Eloge of Alexander Volta. 9^ 



Switzerland, but it was laid up in the archives of Lombardy. 

 Its recent publication was owing to a practice which, to all ap- 

 pearance, will not be soon adopted in certain countries, where, 

 without being stoned, a writer can call marriage the most serious 

 of buffooneries. 



In Italy, where this ceremony is looked upon with more se- 

 riousnetis, every one, according to his station in life, is anxious 

 to signalize it by conferring some favour on his fellow-citizens. 

 It was on the occasion of the marriage of M. Antoine Reina, of 

 Milan, in 1827, that this little work of Volta's was brought out 

 from among the official records — those catacombs in which, ia 

 «very country, so many treasures are for ever buried. 



Such is the singular nature of human institutions, that the 

 destiny of one of the greatest geniuses of which Italy could boast, 

 was at the mercy of the Administrator-general of Lombardy. 

 In choosing this functionary it was necessary, I suppose, that 

 he should possess certain notions of finance, and that degree of 

 rank which etiquette imperiously required : and such was the 

 man who had iiTevocably to decide, whether Volta deserved to 

 be transported to a wider theatre, or should continue confined 

 to the little school of Como, deprived all his life of expensive 

 apparatus, which, if it does not supply the want of genius, at 

 least renders it more efficient. In the case of Volta, chance cor^ 

 rected the inconvenience arising from such a state of depeur 

 dence. The Administrator, Count de Firmian, was a friend of 

 literature, and the school of Pavia having become the object of 

 his particular care, he established in it a chair of natural philo- 

 sophy, which in 1779 Volta was invited to fill. There, during a 

 long period of years, a multitude of youth from every country 

 eagerly attended on his instructions ; there they learned, I shall 

 not say the details of science, for almost every book gives these, 

 but the philosophical history of discoveries — the subtile corela- 

 tions which escape the perception of common minds — and, what 

 few have the power of delineating, — the progress of inventions. 



The language of Volta was lucid, unpremeditated, sometimes 

 animated, and always distinguished by modesty and urbanity. 

 These qualities, when united to merit of the first order, are par- 

 ticularly attractive to youth. In Italy, where the imagination is 

 so easily excited, they had produced a complete enthusiasm. 



