Biographical Memoir of' Michel Adanson. 17 



moment that he entirely devoted himself to the execution of the 

 gigantic plan of which we have spoken. 



Had M. Adanson been an ordinary man, we should terminate 

 his euWium here : his errors would have afforded no instruc- 



o 



tion ; but it is precisely because he had a true genius, and be- 

 cause his discoveries place him in the first ranks of those who 

 have benefited science, that it becomes our duty to dwell a little 

 upon this latter and painful part of his history. The principal 

 utility of those honours which we render to men of science is to 

 excite the youthful mind to march in their traces ; but the en- 

 couragement thus held forth would often prove fatal, if, dispen- 

 sing praise without discernment, we did not also point out the 

 false routes into which some of these celebrated men have had the 

 misfortune to wander. 



From the moment, therefore, that M. Adanson devoted him- 

 self to his great work, he reserved whatever particular facts he 

 had, in order to give it more interest, and was no longer willing 

 to publish any thing separately. Dreading to lose the smallest 

 portion of time, he separated himself more than ever from the 

 world, diminished the hours of his sleep, and abridged the 

 time allotted to his repasts. When, by some chance, one was allow- 

 ed to penetrate to him, he found him buried in the midst of in- 

 numerable papers, which covered every part of the room, com- 

 paring and arranging them in a thousand ways. The unequi- 

 vocal marks of impatience which he exhibited, prevented his be- 

 ing interrupted a second time. He even found means of avoid- 

 ing first visits, by withdrawing himself into a small isolated 

 house in a remote quarter. 



Henceforth his ideas were no longer fed or improved by those 

 of any other. His genius now wrought upon its own founda- 

 tions only, and these foundations underwent no further renova- 

 tion. All those feelings of self estimation which his solitary ha- 

 bits had engendered in his mind were now fully developed. Cal- 

 culating the extent of his powers by that of his projects, he placed 

 himself as far above other philosophers, as the work at which 

 he laboured, appeared to him superior to those which they had 

 left. He has been heard to say that Aristotle alone approached 

 him, but still at a great distance, and that all other naturahsts re- 

 mained very far behind. Forgetting that his method essentially 

 APRIL JULY 1827. B 



