all the energies of his mind in the great caufe of humanity, a mortal malady was undermining his conftitution, and leading him by gradual fteps to the grave. The fatigues of body, the anxieties of mind he had fuffered, together with the great tranfitions of climate, had brought on a pulmonary confumption, of which, after a long ftruggle with the natural vigour of his fraine: he died on the fifteenth of Germinal, 7th year.

Wadftrom felt what the English poet calls

"The ruling paffion ftrong in death;"

the triumphs of the French republic were to him a continual fource of enjoyment, becaufe he believed the liberty, and confequently the happinefs of the world depended on its fuccefs A friend who vifited him

his hours, tendeavoured to cheer his mind with thole confolations which he thought molt congenial to his religious options: Wadrom heard him in filence; his head funk on his breaft, and his eyes were almot clofed; but when Ins friend, changing the theme, related to him the triumphs of the French armies on the opening of the campaign, Wadftrom raifed himself on his bed, his countenance became irradiated, and a gleam of pleasure lighted up his eyes; he defired to the tale of Maffena's

in the world, I would burn my book!"-It is difficult to contemplate the character of Wadftrom without a fimilar fentiment; without feeling that, were there many Wadftroms in the world, we fhould learn to think better of mankind.

Helen Maria Williams, Paris, 20th Germinal, 7th year.

Life of Sauffure, the Naturalift.

HORACE Benedict de Sauffure

was born at Geneva, in the year 1740. His father, an enlight ened agriculturift, to whom we are indebted for fome effays on rural economy, refided at Couches, on the banks of the Arve, about half a league from Geneva.

A country life, joined to an active education, tended no doubt to develope in Sauffure that phyfical ftrength which is fo effential to the naturalift, who wishes to extend his knowledge by travelling. He walked every day to the town in order to go to fchool; and as he lived at the foot of the Saleve, that mountain which he has fince rendered fo famous, climbing the rugged road was nothing but fport to him, Born, as it were, in the midft of the phæ nomena of nature, he had every op portunity for ftudy, and thus avoided all the inconveniences in the fitua

that news of farther victories was expected in three days, he exclaimed, with a feeling of regret, "Alas! that I have not three days to live!" Swift, after having written that celebrated fatire on human nature, entitled Gulliver's Travels," ex'claimed, while meditating on the rare virtues of his friend Arbuthnot, "Oh, were there ten Arbuthnots

theories without leaving their clofets, or thofe cultivators who, though always familiar with nature, are incapable of admiring her beauties.

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Botany was his firft ftudy. A diverfified foilerle in a variety of plans, invites the habitant of the banks the Leman-lake to cultivate that delightful fcience, This brought about an

quaintance between Sauffure and Haller. He vifited that great naturalift in 1764, during his retreat at Bex, and in his travels he expreffes his admiration of that aftonishing man, who excelled in all the branches of natural fcience. Sauffure was farther excited to ftudy the vegetable kingdom in confequence of his connection with C. Bonnet, who married his aunt, and who foon discovered the dawning talents of his nephew. Bonnet was then engaged in examining the leaves of plants; Sauffure allo turned his attention to thefe vegetable organs, and published the refult of his labours under the title of Obfervations fur l'Ecorce des Feuilles-Obfervations on the fkin of leaves.

This little book, which appeared, about the year 1760, contained a number of new obfervations relative to the epidermis of leaves, and the miliary glands with which it is

covered.

At this time, the profefforfhip of philofophy at Geneva became vacant, and Sauffure, who was then only twenty-one, obtained the chair. Experience, in this inftance, proved that if early rewards generally extinguifh the ardour of men who labour only for themfelves, they ferve on the contrary to animate the zeal of those who make truth the object of their purfuit. In Geneva the two profeffors of philofophy taught alternately phyfics and logic, and Sauffure acquitted himleif in this double talk with equal fuccefs. He even gave to the teaching of logic, what may be called a practical or experimental turn. His courfe, which commenced with the of the fenfes, in order to arrive at the general laws of the under

flanding, at once announced an able obferver of nature.

