Martins on the Life and Labours of DeCandolle, 9 



do not stop to point out these differences. It would be necessary 

 to enter deeply into their respective modes of thinking, to do jus- 

 tice to either of these eminent inquirers into nature. 



DeCandolle^s views approach more nearly, on the whole, to 

 those of Goethe ; but it is not to be thence inferred that he was 

 essentially aided by our great poet in the development of his 

 ideas. Even in Gennany, it was long before we understood 

 Goethe^s object in his doctrine of metamorphosis. But when De- 

 Candolle was informed of the powerful impression which these 

 views had made on our minds in Germany, he caused Goethe's 

 book to be translated and studied it diligently. In his later and 

 larger work (' Organographie Vegetale,' 1832, translated into Ger- 

 man and enriched with valuable notes by Meisner and Keeper,) 

 may be found echos of Goethe's theory, and evidences of a further 

 progress in that direction. It is not possible, however, definitely 

 to assign to each individual his own property in truths which 

 spread with rapidity and force among thinking men. They do 

 not originate from one head, they belong to the time, which ex- 

 cites them in many minds and enunciates them in various forms. 

 In this view, nothing seems in more wretched taste than conten- 

 tion about the priority of a theoretical idea. The students of na- 

 ture freely acknowledge that they derive their ideas from the ob- 

 jects of their examination, not from themselves ; they announce 

 them with so much the more confidence in proportion as they 

 recognise in them only the words of nature, which they have be- 

 come worthy to hear. 



The fall of Napoleon restored to our friend his political inde- 

 pendence. He had returned to Geneva in the year 1814, to visit 

 his friends. The contemplation of the prosperity which the re- 

 public enjoyed on its separation from France, the associations of 

 childhood, the patriotic pulsations of his heart, all drew him back 

 again to his home. The political commotions in the south of France, 

 at that period, were not adapted to render his residence there 

 agreeable. Called during the Hundred days to be Rector of the 

 University of Montpelier, he had to struggle with a host of dif- 

 ficulties, especially as the return of the Bourbons produced a 

 dangerous reaction against those who had served under the Em- 

 peror, and especially against Protestant families. Although no 

 partisan, yet DeCandolle was obnoxious in both points of view. 

 His own country presented (under less brilUant auspices to be 

 sure than in Montpelier) the attractions of the father-land, the 

 satisfaction of labouring for his countrymen, repose from political 

 convulsions, and with all these sources of enjoyment, a society 

 such as Geneva alone, situated as it is on the highway of the 

 world, can collect together. 



The State Council of Geneva created for him a professorship of 



