Biographical Notice of the Abbe Haiiy. 7 



tures, until they discover it in the indignation of posterity ! 

 Dolomieu was released from his dungeon only by virtue of an 

 article in a treaty of peace, and a premature death, occasioned 

 by the treatment he had been subjected to, but too soon re- 

 stored to Hairy the appointment he had so generously re- 

 nounced. From this time, instruction in mineralogy acquired 

 a new life. Collections were quadrupled, and arranged in an 

 order conformable to the most recent discoveries. The mine- 

 ralogists of Europe assembled to witness so many objects so 

 well arranged, and to hear a professor so clear and elegant, and 

 withal so complaisant. His native benevolence displayed itself 

 on every occasion to those who wished to be informed. He 

 admitted them to his chambers, opened to them his cabinets, 

 and refused no explanations. The most humble students were 

 received like the most learned and august personages ; for he 

 had pupils of all ranks. 



During the unfortunate period when his country was torn 

 by faction, Hauy was occupied in the more glorious pursuit 

 of completing his mineralogical system, on which his reputa- 

 tion was destined to depend. He accordingly published, in 

 1801, under the patronage of the Council of Mines, his 

 Traite cle Mineralogie in 5 vols. Of this work we cannot 

 speak with too much praise. It was the first great step to 

 place mineralogy upon the immutable basis of scientific prin- 

 ciples, and to wrest that noble science from the usurpation of 

 ignorant charlatans. No man could pretend to follow our 

 author through the varied and beautiful details of his system 

 without some share of mathematical learning, without some 

 knowledge of chemical science, and without a pretty general 

 acquaintance with those branches of natural philosophy which 

 come into such immediate contact with the physiology of mi- 

 neral bodies. In Great Britain, therefore, the labours of 

 Haiiy were for along time completely overlooked. Mineralogi- 

 cal lecturers could not be expected to expound what they did 

 not themselves understand ; and the traders in bulky compila- 

 tions on mineralogy scarcely ventured to notice, and still less 

 to adopt, the vast improvements with which Haiiy had reno- 

 vated and adorned their science. 



l)r Thomas Thomson, now Regius Professor of Chemistry 



