4 Biographical Memoir 'of Mark Augustus Pictet. 



established government. When Geneva and all her sacred 

 institutions became the prey of her sanguinary assailants, M. 

 Pictet did not abandon his fallen country. The spirit of the 

 patriot rose in proportion as that of his country fell ; and 

 when his arm, and that of his fellow-citizens, was no longer 

 able to smite or to save, he called forth all the gentleness of 

 his nature to sooth the exasperated passions, and calm the 

 troubled spirits of his countrymen. Amid the violent arrests 

 and the bloody scenes which marked the revolutionary crisis, 

 the house of our author was respected as the asylum of science 

 and of patriotism. 



During these convulsions, M. Pictet lost the whole of his 

 fortune, and, by a series of distressing events, his income was 

 reduced to the small honorarium of his professorship. This 

 unexpected change of circumstances he sustained with the 

 fortitude of a Christian. He introduced into his family the 

 most severe economy, and attempted, as he then jocularly 

 observed, to resolve the problem, of the least expence at which 

 a man could live. 



When this political storm had begun to abate, Professor 

 Pictet conceived, along with his brother Charles Pictet, and 

 his friend F. G. Maurice, the plan of a periodical work, to be 

 published in monthly numbers, under the title of Bibliotheque 

 Britannique. The original object of this Journal, which com- 

 menced in 1796, was to give an account of all the works, and 

 of all the remarkable discoveries published in England, rela- 

 tive to literature, science, medicine, and agriculture. This 

 work soon attracted general attention ; and every exertion was 

 made by the editors to sustain and extend the reputation it 

 had acquired. By procuring, at a great expence, English 

 journals, and works of all kinds; by giving spirited and faith- 

 ful abstracts of them ; and by liberal and candid accounts of 

 all the new discoveries in science, this Journal has acquired a 

 character, which we trust it will long retain. No jealousies 

 mingled themselves with its criticisms ; no malevolent passions 

 warped its opinions; no ignorant charlatan was allowed to 

 administer in its pages. A sincere and a just spirit seemed to 

 preside over its management ; and men of science of all coun- 

 tries were delighted to find, that there existed at Geneva indivi- 



