XXV 



be oppressed with a flood of ideas, which made it difficult for him to 

 suitably organise his researches. A theory, half composed, would 

 be forsaken that he might grapple with fresh imaginations. It is 

 certain that but a small fraction of his best work has been published 

 for the benefit of posterity. His genius and his greatness are not 

 properly represented by the memoirs which he has left. He had, to 

 some extent, the poetic faculty, and occasionally occupied himself 

 with the composition of sonnets, both in English and Latin. 



He had literary power, and considerable knowledge of languages, 

 living and dead. He wrote French with ease, and conversed readily 

 in French, German, and Italian. He was acquainted with both 

 Latin and Greek, and when past seventy-five years of age read 

 ' Athenaeus ' without a dictionary. 



The writer, who had numerous opportunities of studying the cha- 

 racter of this illustrious man in the last years of his life, when he 

 was heroically battling against acute suffering, consequent upon the 

 infirmities of extreme old age, formed the conviction, that will never 

 be shaken, that his personal character was one of singular beauty, 

 and that its salient points were simplicity and honesty. Absolutely 

 and fearlessly honest from cradle to grave. Future generations will 

 mark with admiration the deep footprints he has left upon the sands 

 of time, but they will not be able to realise the effect which contact 

 with his great spirit had upon his contemporaries, who knew and 

 loved him. The superficial crust of eccentricities and slight faults 

 of temperament once pierced, and the kernel of his nature reached, 

 there was found a roundness and perfection of disposition that is not 

 often met with. 



It cannot, perhaps, be said that his religious convictions were of a 

 kind which could be completely defined, but it is certain that he 

 believed in a Supreme Being, and in a future life, a life full of 

 enhanced intellectual power, and opportunities of intellectual growth. 

 The atheist will find nothing to give him satisfaction in the story of 

 this life, throughout which the faith was strong, and the conviction 

 that high principle should be paramount always present. 



His last sufferings, extending over fifteen days, were borne with 

 fortitude. 



So passed away one of the great spirits of the century. 



" And he is gathered to the Kings of Thought." 



P. A. M. 



ALFRED Louis OLIVIER LE GRAND DBS CLOIZEAUX, who died on 

 May 6, 1897, in the eightieth year of his age, was born at Beauvais, 

 Departement de VOise, on October 17, 1817, and belonged to an old 

 magisterial family. He was educated at Paris, and the teacher to 



VOL. LXI1I. d 



