Biographical Memoir of M. Dauhenton. 9.\ 



against his accusers ; the last and most solemn marks of their 

 esteem terminated, in the most glorious manner, the most useful 

 career ; perhaps we have to regret that they shortened its course. 

 Having been named a member of the Conservative Senate, 

 Daubenton wished to perform his new duties in the same man- 

 ner as he had done those of his whole life, and was in conse- 

 quence obliged to make some change in his regimen. The sea- 

 son was very severe. The first time that he assisted at the ses- 

 sions of the bodv which had elected him, he was struck with 

 apoplexy, and fell senseless into the arms of his astonished col- 

 leagues. The most prompt assistance could only restore him to 

 feeling for a few moments, during which he shewed himself 

 what he had always been — a tranquil observer of nature ; he 

 felt with his fingers, which still retained sensation, the various 

 parts of his body, and pointed out to the assistants the progress 

 of the disease. He died on the 31st December 1799, aged 

 eighty-four years, without suffering; so that it may be said of 

 him, that he attained happiness, if not the most splendid, at 

 least the most perfect, and the least mixed, that man could hope 

 to attain. 



His funeral was such as was merited by one of our first magis- 

 trates, one of our most illustrious men of science, and one of our 

 most respectable fellow-citizens. The citizens of all ages and ranks 

 considered it an honour to render the testimony of their vene- 

 ration to his ashes. His remains were deposited in the Garden 

 which had been embellished by his care, which his virtues had 

 lionoured during sixty years, and of which his tomb, according 

 to the expression of a man who does equal honour to science 

 and the senate, will form an elysium, by adding to the beauties 

 of nature the charms of feeling. Two of his colleagues have 

 been the eloquent interpreters of the regrets of all who knew 

 him. Pai*don me, if these painful feelings still aff'ect me to such 

 a degree, that I can only be the interpreter of the public grati- 

 tude ; and if they lead me from the ordinary tone of an acade- 

 mic eulogium, pardon him whom he honoured with his friend- 

 ship, and of whom he was the master and the benefactor. 



Madame Daubenton, who is known in the literary world by 

 her amusing works, and with whom he lived for fifty years in 

 the closest bonds of mutual love, brought him no children. 



