, becoming an accomplished linguist, speaking several languages, and attaining in the end to the Doctorship in Philosophy. This degree is lightly given in the United States, frequently without any course of philosophy at all, but in the universities of Continental Europe it is conferred on but few, on account of the very severe course and examination required in logic, metaphysics, and ethics, as well as in physics and mathematics. At this time Mr. Willcox enjoyed the privilege of the acquaintance and conversation of men whose names are now historical in the literary world, the recollection of which he now cherishes as among the most pleasant of his life. Not the least among these friends was the greatest of all linguists, ancient or modern, Cardinal Mezzofanti, who was master of forty languages, and with whom he made a study of ancient Anglo-Saxon. In 1847 he received from Pope Pius IX. his degree in philosophy, the diploma issuing, not from the faculty, but, as a special favor, directly from the Pontiff, as thus set forth in its text: "Pius Papa Nonus, volens eum speciali gratia cumulare, eum Doctorem in Philosophia creavit, cum omnibus honoribus et oneribus quæ Philosophiæ Doctoribus propria sunt." This diploma, it is unnecessary to say, is much valued and preserved with great care. After spending some months in visiting many parts of Europe Mr. Willcox returned home in the fall of 1847, with health somewhat impaired, and some years afterwards entered into business with his father and brother at Glen Mills. Transferring the same industry and ambition into practical business that he had carried into his scholastic career, he gradually introduced features into it so radical as to entirely change its character.

The advantages of superior education are not lost in any career in life, for the discipline and enlargement of the mind attained can be advantageously applied almost anywhere. One of Mr. Willcox's first aims was to raise the paper manufacture to a higher level, out of the routine into which it seemed to have settled; and to this end he conducted a series of experimental researches, producing, in the course of a few years, as he relates, a greater variety of papers than had ever before been made by any one person. Taking as his department of the business the practical manufacture, he turned special attention towards the plan of making bank-note paper by machinery, and with complete success. Then, impressed with the importance of checking, and perhaps preventing, the counterfeiting of money, so commonly and easily done at that time, he conceived the task of accomplishing with paper what the bank-note companies, with their arts of fine and geometrical engraving, could not accomplish; the result being the invention of the "localized-fibre" paper, so long and so efficiently used by the United States government for its notes and bonds. For many years, as was said before, this distinctive paper was manufactured at Glen Mills, under the government's supervision and protection. Its success at home brought it to the favorable consideration of the governments of Europe, and in 1878, under agreement with the Imperial Government of Germany, Mr. Willcox sent out an agent to Berlin, near which city was put in successful operation a bank-note paper-mill with the special machinery required, as at Glen Mills, for the manufacture of the German currency paper. So pleased were the authorities with the product of the new mill that he received from them a testimonial stating that the contract had been more than carried out, to their great satisfaction; and the localized-fibre paper became the currency paper of the Empire. An exhibit of this protective paper was subsequently made at the great Paris Exhibition, and there received the highest possible award of "Diplôme d'Honneur."

The chemical paper long used by the United States Treasury Department for the stamps and checks of the department, and called "Chameleon" paper on account of its sensitive changes when tampered with, was also Mr. Willcox's invention, and put an end to the counterfeiting and re-using of Internal Revenue stamps, by which the government had long been extensively robbed of its revenue. Thus in many parts of his business he found fields for the employment of knowledge acquired outside of its ordinary sphere, and so succeeded in vastly enlarging its proportions and lifting it to the highest plane of usefulness. During this long period of active life and heavy cares his earlier tastes for literature were not neglected, and the hours unoccupied by business were generally devoted to scientific study. He has been an occasional contributor to The American Catholic Quarterly Review, always upon subjects of metaphysical philosophy; and a few years ago he published the conclusions from a long course of abstract reading and reflection in an octavo volume of ¹ logico-metaphysics, taking strong ground throughout, from the stand-point of rational analysis, against the growing materialistic atheism of the times, impelled thereto, as set forth in the dedication, by the desire to contribute his part in a good work. He has in progress, he states, two other works of somewhat kindred character, upon which be labors alternately, which will require several years to complete.