208 Memoir of M. D' Aubuisson de Voisins. 



always guided by the love uf justice, and by the intei-ests of 

 that population which he may be said to have saved from ruin. 

 This district owes him much ; of this it is conscious ; and 

 M. D' Aubuisson was there personally beloved ; his loss, thirty 

 years after the time of which we speak, was mourned as a real 

 calamity. 



The active duties of the engineer left some leisure to M. 

 D' Aubuisson, that is to say, some tixne to employ in useful 

 purposes ; he resolved to devote it to a work of science, a 

 work of permanent utility, on which his thoughts had dwelt 

 since his return to France. He wished to give, in a com- 

 prehensive form, a complete and. methodical view of the prin- 

 ciples of geology as then known, and particularly such as we 

 owed to the school on which his affections were set, that of 

 Freiberg. He wrought for many years at this task ; and at 

 last, in 1819, his Traite de Geognosie appeared. 



It does not belong to me, less perhaps than to any other, 

 to give an opinion on this beautiful work ; and it would, no 

 doubt, be superfluous, for there are few geologists who have 

 not studied it, and who have it not in their hands. Many 

 years have passed since its publication, and years are of con- 

 sequence in such a science as geology. M. D'Aubuisson's 

 Treatise is no longer, therefore, the work of the day, nor the 

 expression of the newest ideas and most recent knowledge ; but 

 it is still well marked in the general history of the science.* 

 It has, besides, beauties which belong to all periods ; I mean 

 a pure and expressive style, a luminous exposition, a settled 

 method, and a talent for description which produced a more 

 certain effect, because the expression, though full of force 

 and imagery, never exceeded what was strictly natural. We 

 also find in it an extensive erudition, and a remarkable de- 

 gree of impartiality in explaining opinions and facts. This 

 work is rather descriptive than systematic. M. CAubuisson 



* Evei-ything here said relates only to the lirst edition of the Treatise on 

 (■eognosy ; the second edition, of which he revised only the first part, has been 

 continued without any share being taken in it by him, and under the influence 

 of notions quite foreign to his. Excepting in the first volume we need look for 

 nothing of M. D'Aubuisson's. 