Experimental philofophy was the branch of which he was fondeft; it conducted him to the ftudy of chymiftry and mineralogy. It was then that he recommenced his journies among the mountains, not in queft of herbs, but to examine the fubftances of which the elevated ridges of our globe are compofed. Geology, a fcience which then fcarcely exifted, gave a charm to his frequent wanderings among the Alps. There the talents of this great naturalift were fully developed. During the fifteen or twenty years of his profefforfhip, he was alternately employed in fulfilling the duties which his fituation impofed, and in traverfing the different mountains in the neighbourhood of Geneva. He even extended his excurfions on one fide to the Rhine, and on the other to Piedmont. About this time, too, he travelled to Auvergne, for the purpole of examining fome extinguifhed volcanos; and foon after he undertook a tour to Paris, Holland, and England. Afterwards he went to Italy, and crofled over to Sicily. Thefe journies were not commenced for the purpose of haftening forward to a particular place: his object was conftantly the study of nature. He always carried with him the inftruments neceflary for his oblervations, and never fet out without having formed for himfelf a regular plan of experiments. He often remarks in his works, that this method was highly ufeful to him in the progrels of his ftudies.

66

In 1779, he published the firft volume of his Travels in the Alps." It contains a detailed defcription of the environs of Geneva,

Y 4

and

and an account of an excurfion as far as Chamouni, a village at the foot of Mont-Blanc. All naturalists have read with pleafure the defcription he has given, in this volume, of his Magnetometre. The more he examined the mountains, the more he felt the importance of mineralogy: to enable him to ftudy this branch of fcience with ftill greater advantage, he learnt the German language. The new mineralogical knowledge which he acquired, may be cafily feen by comparing the latter volume of his travels with the first.

In the midst of his numerous excurfions in the Alps, and even during the time of the troubled politics of Geneva, in 1782, he found opportunities to make his fine hygrometrical experiments, the refult of which he published in 1783, under the title of "Eflays on Hygrometry," This work, the best that ever came from his pen, feated his reputation as a naturalift. We are indebted to him for the invention of the hygrometre, -Deluc had already invented his whalebone hygrometre, and a con teft arofe between him and Sauffure, which degenerated into a very obftinate difpute.

-

In 1786, Sauffure gave up his profefforfhip, the duties of which he had difcharged for about 25 years. He refigned in favour of his difciple, Pictet, who, with great honour to himfelf, fulfilled the difficult task of fucceeding this great naturalist.

From Sauflure's fituation as a profeffor, the ftate of public inftruction naturally became an object of his attention. Her propofed a plan of reform in the education' of Geneva,

the chief defign of which was to obtain regulations for teaching the natural sciences and mathematics to the youth of that city at an early age,

He was even defirous that their phyfical education, if I may ufe that expreffion, fhould not be neglected; and therefore propofed the establishment of gymnaftic exer◄ cifes. This plan, as might be ex pected, occafioned much difcuffion

a town where every one feels the importance of education. It found many fupporters and many oppofers,

The mediocrity of pecuniary re fources was, however, a great obftacle to any innovation of importance. It was befides foared, that in changing the forms of inftruction the fubftance might be loft, and that what was known to be good might be facrificed in pursuit of fomething better. The people of Geneva were much attached to their fyftem of education; and for this predilection they cannot be blamed, fince it has not only diffufed knowledge very generally among them, but has produced many diftinguished mathe maticians and naturalifts. +t

But public education did not alone. occupy the attention of Sauffure. He employed imfelf in educating his two fous and his daughter, who foon proved themfelves worthy of fuch an inftructor. His daughter joins to all the accomplishments of: her fex, an extenfive knowledge in natural science; and his eldest fon has already diftinguifhed himself by his chemical and philofophical experiments.

The fecond volume of the tra vels of Sauflure was published in 1786: it contains a defcription of›

the

the Alps which furround Mount Blanc. The author examines them alternately as a mineralogift, a geologift, and a philofopher. In this volume he has given fome interef ting experiments in electricity, and a defcription of his electrometre, which is the most perfect yet known. We are indebted to him for several other metrical inftruments, fuch as his cyanometre, defigned for meafuring the intensity of the blue coJour of the fky, which varies according to the elevation of the obferver; his diaphanometre for meafuring the tranfparency of the air; and his anemometre, with which, by the means of a kind of balance, he weighed the force of the wind.

Some years after the publication of this volume, Sauffure was received as a foreign affociate in the academy of Iciences at Paris; but our author not only honoured his country, he loved to ferve it. He was the founder of the fociety of arts, to which Geneva is indebted for that high degree of profperity her manufactures have reached with In these thirty years. He prefided over this fociety until his death, and one of his laft wishes was for the prefervation of this establishment.

