2 Mr. Colqiihoun on the Life and Writhigs [Jan. 



the day, and these doubts have been changed by subsequent 

 discovery mto certain objections against those theories, now 

 that their merits are discussed vv'ith more cool discrimination. 

 We must not, however, suppose that Berthollet is always as 

 correct as he is original, or that his views are as unerring as they 

 are profound. On the contrary, he is not only wrong sometimes, 

 but occasionally a little obstinate in his prejudices. In return 

 for this, however, we find him openly and manfully renouncing 

 his adherence to an erroneous opinion the moment that full 

 conviction has forced itself upon his understanding. And if, in 

 some cases, his errors were of a longer duration, we need not, 

 therefore, be surprised, since the amazing ingenuity of his expe- 

 riments and of his reasoning has oftener than once, in such cir- 

 cumstances, compelled the whole world of science, for twenty 

 years together, to yield imphcit assent to his doctrines. Nor 

 was one of his peculiar and most characteristic features the least 

 honourable to himself, or the least useful to his fellow men. For 

 he was not one of those profound theoretical speculators, who, 

 in the energy of their abstraction, forget the practical applica- 

 tions of which their discoveries are susceptible. Far from this, 

 Berthollet, while he loved science for itself, also loved to teach 

 it how to foster the arts. On one occasion in particular, he was 

 so eminently original and successful in the substance he em- 

 ployed, and the method he pointed out, for improving one of the 

 most useful arts, that his name was given to his system, and by 

 the common sanction of his countrymen, to perform this process, 

 was called hert holler, the workman beriholleur, and the manufac- 

 tory bertliollerie. So that thus, if every other iiremorial were to 

 perish, his name v/ould nevertheless be familiar to all his suc- 

 ceeding countrymen, while the French language continues to 

 be a spoken tongue. 



Berthollet was not a native of France. That country claims 

 him along with Cassini, and Winslovv, and La Grange, says 

 Cuvier,* in the Eloge of which Berthollet is the subject, only 

 as the son of her adoption, and whom it was her glory to foster 

 and to cherish. He was born at the family mansion inTalloire, 

 near Annecy, in Savoy, on the 9th of Dec. 1748. From this 

 spot, he made his first progress into the world, to commence his 

 studies at Charabery, in prosecution of which he next proceeded 

 to the CoUc^ge des Provinces at Turin, a celebrated establish- 

 ment instituted by Charles Emmanuel II!. King of Piedmont, 

 where many of the distinguished men of talent which that coun- 



* The eloquent Eloge Historique dc M. le Comte Berthollet, par ]\I. le Baron 

 Cvivier, which, as perpetual Secretary, he reail to the Royal Institute of Paris in June 

 last, iy now before the world. I take this opportiuiity of paying my tribute to the 

 elegance of that Eloge, and of adding, that I have not scrupled, in preparing the mate- 

 rials for this biography, to use it freely, whenever other sources seemed either defective, 

 or but ill authenticated. 



