1835.] Alexander Volta. 89 



must the name of Volta be handed down to succeeding 

 generations. 



Some of the biographers of Volta have accused him of 

 enfeebled intellect during the last thirty years of his life, 

 but this charge must be repelled, when we learn that he 

 wrote two ingenious memoirs, the one upon the phenomenon 

 of hail, and the other upon periodical storms, and the cold 

 accompanying them, sixteen or seventeen years after the 

 discovery of the pile. 



The duties to which Volta had been bound almost from 

 his infancy, retained him in his native city till 1777, when 

 he left the picturesque banks of the lake of Como, and 

 passed into Switzerland. At Berne he visited Haller, who, 

 from the immoderate use of opium, was early sent to his 

 grave. 



At Geneva he formed a warm friendship with the historian 

 of the Alps, who was well able to appreciate the value of 

 his discoveries. That was a great age when the traveller, 

 without losing sight of Jura, could visit Saussure, Haller, 

 Jean Jacques, and Voltaire. Volta after an absence of a 

 few weeks, returned into Italy by Aigue Belle, carrying 

 with him, for the benefit of his country, that precious root 

 whose proper cultivation renders famine impossible. He 

 wrote an account of his journey, which was long buried 

 in the archives of Lombardy, and was only published in 

 1827, by M. Antoine Reina of Milan, on his marriage, for 

 in Italy every one in his own sphere, at this happy period, 

 endeavours to confer some benefit on his countrymen. So 

 remarkable are human institutions, that the fate of one of 

 the greatest geniuses of which Italy can boast was at the 

 mercy of the Administrator-General of Lombardy. For- 

 tunately, Count Firmiali who occupied this station, was a 

 friend of letters. The school of Pavia became the object 

 of his attention. He then established a chair of physics, 

 and in 1779, conferred it upon Volta. There Volta taught 

 for many years numbers of young men who congregated 

 from all parts of the country, not indeed, the mere details 

 of science, which can be learned from books, but the 

 ' philosophical history of the different discoveries, and those 

 minute facts which escape vulgar intellects. 



The language of Volta was lucid without preparation, 



