238 Martins, on the Life and Labors of De Candolle. 



expression of the man was suddenly elevated. His ideas unfold- 

 ed themselves easily and without effort in discourse, which, like 

 his writings, inclined rather to rhetorical breadth than to exact 



conciseness. 



The poetical element of his mind, which he manifested while 

 yet a scholar in the college, remained active in him in later years. 

 His fancy, both strong and rich, variously colored, blooming, and 

 rapid in its movements, clothed his quick-rising conceptions in a 



light and graceful dress. He has left behind a great number of 



poems of a lyrical character, in which he represents the universal 

 feelings of nature, or unfolds with grace and delicacy the emo- 

 tions of the human heart. What we have seen of these reminds 

 us of Lafontaine, Delille, and of our own Pfeffel. From 1821 to 

 his death, he continued his autobiography with great particular- 

 ity, in which are contained valuable materials for moral and liter- 

 ary history, often under the form of explanatory notes. His son 

 will publish, with such omissions as circumstances require, this 

 memorial of the untiring activity of this excellent man. 



But while such variously directed labor found in itself the 

 best intellectual reward, De Candolle was by degrees obliged 

 to acknowledge the insufficiency of his physical powers for the 

 task he had himself allotted to them. In the year 1825, he had 

 the misfortune to lose his youngest son, a promising boy of thir- 

 teen years old. The philosopher sought to soften the sorrows of 

 his heart by increased activity, and redoubled his zeal for the 

 completion of his work ; but from that time his health began to 

 fail. He often suffered from attacks of gout, and from obsti- 

 nate catahrral affections, and was obliged on that account to re- 

 linquish his professorship in 1834, which was transferred by the 

 Senate to his son Alphonse. In the year 1835, he suffered from 

 a severe illness. He was afflicted with an asthma, and a disease 

 of the throat, [bronchocele?] for which excessive doses of iodine 

 were prescribed. In consequence of this, he suffered from oedema 

 pedum, and from nervous attacks, which increased until his death. 

 He was never perfectly well after 1835, and his strength was so 

 much exhausted that the progress of the dropsy, which from the 

 month of June rapidly increased, could no longer be opposed with 



effect. He died at 6 o'clock in the evening of the 9th of Septem- 



ber, [1841,] having lost his consciousness several hours earlier. 



