262 THE JUSSIEUS AND THE NATURAL METHOD. 



Years meantime liad accumulated, and Bernard, always absorbed in his 

 problem, pei'ceived the lapse of time as little as he did the renown which had 

 encircled his name. Nothing had altered the serenity of tlie life of the two 

 brothers ; the love of order had, in this house, passed from theory into the 

 most scrupulous practice. To this modest retreat in the rue des Bernardins 

 regularly resorted ]\Ialesherbes, Dnhamel, Lemonnier, Poivre, and other dis- 

 tinguished men, whom similarity of labors and opinions and long attachment 

 united in the bonds of the closest intimacy ; here also every learned stranger, 

 particularly every botanist, was emulous of being introduced. The prolonged 

 life of the good Tessier has left to us only the impression of the aged man ; 

 here he appeared as the young debutant. Andre Thouiu was indebted to the 

 two brothers for the origin of his botanical fortunes, and not a few besides, 

 devoted upon similar grounds of gratitude and affection, enlarged the circle by 

 which our celihataires were encompassed. 



Occupied in scrupulously fulfilling towards his elder brother the duties of a 

 piety which might well be called filial, it is easily imagined with how poignant 

 a grief Bernard was affected when a short malady bereft him of Antoine. He 

 fell into a gloomy reverie, from which nothing seemed capable of arousing him. 

 Seated alone at the once common fireside, his long meditation only then began 

 to be interrupted by bitter reflections. He no longer qui'tted the house except 

 to go to the church, the Jardin Royal or the Academy. 

 ******** 



The protracted life of Bernard condemned him to blindness ; but those allevia- 

 tions which he had ministered to Antoine were in turn supplied to himself by 

 Laurent, the son of their eldest brother, who was, during many of his later years, 

 the inmate of his house. Seated daily near this nephew, and superintending his 

 studies, the old man, under the appearance of a tranquil reverie, became once 

 more absorbed in his former pursuits ; it was as a second phase of the same life, 

 as a thought which revives and is perpetuated. Passing away thus, the exist- 

 ence of Bernard may be said to have been at last rather transformed than ex- 

 tinguished; his mortal remains left the fraternal mansion November 6, 1777. 

 * * * * * * * * 



LAURENT DE JUSSIEU AiND THE COMPLETE VIEW OF THE METHOD. 



M. de Candolle, in his Theorie Elcmentaire de la Botanique, undoubtedly the 

 most original and maturely considered of his works, thus expresses himself 

 respecting the two Jussieus : " Without seeking, in any manner, to assign a 

 distinct part to each of these skilful botanists, and to separate names which, 

 united as they were by consanguinity and the most confidential intimacy, will 

 be always still more closely united by fame, we shall merely remark that what 

 characterizes the method of the Jussieus is that it is founded on the subordi- 

 nation of characters." Now, this problem of the distinct part borne by the two, 

 and the proper merit of each, a problem which M. de Candolle has chosen to 

 evade, is precisely that which I propose to consider ; but, before attempting its 

 solution, it is necessary to refer to some manuscript notes of Laurent de Jussieu 

 respecting his uncle.* It is of interest to see how Bernard was regarded by 



* These valuable notes on the life of Bernard de Jussieu are accompanied with a notice 

 that " they were intended for instructions to M. de Condorcet." It was, in effect, on these 

 notes that was founded the historical cloge of Bernard de Jussieu, read by Condorcet at the 

 jmblic session of the Academy of Sciences of the 29th of April, 1778, and, what added to the 

 I flat of the ceremonial, read before Voltaire. At that moment, which so shortly preceded 

 liis death, Voltaire was the object of general admiration. " Paris contained at the same 

 time the celebrated Franklin ; the latter was naturally desirous of seeing a man Avhose fame 

 had so long occupied the attention of both the Old and the New World. Voltaire, although he 

 had lost the habit of speaking English, attempted to sustain the conversation in that language, 



