1828.) 
fortunate, however, on the other side of 
the Rhine, it met with a translation into 
the German language, and was represented 
at different theatres. Its Introduction, en- 
titled Avant-Scéne, ought to have ensured 
it a reception every where, for it is a piece 
of history written with energy, and giving, 
in a few pages, a very interesting idea of a 
most important epoch.”’ 
After Alsace, M. Ramond visited Swit- 
zerland ; and an idea of the forcible impres- 
sions that country made on him may be 
seen in his notes to his translation of Coxe’s 
¢ Letters on Switzerland.” M. Ramond’s 
work had this singularity attending it, which 
perhaps leaves it almost without a parallel ; 
viz. it was re-translated into its original 
language with his additions, and, under that 
form, had more success than the original 
itself; and at which its English author had 
the weakness to be offended ; and, in a new 
edition which he afterwards published, he 
did not even condescend to mention the 
name of the writer who had so powerfully 
contributed to make his name and his work 
known all over Europe.—Cwvier. : 
On M. Ramond’s arrival at Paris, he 
became connected with the coterie at the 
Hotel de Larochefoucauld, which introduced 
him to the acquaintance of the Cardinal de 
Rohan, and with his friend, the miracle- 
worker, Cagliostro; and, being endowed 
with a magisterial charge in the little 
sovereignty of that prince, on the right bank 
of the Rhine, he enjoyed his favour and con- 
fidence. This début in the highest circles 
presented to the orator the frequent neces- 
sity of considering with due attention the 
lives of certain great lords of that epoch, 
their futile agitations, and their political and 
philosophical inconsistencies, and that spe- 
cies of inquietude of mind which prompted 
them to unite the most gross superstitions 
with avowed infidelity. 
In 1781, the miraculous Cagliostro ar- 
rived at Strasburgh, preceded, accompanied, 
and followed by a number of poor people, 
whom he supported or healed gratuitously, 
and with true believers, whom he pretended 
to illuminate with supernatural lights.— 
Such at least are the terms in which M. Ra- 
mond describes his arrival in his Mémoire 
now lying before us. ‘This brilliant assem- 
blage never ceased celebrating him; but 
nobody knew where he came from, who he 
was, or from what source he drew his riches, 
nor by what secret power he exercised over 
his followers unbounded empire ; still every 
one made his conjectures, and advanced as- 
Sertions, each more strange than the other. 
The Cardinal de Rohan not only saw, but 
entertained him; and, what seemed stranger 
than all, a Prince of the Church—a no- 
bleman of the first order, who had exercised 
the highest functions of diplomacy—an aca- 
demician, united with the most learned men 
—became, in a short time, the friend, the 
disciple, nay, the slave of the son of a pub- 
lican (as it was said) of Palermo. ‘They 
Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 
213 
could not even be separated; or, at least, if 
that was necessary for particular. purposes, 
they were obliged to have recourse to a mu- 
tual friend to keep up their communications 
—and that friend was M. Ramond, who 
avowed that he was on the most intimate 
terms with the grand magician, and that he 
was witness to several of his miracles ! 
The conduct of M. Ramond during the 
revolution was perfectly honourable, and his 
reputation gained him a seat in the Legisla- 
tive Assembly, as one of the deputies for 
the city of Paris. He appeared on several 
remarkable occasions in the tribune, the 
friend of liberty and the enemy of anarchy; 
and, when the opinions he supported fell, 
he was arrested, and confined (and happily 
forgotten) in the prison of Tarbes, until the 
celebrated 9th Thermidor arrived, when he 
escaped the guillotine. 
In 1796 he was nominated prefessor of 
natural history to the central school of the 
Upper Pyrenees, sitting at Tarbes. His 
frequent journies to the Pic du Midi, which 
he ascended no less than thirty-five times, 
gained him the appellation of “ ww savant 
chamois.” His attempts, finally crowned 
with success, to gain the summit of Mont 
Perdu, the most elevated of the chain, fur- 
nished him with materials for a third work, 
which he published under the title of Voyage 
au Mont Perdw, and which presents a ge- 
neral theory of the Pyrenean mountains, 
both new and important for the study of 
geology. 
Mont Perdu is the first of calcareous 
mountains, as Mont Blanc is of granitic, 
and, although less elevated, it neither cedes 
to Mont Blanc by the aspect of the ruins 
which surrounds it, nor by the imposing 
spectacles which characterize these monu- 
ments of the sublime revolutions of nature. 
“The most interesting of M. Ramond’s 
researches,’’ says M. Cuvier, ‘‘ were his 
views on the vegetation of mountains, and the 
comparison of their zones with t4e climates 
of our hemisphere. A little before his death 
he again brought them before the public, 
with a more extensive discrimination, in a 
work entitled, Mémoire sur la Végétation 
du Pic du Midi. Every one admired his 
history of those living plants which, under 
perpetual ice, and the double protection of 
snow and earth, perhaps never see day ten 
times in a century, but run through their 
circle of vegetation in the short space of a 
few weeks, to sleep again in the winter of 
many years; and of those common plants, 
lost in some measure in the midst of others, 
but where the ruins of a. hut, or the dis- 
jointures of a rock, exhibit their existence.” 
In 1800, M. Ramond, being elected to 
the corps législatif, fixed the attention of 
Buonaparte ; who, on the establishment of 
the prefectures, offered him one, which he 
refused. At length, however, in 1806, hay- 
ing been noticed for his independence of 
character, he was offered the prefecture of 
Puy-de-Dome on such terms that he could 
