186 EULOGY ON ARTHUR AUGUSTE DE LA RIVE. 



industry and commerce, and of wlijcli, alas, the fury of war lias 

 increased the importance. How the a[)i)Iications of these agents, the 

 discoveries of peace-loving men, have been perverted ! How the rapid 

 telegram from the cabinet of the statesman inflames at will the passions 

 of the [)eople! How electricity, at the command of a distant engineer, 

 explodes the torpedo which violently disturbs the sea, or tires the mine 

 which rends the earth like a volcano, extending on every side devasta- 

 tion and death ! 



Gaspard De La Rive was a successful expounder of chemistry, and 

 taught its principles with clearness and simplicity. His numerous and 

 choice experiments rendered his instruction interesting and valuable 

 not only to the students who desired merely a theoretical knowledge of 

 the subject, but also to the industrial classes, who sought to make prac- 

 tical application of the information obtained. He proposed to make 

 chemistry a part of the curriculum of a liberal education, and he suc- 

 ceeded in attracting, by the eclat of his experiments, students of all 

 classes, whom he afterward retained by directing their minds from 

 these lower objects to the beauty and precision of the higher concep- 

 tions of natural philosophy. Xo one contributed more to popularizing 

 the atomic theory of Dalton, which he considered a most happy hypoth- 

 esis. Having studied in England, he retained a taste for large appara- 

 tus, in which his fortune allowed him to indulge; his voltaic batteries 

 were without a rival on the continent. But while his laboratory was 

 English, the constitution of his mind, on the contrary, led him to adopt 

 the ideas of Lavoisier and the doctrines of the French Academy. 



His countryman and friend. Dr. Marcet, a chemist of distinction, liv- 

 ing in Loudon, came to pass a winter in Switzerland. He could not 

 endure this preference for the school of Paris, and endeavored to con- 

 vert the select audience Gaspard Ue La Rive collected about him to the 

 Ideas of the Loudon school, especially to those of Davy, whose renown 

 at that time was world-wide. The pupils of the chemical course had, 

 therefore, the singular good fortune of having two professors, each of 

 whom discoursed in turn ui)on the same subject, explaining the views to 

 which he gave the preference. The two teachers, stimulated by opposition, 

 gradually advanced from the ordinary conventional and classic grounds 

 of instruction to heights where detinite thought commences to waver 

 into nebulous speculation. These lectures, which amounted to academic 

 sessions, awakened the curiosity and excited the enthusiasm of the audi- 

 ence, who, while divided in opinion, were always united in praise of the 

 ardor and mental activity of the two friends. 



Gaspard D(^ La Rive was alfable, benevolent, paternal, and good- 

 humored. His joy in the success of a well-conducted experiment, his 

 satisfaction when he felt himself understood, was indicated in every 

 lineament of his expressive countenance ; and, after listening to the good 

 man, his auditors were surprised to find that, although his discourse 

 had been entirely of chemistry, they felt themselves better, as Avell as 



