352 Reminiscences of Mailte- Brun. 
became so precarious, that it was thought necessary for him 
to fly to Sweden, and his friends took it into consideration 
how his escape should be managed. Malte-Brun’s personal 
timidity was well known, and one of those who took part in 
the deliberation having thought it necessary that he should 
be provided with loaded pistols, another of them, Rahbek, 
exclaimed, “ Would you put arms into the hands of his ene- 
mies {” 
I met Malte-Brun at Leipsic in 1799. He had now, as 
Heiberg* had previously done, left his country for ever, in 
order to push his fortune in Paris. He possessed the power 
of easily obtaining the command of foreign modern languages 
for conversation or writing. The young man sighed after his 
native country, but prophesied the overthrow of the govern- 
ment, and a speedy deliverance. As he was then dis- 
posed, he only wanted some one to direct him, who should 
be upright and bold, for his inclinations were entirely ruled 
by the opinions that prevailed around him. A few years 
afterwards his celebrity became known to us from Paris. 
He was the original founder of universal and scientific geo- 
graphy in France; he was the first to supply a national 
deficiency in that country ; and not there alone, for he treated 
his science in a freer, clearer, and more comprehensive man- 
ner than it had ever been discussed in England or Germany. 
As Humboldt founded the new science of physical geography, 
so Malte-Brun was the first who employed it, though not to 
the full extent necessary, in general geography. There was 
an emulation in France to out-bid for foreigners whose merits 
were acknowledged. It succeeded in this case ; geographical 
societies were everywhere formed, and Malte-Brun was long 
the recognised centre of these undertakings. But his early 
developed political tendency was not at rest; he sold himself 
to Napoleon, and took an active part in the Journal des Debats, 
which for some time was called the Journal de ? Empire. 
When Blucher retreated after the battle of Epernay, in order 
to concentrate his forces, this journal was published at Napo- 
* Heiberg was originally a violent democratic writer at Copenhagen, and 
was afterwards employed by Talleyrand.—Enir. 
