162 A. DeCandolle on the Life and Writings of Vaucher. 



an upright and enlightened man. He loved to look upon 

 natural history as a branch of his own theology, and to find 

 therein a variety of proofs in support of his inmost convic- 

 tions, which were doubly powerful because uncontested and 

 devoid of sectarian rivalry and rancour. His happiness con- 

 sisted in observing in detail the wonders of nature, and in 

 attributing, with more or less probability, a fixed design to 

 every phenomenon of vegetable life. The theory of final 

 causes was his guide, and the constant object of his reflections ; 

 and his last work, the c Physiological History of the Plants of 

 Europe*/ is the development of this mode of considering bo- 

 tanical science. 



M. Vaucher was employed during several years in pre- 

 paring this work. He published a small part of it in 1830f; 

 but perceiving it to be formed upon too extended a plan, he 

 remodelled and rearranged it with an almost youthful ardour. 

 After long years of intellectual labour and enjoyment, the 

 work was at last printed in four large volumes. On his death- 

 bed he received them, blessed Heaven for the favour of this 

 last satisfaction, and employed his feeble and declining strength 

 in sending some copies to his friends and to that sovereign, 

 his former pupil, from whom he had received flattering marks 

 of kindness J. 



* Histoire Physiologique des Plantes d'Europe, ou Exposition des Ph6- 

 nomenes qu'elles presentent dans les diverses periodes de leur developpe- 

 ment : Paris, 1841, 4 vols. 8vo. — See 'Annals,' vol. ix. p. 50. 



f See Bibl. Univ, 1830 (Sciences et Arts), vol. xlv. p. 379; and 1837, 

 vol. ii. p. 134. 



X The Prince of Carignano, now King of Sardinia, was brought up in M. 

 Vaucher's institution, at a time when Piedmont was a part of the French 

 empire, and when there was little probability that the house of Savoy, 

 especially the princes of the younger branch, could ever ascend the throne. 

 Then commenced a connexion ever devoted and disinterested on the part 

 of the venerable tutor, ever affectionate on that of the king. I cannot re- 

 sist the pleasure of quoting the dedication of M. Vaucher's work to Charles 

 Albert ; it enables us to comprehend the views by which the author was 

 guided ; it is moreover in a style altogether new. 



" Sire, — I now present to you, as a feeble mark of my profound respect 

 and of my lively attachment, this work, the labour of a great portion of my 

 life, and which f you allowed me in past years to hope I might be permitted 

 to inscribe to you. 



" It is wholly consecrated to the glory of the Creator, whose works have 

 always appeared to me the more admirable the nearer they are considered, 

 and it is designed to produce in those who read it a part of those impres- 

 sions which they have so often made me experience. It is the study and 

 the meditation of these wonders, of which 1 as yet only know the outlines, 

 which have embellished my last years, and which have inspired in me a de- 

 sire, continually more ardent, of one day contemplating them at their source 

 in the bosom of Sovereign Wisdom. 



" Deign, Sire, to receive with that touching goodness, of which you have 



