44 The Founders of Geology LECT. 



well," he would say, " that they want to ward off the stroke ; 

 but they will not succeed." The idea of the kind of death 

 that would terminate his life never left his mind, but did 

 not in the least affect his cheerfulness. He continued to 

 come assiduously to the meetings of the Academy of 

 Sciences alone and on foot, taking only the precaution to 

 carry in his pocket his full address, that in case of anything 

 happening to him, he might be taken home. By degrees 

 he declined to dine with his friends, and then went seldom to 

 see them, quietly assigning as his excuse the fear of troubling 

 them with the sight of his death. He passed away at last 

 on the 7th of January 1*786 at the age of seventy-one years. 

 The kindly doge of Condorcet enables us to form some 

 idea of the character and peculiarities of the man. From 

 his childhood onwards he was eminently religious. His 

 nature was thoroughly frank and honest, simple and 

 unambitious. Scrupulously exact in his own dealings 

 with fact, he hated everything savouring in the least of 

 insincerity and subterfuge. His transparent sincerity 

 gained him friends everywhere ; yet he was readily 

 irritated, and had a certain brusqueness of manner, which 

 perhaps detracted from the charm of his character and led 

 to his being sometimes much misunderstood. One of his 

 acquaintances once thanked him for having given a vote in 

 his favour. "You owe me nothing for that," was Guettard's 

 abrupt reply. " If I had not believed that it was right to 

 give it to you, you should not have had it ; for I don't like 

 you." Condorcet tells how, when they met at the Academy 

 on the occasion of the delivery of the customary doges 

 of deceased members, Guettard, who looked on all these 

 things as unveracious statements, would say to the 



