Biographical Memoir of' Horace Benedict de Saussure* S35 



Possessed o£ materials so numerous and important, it must 

 have required a powerful effort to resist the temptation of form- 

 ing a system. Saussure, however, had this firmness of resolu- 

 tion ; and we shall make it the last and the principal trait in his 

 eulogy. His mind was of too elevated a character not to take 

 a prospective grasp, in some measure, of the whole field of the 

 science, and not to perceive to what extent it was imperfect, 

 notwithstanding all the facts with which he had enriched it ; 

 and it was, therefore, by pointing out what still remained to be 

 investigated that he terminated his labours. So noble an example 

 has not deterred his successors from drawing up, as formerly, 

 the most romantic systems ; but this is only an additional rea- 

 son for paying our tribute to a mind so rare. 



Saussure still seemed young enough to collect a portion of 

 the observations which were awanting to the science ; but a dis- 

 ease, the germ of which had perhaps originated in the fatigues 

 of his journeys, began, a little after his fiftieth year, to under- 

 mine his constitution. It was increased by some embarrass- 

 ments of fortune, occasioned by the French revolution. Three 

 successive attacks of paralysis reduced him to great weakness, 

 and, on the 22d January 1799, after four years of sufferings, he 

 died, aged only 59 years. 



Equally beloved and honoured as Bonnet by his fellow citi- 

 zens and by strangers, Saussure had the additional happiness of 

 living again in a son, whom he saw distinguishing himself in 

 science, and whose beautiful discoveries have merited for him a 

 reputation not less honourable than that of his father ; and in a 

 daughter, whose rare virtues and superior mind have rendered 

 her an ornament to her sex. 



A Description of some appearances of remarkable Rainhozvs. 

 By the Reverend William Scoresby, F. R. S. Lond. and 

 Edin, M. W. S., &c. Communicated by the Author. (With 

 a Plate.)* 



j^ppEARANCEs of natural phenomena, of rare occurrence, are 

 always worthy of being recorded, both as being interesting to the 



"•Head before the Wernerian Natural History Society 10th February 1827. 