He also teftified his zeal for his country in the council of two hundred, of which he became a member after the diffolution of the national affembly. After having undergone much fatigue in this affembly, his health began to be deranged, and in 1794, a paralytic ftroke deprived him of the ufe of almoft the whole of one fide of his body; diftreffing, however, as his fituation then was, his mind loft nothing of its activity, and fince that accident

he prepared for the prefs the two laft volumes of his travels, which appeared in 1796. They contain an account of his excurfions in the mountains of Piedmont, Switzer land, and, in particular, his afcenfion to the fummit of Mont Blanc. Thefe two laft volumes, far from exhibiting any fymptom of his underftanding having fuffered from his diforder, prefent an enormous mass of new facts and important philofophical obfervations,

He performed a laft fervice to fcience by publifhing the Agenda, which terminates his fourth volume. In that work this great man, furviving himfelf, conducts the young naturalift by the hand through mountains, and teaches him how to ob ferve them with advantage. This Agenda is a proof of the genius of our author, and of the mental vigour which he preferved during the decline of his health. During his ficknefs, he alfo publifhed, " Obfervations on the Fufibility of Stones by the Blow Pipe," and directed fome experiments for alcertaining the height of the bed of the Arve.*

Having gone to Plombiers to ufe the baths of that place for the bene fit of his health, he made obfervations on the mountains which he faw at a diftance, and caufed fpecimens of the ftrata which he pointed out to be brought to him. He had an nounced that he would terminate. his travels by giving his ideas relative to the primitive state of the earth. But the more he meditated upon that fubject, the more difficult he found it to form an opinion on thofe great revolutions which have happened to the globe. In general he was a Neptunian, that is to fay,

he attributed the changes the earth has undergone to the operation of water. He also admitted the poffibility, that elaftic fluids, in difengaging themselves from fubterraneous cavities, might have raised mountains,

His health gradually declined; but he ftill preferved the hope of re-establishing it. The French government had named him profeflor of experimental philofophy in the central school of Paris, and he did not defpair of being able to fulfil the duties of that honourable fituation. His ftrength, however, was daily exhausted, and a general torpor fucceeded to the vigour which he had always enjoyed. His flow and embarrassed pronunciation did not correfpond to the vivacity of his mind, and formed a strange contrast with the graceful animation by which he was formerly diftinguifhed. It was a painful fpectacle to fee a great man thus fallen, at the age when meditation bears its richest fruits, and when he would have enjoyed the glory of his labours.

All the remedies which medicine, enlightened by philofophy, could afford, were reforted to for his recovery, but in vain every endeavour was fruitlefs. Strength and life forfook him by flow and painful fteps. Towards the end of the fixth year, his decay became more fenfible, and on the 3d Pluviose, of the 7th year, in the 59th year of his age, he terminated his brilliant career, mourned by a family who loved him, by a country that honoured him, and by Europe, whofe knowledge he had extended.

Memoirs of the celebrated Aftronomer,

Le Monnier; from the German of F. Von Zach, Editor of the Allgemeine Geograph. Ephemeri den, Director of the Obfervatory at Seeberg, near Gotha,* &c.

PET

ETER Charles Le Monnier, the oldest astronomer in Europe, but who had long ceased to exift for the fcience of aftronomy, died on the 2d of April, 1799, aged eighty-four years, at Lizieux in the ci-devant province of Normandy. He was born at Paris on the 20th of November, 1715. From his earliest years, he devoted himself to aftronomy: when a youth of fixteen, he made his first observation, viz. of the oppofition of Saturn, At the age of twenty, he was nominated a member of the royal academy of sciences at Paris. In the year 1735, he accompanied Maupertuis in the celebrated expedition to Lapland to measure a degree of latitude. In 1748, he went to Scotland to lord Maccleffield, to obferve the annular ecliple of the fun, which was most visible in that country; and he was the firft aftronomer who had the plea fure to meafure the diameter of the moon on the disk of the fun.

Lewis XV. it is well known, was extremely fond of aftronomy, and greatly honoured its profeffors; he loved and efteemed Le Monnier. I have feen the king himself (fays Lalande) come out of his cabinet, and look around for Le Monnier; and when his younger brother was prefented to him, on his appointment to the office of firft physician,