.">:M i \VOISIER. 



allowed a few days' respite, in order that In- mi'_>ht sco 

 tin result of some experiments which he had planned, 

 :nid whieh were "..iii" ..n .hiring his conl'menu'iit, ; the 

 emel imswer of the fribunal, through CoH'mhal their 

 brutal jester, was that " the Republic had no need of 

 philosophers," juul he \v;is hurried to the scaflbld on the. 

 following day, the 8th of May, 17SM, with a Inuulred 

 and twenty-three other victims, who suffered in the 

 course of a few hours. 



Thus perished, in the fifty-first year of his age, one 

 of the most illustrious cultivators of science in modern 

 times. When the absolutely harmless life he had ever 

 led, remote from all political connections, is considered, 

 together with the utterly ridiculous nature of the charge 

 against him, we can hardly avoid asking ourselves 

 how it came to pass that no voice was raised, no h;md 

 stretched out for his rescue. One man of science, 

 among the most eminent of his time Carnot, was on 

 tin- Terrible Committee: had he no means of saving 

 this Kivat philosopher, licensed of something :is absurd 

 and fabulous as witchcraft? There was another, much 

 more nearly related to Lavoisier in his pursuits a 

 member possessed of no small influence in the Con- 

 vent ion, and who had in the Committee of Public 

 Instruction succeeded in carrying some most important 

 measures Fourcroy was that man ; and he had often 

 employed his extraordinary powers in explaining and 

 enforcing the great discoveries of his master, as well 

 as in sounding his praises to crowded audiences assem- 

 bled from every part of the world. Fourcroy could 

 never have feared to receive the answer of the savage, 

 Collinhal, that the Republic had philosophers enough; 

 and it is to be hoped that Fourcroy did not consiaer 

 there would be philosophers enough if his master were 

 to disappear from among their number. The courage 

 shown by the virtuous Halle* might have been expected 

 from Fourcroy, in whom its display would have been 

 incomparably safer. His interposition would also have 



