Some Account of the late M, Guinand. 245 



We may apply to this optician {si licet magnis componere parva) 

 a similar remark to that made by the authors of the Bibliothtque 

 Britannigue, in reference to the celebrated astronomer Herschel, 

 that the facts detailed in this memoir seem to confirm the opinion, 

 that each individual is endowed with a natural disposition towards 

 some determinate pursuit ; for it does not appear that the circum- 

 stances in which M. Guinand was placed, would liave induced him 

 to enter upon the career which he pursued with so much success, 

 if he had not been urged towards it by a peculiar impulse. 



Nearly seventy years have elapsed since this interesting man, 

 now on the verge of fourscore, and residing in a remote village 

 among the mountains of Neufchatel, in Switzerland, was employed 

 in assisting his father as a joiner ; and his present manner of 

 reading and writing shew that he scarcely obtained the first rudi- 

 ments of education. At the age of thirteen or fourteen he became 

 a cabinet-maker, and occupied himself chiefly in making clock- 

 cases. 



At this period he had become acquainted with a buckle-maker 

 who lived in his neighbourhood, and of whom he learned the art 

 of casting and working in various metals, which enabled him, 

 about the age of twenty, after once witnessing the process, to 

 attempt the construction of a watch-case ; having succeeded, he 

 adopted the occupation of a watch-case maker, which was then 

 rery lucrative. 



Having constructed clock-cases for M. Jaquet Droz, he had an 

 opportunity of seeing, at the house of that celebrated mechanist 

 a very fine English reflecting telescope, which appeared to him 

 extremely curious and interesting. Those instruments were at 

 that time very rare in Switzerland, especially among the moun- 

 tains. M. Guinand was then in his twentieth or twenty-third 

 year, and it cannot be doubted that this circumstance, in itself 

 unimportant, first turned his mind towards that subject, to which, 

 encouraged by success, he afterwards more particularly devoted 

 himself. 



Be that as it may, M. Guinand having expressed a wish to hs 

 allowed to take to pieces thjs telescope, that he might examine it 



