MEMOIR OF LEOPOLD VON BUCH. 



By M. FLOURENS, 

 perpetual secretary of the french academy of sciences. 



TRANSLATED FOR THE SJHTHSONIAN INSTITUTION DY C. A. ALEXANDER. 



"Dating from the first j^oars of the age of Louis XIV," says Voltaire, "a 

 general revolution has been efiected in our arts, our genius, our manners, which 

 must forever serve to mark the true glory of our country. This revolution," 

 l»e adds, "did not stop in France; it extended to England, carried taste into 

 Germany, science into Russia, and reanimated the languishing spirit of Italy." 

 The period of which Voltaire speaks was in truth distinguished by the rise of 

 an honorable and stj-enuous emulation among all the nations of Europe, and by 

 an alliance of intellects which, deriving new force from mutual support, no 

 longer feared to submit to investigation those great and fundamental questions 

 wliose solution might have seemed forever hidden from us. 



In Germany, one of those who most contributed to inspire science with 

 courage for arduous enterprises Avas Leibnitz. While this rare genius was 

 meditating the proJ4,^ct of endowing his country with a great literary and scien- 

 tific association, a colony of French savants, driven into exile by the revocation 

 iif the edict of Nantes, came to seek shelter in his neighborhood. Profiting by 

 this valuable aid, the Academy of Berlin was established. But the course of 

 its prosperity was short. The reign of William I, the rigorous tactician, who 

 thought of nothing but war, who measured the merit of his subjects by their 

 .^tature, and defined savants frivolous inutilities, supervened. The learned 

 assembly found itself from that moment discovintenanced, and was only restored 

 to its position under the influence of the great Frederick. This last monarch 

 jiracticed no disguise as to his admiration for France, of which he loved alike 

 the literature, the philosophy, the language, and above all the men of letters, 

 whom he would fain have lured away to Berlin. In default of Voltaire or 

 d'Alcmbert, he took from us Maupertius, and made him president of his 

 Academy. 



Frederick impressed on all the mental activities of his country the ardor 

 which governed himself. Enlightened by his example, the oldest and most 

 noble families perceived that to dedicate their sons to the higher objects of 

 intellectual toil, was at once to reflect honor on themselves and to acquire for 

 the nation inexhaustible resources of utility and fame. At Stolpe, in the 

 Uckermark, in the tranquillity of a residence inherited from many generations, 

 one of these families, which could already point to names illustrious in diplo- 

 macy and letters, numbered, among an attractive group of brothers and sisters, 

 a young enthusiast, active and intelligent, but wayward and contemplative, 

 who, neglecting the usual sports and pleasures of his age, devoted his childish 

 admiration to the objects presented by the beautiful scenery in which he was 

 nurtured. 



