410 ALPHONSE DE CANDOLLE. 



clature, and in all cases his candid, judicial statement of the questions 

 appears all the more admirable when compared with the ill-natured 

 and personal presentation of objections by some of his opponents. 



De Caudolle can hardly be said to have been a voluminous writer, 

 although he was a frequent contributor to the different scientific pro- 

 ceedings and journals, especially the Archives des Sciences Physiques 

 et Naturelles of Geneva. His style was easy and fluent, but although, 

 as has been said, his method of study was statistical, his writings 

 are neither dry nor tedious. He did not limit himself by any 

 means to botany, but often discussed social and economical subjects, 

 for, like his father, he considered that a good citizen should not shut 

 himself up in the limits of his scientific studies, but should take an 

 interest in all questions of public interest. One of his most generally 

 interesting works is the volume of Melanges, a series of essays on 

 different subjects. Of his scattered papers, that which was most 

 widely known, especially in English-speaking countries, was La 

 Langue Dominante. In that paper he discussed the adaptabilities 

 of different languages to the needs of modern civilized life, and he 

 advanced the opinion that English, with its comparatively simple 

 declensions and conjugations, with its facility for forming compound 

 words and its abundance of short exclamatory expressions, was likely 

 to become the universal language of the future. This agreeable 

 prophecy, while it naturally found favor among English peoples, was 

 regarded by some others as an expression of what they considered his 

 prejudice for England and the English. That he had a genuine 

 admiration for the English was shown in several ways, but his feeling 

 was not so one-sided as to deserve the name of prejudice. 



De Candolle was tall in stature, with a prominent nose, and small, 

 rather deep-set eyes. His appearance was strikingly dignified, but it 

 was not a freezing dignity, for his manners were polished and cour- 

 teous, and he had the happy faculty of making all, no matter how 

 different their ages or conditions, feel perfectly at ease in his presence. 

 In conversation he was fluent and interesting, and he possessed that 

 greatest of talents in a good talker, the power of drawing out what 

 was interesting and instructive in others. Probably no botanist of 

 recent times was more widely known personally, or more deservedly 

 respected. Botanists from both hemispheres visited him in the family 

 mansion at Geneva opposite the old cathedral, and he always took 

 pleasure in showing the many treasures of books and plants which 

 had been accumulated by his father and himself. He was untiring 

 in his efforts to supply to correspondents any information in his power, 



