M. Quetelet's Memoir of Frof. Moll. 293 



the causes of the prosperity and the glol-y of Holland ; and M. 

 Moll was no less a good patriot than an enlightened philoso- 

 pher. His work on the early maritime expeditions of the 

 Netherlands, Vroegere Zeetogten der Nederlcmders, is a na- 

 tional work full of curious and useful inquiries, and breathing 

 the purest love of country. Whilst setting forth the immense 

 services rendered to navigation by Dutch voyagers, the author 

 is far from contenting himself with emphatic praises ; on the 

 contrary, he reproaches his fellow-citizens for having fallen 

 off' from the condition to which their ancestors had raised 

 them, and encourages them to strive to regain their ancient 

 splendour. 



We owe to him also some interesting notes with which he 

 enriched the work of M. Van Kampen* on the history of the 

 sciences in the Netherlands f. His scientific acquirements 

 and his taste for literature naturally led him into the domain 

 of history. Influenced at the same time by sentiments of 

 gratitude, he wrote in succession biographical notices on De- 

 lambre, Keyser, and Van Swinden, who had been his masters ; 

 he also paid a tribute of esteem to the memory of Delaplace 

 and Wollaston, with whom he had been intimate. During 

 the latter part of his life he was occupied about a memoir of 

 our old colleague and his countryman the baron Van Uten- 

 hoven, and which must have been pi'inted subsequently. 



When the government, in 1835, resolved, at the request of 

 the English government, and in aid of the labours of Messrs. 

 Whewell and Lubbock, to cause a series of observations to 

 be made upon the hours and height of the tides along the 

 coasts of Holland, it was to M. Moll also that the care of 

 directing and superintending them was entrusted. In volume 

 vii. of the Memoirs of the 1st class of the Institute may be seen 

 the report which was made on this subject. This undertaking 

 could not have been placed in better hands than those of the 

 philosopher, who, at a former period, had furnished the most 

 judicious remarks upon the placing of the standard scale em- 

 ployed to mark the height of the level of the sea before Am- 

 sterdam [het Amstcrdamsche 2^eil). 



It remains for me now to speak of the labours of M. Moll 

 in the physical sciences. The situation of this philosopher 

 afforded him considerable advantages, of which he knew how 

 to avail himself with skill. Beside the collections of the ob- 



[• Wc just learn, witli sincere regret, that science has sustained 

 another severe loss in the death of this distinguished professor, in the 

 j)rime of life, the very day before Oxford sustained a similar loss in the 

 death of the honourable and excellent Rigaud. — Edit.] 



t Bijdragen tul dc gcschicdenis der wctcnsc/iappi-ii in Nederland. 



