ANNALS 



OF 



PHILOSOPHY. 



APRIL, 1820. 



Article I. 



Biographical Account of M. Werner, late Professor of Minera- 



logy at Freiberg* 



Abraham GOTLEB WERNERwas bom on Sept. 25, 1750, 

 at Wehran am Quiess, in Upper Lusatia. Endowed by nature 

 with unusual quickness of understanding, and with the power of 

 extensive observation, he was also gifted with a happy faculty of 

 arrangement, a Uvely imagination, and a retentive memory. In 

 conformity to the wish of his father, who had become the factor 

 of a Count Solmischen Eisenhammer, Werner devoied himself 

 from early youth to the same occupation. He received the 

 rudiments of his education at the school of the Orphan Hospital 

 at Buntzlau in Silesia, and was afterwards placed at the AcLidemy 

 of Freiberg ; and from the last mentioned place he went to study 

 at Leipzig. Here, and during his whole life, Werner struggled 

 to acquire scientific information ; and while he gained for him- 

 self reputation for his proficiency in general literature and the 

 languages, he continued severe in judging of himself, and lenient 

 and indulgent towards others, mild, affectionate, and generous ; 

 he was a true patriot, and a citizen of the world in the most 

 honourable sense of the word. 



It was at Leipzig, in the year 1774, that Werner, already more 

 distinguished for his study of natural history than for that of the 

 law, laid the firm foundation of those opinions relative to orycto- 



• Translated from " A Tribute to the Memory of Werner, by Charles Caesar 

 Ritler Von Leontiard," read before the Royal Academy of Scunces at Munich, 

 Oct. '25, 1817, and published iu vol. xxiii. of Schwiegger'i Journal. 



Vol. XV. N° IV. Q 



