THE 



EDINBURGH 

 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



Art. I.— Biographical Notice of the Abbe Hauy.* 



Rene-Just Hauy, Honorary Canon of the metropolitan 

 church of Paris, Member of the Legion of Honour, Professor 

 of Mineralogy in the Royal Garden, and in the Faculty of 

 Sciences of Paris, and Member of the Royal Academies of 

 Paris, London, Petersburgh, Berlin, Edinburgh, Stockholm, 

 &c. ; was born on the 28th of February 1743, at Saint- 

 Just, a little village in the department of the Oise. He was the 

 elder brother of the late Mr Hauy, so well known as the 

 inventor of a method of instruction for the blind. The father 

 of these two children, who were destined to extend the bounds 

 of science, and enlarge its applications, was a poor weaver, 

 who, according to all appearances, would never have been 

 able to give his sons any other profession than his own, if 

 some generous persons had not come to his assistance. There 

 was then at Saint-Just an Abbey in which the young Haiiy 

 attended with assiduity to the religious ceremonies that were 

 practised, and showed much taste for the sacred music of the 

 church. He drew the attention of the Prior, who sent for 

 him, interrogated him, and, struck with the extraordinary in- 

 telligence of the child, had him instructed by some of the re- 



• This biographical sketch is composed of the eloquent eloge upon Hauy 

 delivered by Baron Cuvier at the public sitting of the Academy of Sciences 

 on the 2d June 182.3, interspersed with copious additions respecting his 

 writings and scientific labours. — En. 



VOL. IV. NO. I. JAN. 1826. A 



