LAVOISIER. 325 



been much more powerful ; nay, we know that he did 

 interpose, with effect, for another member of the Aca- 

 demy, M. Darcet, whom he saved from the guillotine. 

 No explanation has ever been given of the neutral 

 position maintained by him in Lavoisier's apparent 

 murder. This only we know, that he remained in his 

 place, both as a member of the Convention and of the 

 Committee ; and we know, too, how impossible it would 

 have been to retain Halley or Maclaurin in their place, 

 had the sacred head of Newton been threatened by the 

 sacrilegious hands of their colleagues. The charge 

 against Fourcroy amounts to no more ; for there is 

 no evidence whatever to support the accusation often 

 brought against him, that he had instigated the atro- 

 cious crime which placed all the republic of letters in 

 mourning, and covered that of France with infamy 

 hardly to be effaced. M. Cuvier tells us that the 

 " most strict researches had left him unable to discover 

 the least proof in support of this horrid charge," and 

 he states that this imputation " had been the torment 

 of M. Fourcroy's life."* This is very credible ; the 

 charge is hardly credible at all. But men's admiration 

 of Halle will remain for ever ; and if their suspicions 

 of Fourcroy should ever be removed, they must at 

 least regard his want of courage with contempt rather 

 than pity. 



The great man thus sacrificed, was as much to be 

 loved in private life as he was to be revered among 

 philosophers. His manners were simple and engaging, 

 his generosity unbounded, his conduct without re- 

 proach. His case formed no exception to the general 

 rule, which seems almost always to forbid genius from 

 descending in families, for he died childless. His 

 widow, a person of remarkable abilities and great in- 

 formation, shared in his pursuits, and even took upon 

 herself the task of engraving the plates that accom- 



* Eloge de Fourcroy, Mem. de 1'Institut, An. 1810. (Tome XL, Phys. 

 et Math.) 



