Biographical Notice of the Abbe Hauy. 5 



is written with great perspicuity, yet, from its want of method, 

 Hauy had an opportunity of presenting the theory under a 

 more systematic aspect, of explaining it by more precise and 

 popular illustrations, and of adding the details and the theory 

 of several interesting phenomena, such as the influence of 

 points, the electrical spark, and the electricity developed in 

 the cooling and evaporation of bodies according to the obser- 

 vations of Lavoisier, Laplace, and Saussure. By employing 

 also the true law of magnetic and electrical action, as deter- 

 mined by Coulomb, he was enabled to give the theory a 

 more precise form, and to rectify several of the calculations 

 of iEpinus. 



While Hauy was pursuing these peaceful labours, the Re- 

 volution burst upon the nation. The Bastile was destroyed, 

 and the monarchy soon after shared the same fate ; but all 

 this did not disturb the naturalist from the train of his occu- 

 pations, nor induce him to participate in the general move- 

 ments. As he refused to take the oath to the ecclesiastical 

 constitution prescribed at that period, he was deprived of all 

 his perquisites, and found himself as poor as at the period 

 when the place of an infant chorister was the object of his am- 

 bition. This poverty did not shield him from imminent dan- 

 gers. Very ignorant of all that was passing around him, he 

 saw one day his modest retreat invaded by men, who demand- 

 ed of him whether he had any fire-arms. " I have no other 

 than this," said he, drawing a spark from his electrical machine. 

 They seized his papers, which contained nothing but mathe- 

 matical calculations, overturned his collection, which was his 

 only property ; and, finally, shut him up with other priests in 

 the Seminary of St Firmin, which had been converted into a 

 prison. In thus exchanging one cell for another, he was not 

 very uneasy in his new habitation. Calm under all circum- 

 stances, and seeing himself in company with many of his 

 friends, he only thought of sending for his drawers, that he 

 might put his crystals in order. Happily, he had friends 

 without who knew better than he what was preparing for 

 those who had incurred the popular displeasure. One of his 

 pupils, afterwards his colleague, Gcqff'roy de Saint Hilaire, 

 member of the Academy of Sciences, lodged then in the Col- 



