SIR JOSEPH BANKS 241 



nounced on Sir Joseph before the French Academy, 

 assert that whenever a worthy disciple, or man of 

 letters, fell in his way, he opened to them his treasures 

 of nature with the greatest liberality!' Herschel ex- 

 perienced from him the full benefit of this generous, 

 ungrudging nature. 



Following the example of his predecessor in office as 

 President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph, possessed 

 of an ample fortune which enabled him to indulge the 

 generosity of his heart, gave receptions to learned men 

 and travellers on Sunday evenings. The stranger thus 

 describes what he then saw. " I found the veteran in 

 the middle library, in full dress, with the broad ribbon 

 of the order of the Bath over his shoulder and breast ; 1 

 just as he used to appear when presiding at the meet- 

 ings of the Royal Society. Being infirm in the feet, 

 Sir Joseph sat in an arm-chair on rollers, his left arm 

 resting on a table near him. 2 He was, it is true, 

 scarcely more than the outward shell of a mind 

 formerly so animated; both his apprehension and 

 recollection being weak ; but his features bore a most 

 engaging expression. Every stranger was at least 

 announced to him, and if he had anything to shew or 

 communicate, he immediately laid it before him." 



This generous, noble-hearted man did much to soften 

 the horrors of war in the long and bloody strife be- 

 tween this country and France. " During the voyage 

 of La Perouse, the French circumnavigator, he induced 



1 As he is represented in the portrait of him painted by Phillips, in 

 the possession of the Royal Society. 



2 For fourteen or fifteen years previous to his death, he lost the use 

 of his lower limbs so completely from gout as to oblige him to be 

 carried or wheeled by his servants in a chair : in this way he was 

 conveyed to the more dignified chair of the Royal Society. 



16 



