THE 
EDINBURGH NEW 
PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 
On the Life and Writings of Commandant Emile Le Puillon 
de Boblaye. By M. Rozxnt.* 
Those who become devoted to the study of the sciences, 
soon cease to think of themselves, under the influence of that 
strong attraction which this pursuit presents to the mind. 
Filled with the desire of advancing farther than their prede- 
cessors, they steadily follow the road on which they have en- 
tered, without being deterred by its length or the difficulties 
they encounter at every step: in their eyes, the removal of 
one obstacle is only an additional motive for attempting to 
overcome another even more formidable. Thus advancing 
from one degree of success to another, the man devoted to 
science seldom looks to what he has done, but rather to what 
yet remains for him to do, in order to accomplish the object 
which his genius has assigned to him. But at last bis strength 
gives way, disease assails his person, and he expires in the 
midst of his vast undertakings, when he imagined that he had 
still a long time to live, and when many years were still ne- 
cessary to complete what his comprehensive mind had con- 
ceived. Such has been the fate of all men of superior mind 
whom nature has placed on this earth in order to enlighten 
others ; such has been that of the colleague whose prema- 
ture loss we now deplore. 
* Read to the Geological Society of France, at its meeting on Ist 
April 1844. 
VOL. XXXVUI. NO. LXXVI.— APRIL 1845 N 
