EULOGY ON ALEXANDER VOLTA. 139 



luembcrs ot the Uiost auiinatod popular assemblies without givin.cf an 

 opinion or uttering a single word. 



It has been said that happiness, like matter, is corai)osed of imjiercept- 

 ible elements. If this idea of Franklin be correct, Volta was luippy. 

 .Entirely devoted, in spite of high jmlitical dignities, to his studies, 

 nothing disturbed his tranquillity. According to Solon's law he v»ould 

 3iave been exiled, for not one of the parties, for nearly a quarter 

 of a century agitating Lombardy, could boast of numbering him in its 

 Tanks. The illustrious professor's name only re-appeared after the 

 :Storm as an ornament to the existing authorities. Even in hi^ most 

 private intimacies Volta had the greatest aversion to any conversation 

 rehiting to public matters. He did not hesitate, as soon as there was 

 an opening, to cut it short by one of those witticisms or puns, called in 

 Italy frcddure and in France calcmhour. But, it must be confessed, 

 practice here did not make perfect, as several of the frcddure of the 

 great i)hysicist, not considered unworthy of being quoted, are I'ar from 

 being as irreproachable as his experiments. 



Volta was married in 1794, at the age of forty -nine, to ]\Iademoiselle 

 Therese Peregriai. He had three sons, two surviving him and the other 

 dying" at the age of eighteen, just when he had given promise of the 

 most brilliant talents. This was the only sorrow, I believe, our philos- 

 opher ever experienced during the whole of his long cai'eer. His dis- 

 coveries were too brilliant, without any doubt, not to have aroused 

 €uvy, but it never dared attack them, even under its most usual dis- 

 guise, as it never (juestioned their novelty. 



Contentions with regard to priority have been the torments of invent- 

 ors in all ages. Spite, the sentiment to which it usually gives rise, it is 

 cot fastidious in the choice of its means of attack. When evidence is 

 wanting, sarcasm becomes its favorite weapon, and it but too often 

 possesses the cruel power of rendering it most cutting. It is related 

 that Harvey, who had manfully resisted the numerous criticisms of 

 Tvhich his discoveries had been the object, totally lost courage when cer- 

 tain adversaries, under pretense of concession, declared that they would 

 'Concede to him the merit of having circulated the circulation of the blood. 

 Let us congratulate ourselves, gentlemen, that Volta was never exposed 

 to such contentious; let us congratulate his countrymen on having 

 guarded him from them. The Bologuese school, for a long time, un- 

 doubtedly upheld the do(;trine of animal electricity. Honorable senti- 

 ments of nationality induced them to desire that Galvani's discovery 

 should remain entire ; that it should not form a part of the grand phe- 

 nomena of voltaic electricity as a peculiar clause; and yet they never 

 alluded to the voltaic phenomena but with admiration. Never did an 

 Italian mouth pronounce the name of the inventor of the pile without 

 coupling it with the most unequivocal terras of esteem and profound 

 respect, and without prefixing a word most expressive in its simplicity 

 and especially sweet to the ears of a fellow-citizen ; from Koveredo to 



