90 Biographical Account of [Feb. 



sometimes animated, but always impressed with modesty 

 and politeness. These qualities, when allied with merit of 

 the first order, always make a deep impression upon youth ; 

 but in Italy, where the imagination is easily raised, they 

 produced complete enthusiasm. Volta, like his country- 

 men, was a domestic person, and it is thought he never 

 visited Naples or Rome. Certain it is that he never stirred 

 from home except with scientific views. If in 1780 we find 

 him crossing the Appenines from Bologna to Florence, it 

 was for the purpose of investigating at Pietra Mala the 

 nature of the inflammable gas. If in 1782, accompanied by 

 the celebrated Scarpa, he visited the capitals of Germany, 

 Holland, England, and France, it was to form an acquaint- 

 ance with Lichtenberg, Van Marum, Priestly, Laplace, 

 and Lavoisier, and to enrich the Cabinet of Pavia with 

 philosophical instruments. 



At the invitation of Bonaparte, Volta repaired to Paris 

 in 1801, where he repeated his experiments upon electricity, 

 before a numerous commission of the Institute. At the 

 suggestion of the First Consul, they voted him a gold 

 medal by acclamation ; and, as Bonaparte did nothing by 

 halves, on the same day Volta received from the funds of 

 the State, 2000 crowns to defray the expenses of his journey. 

 Bonaparte displayed his enthusiasm in the cause of this 

 branch of the science, by establishing a prize of £2500 in 

 favour of the individual who should make a discovery which 

 could be compared with those made by Franklin and Volta, 

 and further, conferred upon him the cross of the legion„of 

 honour and of the iron crown, named him Member of the 

 Italian Council, and elevated him to the dignity of Count 

 and Senator of the kingdom of Lombardy. Volta made no 

 figure as a politician, falling short in this respect of Newton, 

 who, during his parliamentary career, is said to have spoken 

 only once in the House of Commons, and the solitary oration 

 was to direct the doorkeeper to shut one of the windows 

 through which a draft of air was directed upon the member 

 who was addressing the house. Volta, however, never 

 uttered a word. 



He married in 1794 Theresa Peregrini, by whom he had 

 three sons. Two of them have survived him; the other 

 died at eighteen, when the brightest hopes were entertained 



