ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. I3 



the subject of this sketch indebted for much of that greatness of 

 thought and firmness of principle which carried him with success 

 through the active duties of life. The mutual esteem thus formed 

 between the pupil and his teacher was afterwards by similarity of 

 pursuits and predilections, matured into the closest intimacy. While 

 prosecuting his studies in this place von Schweinitz enjoyed, by 

 means of his extensive connexions, an opportunity of mingling 

 much in society, of which his cheerful and sprightly conversation 

 rendered him the common centre of attraction. But neither in this 

 situation nor in his subsequent foreign journeys did his feelings ever 

 swerve from an attachment to his country; and yet it is not from 

 him that any modern traveller has learned the practice of vilifying 

 every country through which he passes, much less, on returning 

 home, that of bestowing on hisown, by way of reparation, a double 

 store of the same abuse. 



After completing his theological studies von Schweinitz engaged 

 as a teacher in the Academy at Niesky, and by this means, enlarg- 

 ing and strengthening his own acquisitions, realized the truth of the 

 maxim, docendo discUnus, 



The presence of several valued friends engaged in the same pur- 

 suits, the cultivation of his favorite department of botany, a con- 

 nection with his cherished associates. Professor Albertini and Henry 

 Steinhauer, (from England), and the opportunity of improving his 

 taste for literature by various reading and frequent composition on 

 the prominent subjects discussed in literary journals of the day, all 

 contributed to his improvement and rendered the arduous duties of 

 his station a pleasure rather than a burden. Scarcely any impor- 

 tant topic in the wide field of science escaped his notice, and espe- 

 cially did the constitution and management of the affairs of his so- 

 cial and religious fraternity call forth from his pen many able and 

 spirited articles. 



From the commencement of his residence at this place his botan- 

 ical researches had been particularly directed to the Fungi, a de- 

 partment previously much neglected, and in 1805 the number of 

 new genera and species discovered by himself and Albertini was so 

 great as to warrant the publication of a volume of about four hun- 

 dred pages, containing the result of their united efforts. As we 

 shall again recur to this, in connection with his other established 

 works, it will not be necessary here to interrupt our remarks to pre- 

 sent its peculiar merits as a scientific production. 



Near the close of his residence at Niesky, he began to exercise the 

 functions of a preacher, and was, in 1807, called to the Moravian 



