Haller. 
608 
the gratification of that preposterous selfishness, that the 
most worthy characters should be involved in perma- 
nent. bitterness, bereft at once of self-command and 
consolation. Haller was not chargeable with that harsh 
apathy of which the ancient Stoics are sometimes ac- 
cused. He allowed the tides of sensibility on proper 
occasions to overflow ; but, with the most rational of that 
sect, he set bounds to this indulgence; considering 
rotracted tears as equally unbecoming with inordinate 
aughter. In an elegant poem entitled Doris, he ex- 
ressed the tenderest attachment to his first wife, and 
is sincere grief after her decease. In another monody 
within three years, he celebrated his second ; and with 
the third, he spent many years in the enjoyment of the 
most respectable state of domestic happiness. 
On his return to Berne, he was received by his coun- 
trymen with genuine affection and delight. He had the 
fortune to obtain the honourable situation of governor 
of the town-house, which was awarded by lot. 
In a year after his return, he published his Opuscula 
Pathologica, a work containing some curious facts in 
morbid anatomy. It contained also a description of a 
singular epidemic which had appeared in Switzerland, 
a sort of bilious pleurisy, in which venesection was un- 
favourable. He rnade experiments on the medical 
power of electricity in deafness, a subject which then 
excited much attention in Europe, and he pronounced it 
wholly ineffectual. He sometimes made botanical ex- 
cursions, sometimes dissected animals, and published 
ingenious accounts of such physiological resultsas he ob- 
tained ; for example, the growth of the bones, the struc- 
turé of the brain and eyes of fishes, the anatomy of the 
chick in ovo, and the general subject of generation. 
One of his conclusions on this last subject was, that the 
female has by far the greatest share in the production 
of the foetus. 
The most complete work of Haller, and that which 
will always be most perused, was his great’ System of 
Physiology in eight quarto volumes, which he began 
in 1757 and finished in 1766.. This work contains a 
complete account of all the facts then known on this 
extensive subject, minute anatomical descriptions of 
the structitre of the organs, and a detail of the systematic 
opinions of former authors. By this work he for ever 
rescued physiology from the degradation of being the 
sport of vain hypothesis: he divested it of the spuri- 
ous riches with which fancy had decorated it, and in 
their stead exhibited a collection of facts, which was at 
once solid and extensive, and led the way for the ac- 
cumulation of further results of observation and ex- 
periment, from which just theories might gradually 
arise. 
: In 1772, 1773, and 1774, he amused himself by pub- 
lishing in the form of three romances, his thoughts on 
the degrees of happiness to be enjoyed under dif- 
ferent forms of political government. In the first, en- 
titled Usong, he delineated the happiness arising from 
the administration of a virtuous and judicious despotic 
monarch, who encourages justice and morality. In 
the second, Alfred, he represented that.of a limited 
monarchy, in which the nobles and people preserve 
their right to a share in the management of the pub- 
lic. interests; and the king, while he regulates the 
state, pays respect to. established forms, consults syste- 
matically the public voice, and exerts himself to main< 
tain that constitution by which his own power is at 
once prevented from becoming lawless, and assisted 
in the dispensation of national benefits. In the third, 
entitled Fabius and Cato, he described a well-regulated 
HALLER. 
offices, which his philosophical talents enabled him to 
ari . Where it is dangerous to insist on the desi. 
rableness of a complete change of government, it is wise ‘ 
to endeavour to stimulate to virtue those in whose 
power the destinies of the human race are placed. At 
the same time it is a beneficial exercise of a philosophi 
cal talent to speculate on the most eligible forms for 
those communities which have as yet no established 
government, or for those eras of revolution in which 
the persons qualified to judge of what is best, and 
possessed of power by their union to a ‘it, are per 
fectly disposed to embrace such institutions as would 
contribute most effectually to the perpetual welfare of 
society. On this spectlation Haller did not enter far- 
ther dian by shewing himself partial to an ari 
like that of his native country: nor did he so far com~ 
plete his plan, as to paint the advantages of the best 
state of a democracy. ‘ messes? 
Haller drew up several articles for the French Ency- 
clopedie: and he long guarded the interests of general 
literature, by writing in the German review at Gottin- 
gen. The articles of which he was the author in that 
work amounted to 1500, ~ “tt 
His last works were his Bibliotheca Botanices, Anas 
ltomice, Chirurgie et Medicine Practice. In this ex- 
tensive and well digested list of authors, he points out 
in the amplest manner, and with a luminous arrange- 
ment, the sources from which he derived his know- 
ledge, and from which it might be obtained by others. 
It is written in the nore of vane ab arr 
responding to the different epochs and schools of syste+ 
tnitie cpinlati) and to each subdivision a short descrip- 
tive sketch of the period or sect in these sciences is 
prefixed. It thus exhibits an interesting history of the 
advances of science, accompanied by a full enumeration 
of the literary monuments which serve for the records 
of knowledge and opinion. His Bibliotheca Medicine 
was not completed. He had it also in view to form a 
similar work on Natural Philosophy. 
The republic sometimes conferred on him tem 
fulfil with distinguished advantage ; and he was always 
ready to employ these talents for the public good. 
While he was governor of the canton of L’Aigle, he 
essentially benefited the resources of the state, by im+ 
proving the manufacture of salt. He exerted himself 
for the establishment of a house for the maintenance 
and education of orphans and the children of eine 
citizens; and also a school for the education of the | 
dren of the more opulent classes, in which the acquisi- 
tion of useful knowledge was preferred to the objects of 
a scholastic discipline. By his influence, the situation 
of the clergy of the Pais de Vaud, which had been 
wretched and degrading, was rendered comfortable and 
respectable. 
he University of Gottingen, and its patron the 
King of Britain, solicited him to return to that place, 
offering him the chancellorship on the death of Mosheim. 
The Wing of Prussia offered to make him chancellor of 
the University of Halle, and the Empress of Russia 
made temptin to induce him to go to Peters- 
burg. -But he preferred remaining in the bosom of 
his native country, which at this time testified its re- 
spect for his character, and its desire of retaining him, 
by voting to him a competent annual salary. In 1776, 
he received the order of the Polar Star from the King 
of Sweden. i . 
The Emperor of Germany, in the course of his last 
travels, visited Haller, and found him labouring under 
an accumulation of infirmities which he evidently. 
