LAVOISIER. 265 



expect to be stripped of his property ; but he could lead 

 the life of a philosopher, and wealth had never minis- 

 tered to any but his philosophical pursuits. He had, 

 indeed, when those dismal times began, in conversation 

 with Laborde, said that he foresaw his fortune could not 

 escape, and that he was resolved, when ruined, to support 

 himself by his labour; and the profession in which he 

 designed to engage was that of pharmacy. No such 

 respite, however, was now allowed him. By a retro- 

 spective law, monstrous even in that season of violence, 

 their persons were declared punishable for the profits 

 which they had made from the old government, and 

 punishable not as for malversation but treason. This 

 iniquitous decree was passed on the 5th May ; under it 

 he was condemned to death by the Revolutionary Tri- 

 bunal, before whom a courageous citizen, M. Halle, had 

 the noble firmness to read a detailed account of Lavoi- 

 sier's discoveries, and his services to his country. After 

 his sentence was pronounced, he himself asked to be 

 allowed a few days' respite, in order that he might see 

 the result of some experiments which he had planned, 

 and which were going on during his confinement; the 

 cruel answer of the Tribunal, through Coffinhal their 

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

 philosophers/' and he was hurried to the scaffold on the 

 following day, the 8th of May, 1794, with a hundred 

 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, 



