AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS DE CANDOLLE. 301 
Apropos to reminiscences of distinguished savans, we look 
forward a year or two in the narrative, and select the fol- 
lowing. And first, of a person who was well known to a past 
generation, and to some who still survive, at Philadelphia. 
“ Joseph Correa de Serra was then about fifty-five or sixty years 
old. He was of an ancient family in Portugal, which had produced 
several literary men. After studying at the University of Coimbra 
he was transferred to Rome, where he pursued theological studies 
for a dozen years at the College of the Sapienza, but which he left 
with a knowledge of many things beside theology. Returning to 
Portugal, he was made governor to the hereditary Prince, Secretary 
to the Academy of Sciences, etc., and became a very influential 
person, both on account of his talents and on account of the position 
of his pupil, who it was supposed would become king on attaining 
his majority, as his mother was only regent. Correa was made 
Minister; and his first act was to overthrow the Inquisition. But 
the Prince died just as he was coming of age, and Correa was left 
exposed to the hatred and jealousy of the priests. After a while he 
obtained permission to go to England, where he lived in the society 
of the savans of which Sir Joseph Banks’ house was the centre. 
Afterwards he moved to Paris, where he also lived among savans 
and men of letters, and where he showed the most noble character 
when the seizure of Portugal by Bonaparte deprived him of all his 
resources. He possessed the singular faculty of knowing everything 
apparently without labor. It is only the people of the south who 
can thus combine great facility with profound idleness. The latter 
prevented his publishing anything beyond small dissertations, quite 
below his talents ; but in conversation all his various knowledge and 
his ingenious views were charmingly exhibited. In these days 
Humboldt and Cuvier often came to my lodgings, where they occa- 
sionally met Correa. Although their celebrity was far above his, 
and justly so, on account of their published works, yet Correa always 
got the advantage over them; and it was by no means the least of 
the enjoyments of our sociable little dinners to see the sort of defer- 
ence, and even fear, which Cuvier and Humboldt exhibited in the 
announcement of their opinions before Correa, who, with the grace 
and sly maliciousness of a cat, would at once expose their weak sides. 
Like them, he was familiar with all the historical and natural sci- 
ences, and he used his vast stores of knowledge with a severe logic 
and rare sagacity. He spent many hours in my herbarium; where 
