252 Wiriier according to Cuvier. 



Werner, what had formerly been said with truth of Linnaeus, 

 that every where Nature has been interrogated in his name. 



Few teachers have enjoyed this pure and unreserved grati- 

 tude to the same degree ; but perhaps no one ever better de- 

 served it by his paternal feelings. He grudged nothing for the 

 good of his scholars : his time, his exertions, were at their dis- 

 posal. If he knew any of them that were in occasional need, 

 his purse was open to them. When his audience became so 

 numerous that every one could not conveniently see what he 

 exhibited, he divided his students and repeated his lecture. His 

 door was never shut to them : his meals were covnmonly talcen 

 with some of them in his company, as if it had been his wish 

 that not a moment should be lost to their improvement. 



Such a master might safely devolve the care of his reputa- 

 tion upon his scholars ; and they, accordingly, have been the 

 means of diffusing it. Like Socrates, in this respect also, to 

 whom he has been compared for so many other qualities, his 

 ideas were almost solely known from the notes which had been 

 taken during his prelections. Whether it was that he was 

 satisfied with the irresistible influence which his oral communi- 

 cations gave him, or whether the vivacity of his imagination 

 could not endure the ennui of writing, it was with the utmost 

 reluctance that he determined to publish a few tracts or to give 

 some articles for journals. He talked as much as any one de- 

 sired, and his conversation was always that of a man of genius, 

 as well as that of a man of kind feehngs. During whole hours> 

 he would develope the boldest and best connected ideas ; but it 

 was impossible to make him take up his pen. He had an an- 

 tipathy for the very mechanical art of writing, — an antipathy, 

 the excess of which rendered it very amusing. But the pub- 

 lic and posterity will have reason to lament this peculiarity 

 which prevented him publishing his works on mineralogy and 

 geognosy. It is said that his great work on mineralogy had 

 begun to be printed, and that the first sheet had been composed, 

 but that he could not endure the fatigue of correcting the proofs. 



His life was therefore entirely passed either in the elevated 

 regions of contemplation, or in philosophical or friendly conver- 

 sation, — ignorant of all foreign events, and without reading even 

 the literary journals, without being at the trouble to inform 



