244 Biographical Sketch of M, Proust, [Oct. 



tion, by teaching tbem to take advantage of the resources with 

 which benevolent nature has so profusely surrounded them. 



To him, true science was, as he says in this memoir, *' that 

 which teaches us to obtain from the productions with which the 

 Creator has abundantly supplied the world we inhabit not 

 only the best methods of increasing the means of subsist- 

 ence, but of enriching medicine, domestic economy, and the 

 arts." 



He also wrote several memoirs on the sugar of grapes, and on 

 the methods of preparing it ; and in these he still kept in view 

 the supplying of the poorer classes with an agreeable and whole- 

 some food, of which they were particularly destitute at the time 

 at which he undertook the investigation. 



Besides the labours which we have mentioned, Proust pub- 

 lished a great number of memoirs, which enriched science, and 

 ranked their author among the first chemists of the age. 



Favoured by fortune, honoured with the esteem of the public 

 and the protection of the Sovereign, possessing extremely curious 

 collections of the most remarkable arid precious productions of 

 both the Indies, which would have supplied an inexhaustible 

 source for his researches, it remained only for Proust to enjoy 

 the happiness he had himself created ; when in one day all his 

 hopes vanished. He was in France on leave of absence, when 

 the chances of war brought the French to Madrid, and ruin 

 on his establishment — a ruin which was so complete that his 

 personal loss may without exaggeration be estimated at more 

 than half a million of francs. Reduced to a state bordering 

 upon indigence, he bore this reverse with stoical courage, 

 and if some expressions of regret escaped him, they were 

 not for his fortune, but for the collection of chemical and 

 mineral substances which he had formed with so much care. 

 "Who would not share his regret, when, in speaking in one of 

 his memoirs of some minerals which he had intended to analyze, 

 but which want had forced him to sell, he exclaims, with affect- 

 ing simplicity, " Oh ! destiny of human affairs, instead of 

 analyzing these minerals, it is necessary to deliver them to one 

 of those persons to whom we say, Fac iit lapides isti panes 

 Jiant," 



Napoleon wishing to encourage the preparation of sugar of 

 grapes, engaged Proust to establish a manufactory for it at the 

 expence of government, and he decreed him a gratuity of 100,000 

 francs. Proust refused it, his health and age not permitting 

 him to fulfil the duties attached to the imperial liberality. He 

 retired to Craon (Mayenne), where he lived on his moderate 

 patrimony. 



Although he did not reside at Paris, he was nevertheless, by 

 particular favour, nominated Member of the Academy of 

 Sciences, on the 12th of Feb. 1816, in the place of M. Guyton de 



