M. Be Savigny. 279 



3. M. De Savignt/. 



The Paris Academy of Sciences has lately lost one of its 

 members, M. De Savigny. We extract the following from a 

 discourse pronounced at his funeral on the 14th of October, 

 by M. Isidore GeofFroy Saint Hilaire : — 



The illustrious member, to whom we have just rendered 

 the last solemn duties, has long been missed from our meet- 

 ings. Of those who surround his mortal remains, very few 

 have had the happiness of personally knowing him ; and I am 

 almost the only one to whom, during more than a quarter of 

 a century, the melancholy privilege has been granted of wit' 

 nessing the aggravated sufferings of his long-protracted dis- 

 order. 



Marie-Jules-Cesar Lelorgue de Savigny, was born on the 

 17th of April 1777 at Provins. He who was to be the sub- 

 ject of so many trials, was born under the most favourable 

 auspices. His father was the son and the grandson of honour- 

 able magistrates ; his mother, who belonged to a rich and 

 noble family of la Fi'anche Comte, had illustrious and pow- 

 erful connections ; and Savigny, whom nature as well as for- 

 tune had favoured, seemed to have in all respects the pro- 

 spect of a happy and brilliant future. It was intended that 

 he should enter into the Church ; and from his childhood the 

 convent of Genovefains became to him as a second home. He 

 there spent a large proportion of his time, receiving from the 

 most learned man then in Provins, Father Damoutier, in- 

 struction in History, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, all of which 

 were greedily received by the precocious intelligence of the 

 youth. The Father Damoutier thought he saw in his pupil 

 a future member of the French episcopate. These hopes and 

 projects were vain ! The revolution broke out, and very soon 

 Savigny at once lost all that he possessed. The career he 

 had proposed to himself was definitely closed ; and his mother, 

 who had now become a widow, could with difficulty save a 

 paltry wreck of the family fortune. The old student of the 

 Genovefains now became the pupil of an apothecary in Pro- 

 vins. Under the guidance of his new master, Savigny made 



