MEMOIR OF W.LKNER. 39 



Rophical and friendly conversation ignorant of all 

 that was going on at a distance, without reading the 

 journals of literature, and without even ascertaining 

 whether envy had occasionally made him the ohject 

 of her attack. His life might have been expected 

 to be prolonged for a considerable time; for, of ali 

 the methods which he had studied, that of taking 

 care of his own health had not occupied him least. 

 Among his whims, his anxiety never to be placed 

 between two currents of air, was one of the most 

 noticeable. But of all his precautions, the most ef- 

 fectual was the tranquillity of a peaceful mind, which 

 sought to avoid every thing that might excite in it 

 malevolent feelings. 



The misfortunes of Saxony were the only cala- 

 mities that escaped his foresight, and destroyed the 

 peace which it had procured him. He tenderly 

 loved that country with which he was identified in 

 a thousand ways ; no offer could ever prevail on him 

 to leave it. He loved a prince who protected the 

 sciences, because he had studied them profoundly, 

 and whom forty years of wise administration, and of 

 affectionate devotion to his people, could not pre- 

 serve from so many calamities. His courage could 

 not stand the sight of the sufferings of his master 

 and of his country, and his anxiety and distress pro- 

 duced a complication of diseases, to which no care 

 could administer a remedy. He died in the arms of 

 bis sister, on the 30th of June 1817, at Dresden, 



