16 MEMOIRS OF 



study of administration, which, in Germany, 

 embraces the practical and elementary parts of 

 law, finance, police, agriculture, technology *, 

 &c., and was principally led to this preference, 

 because it also afforded him many opportunities 

 of pursuing natural history, of herborising, and 

 of visiting collections. He, on all occasions, 

 enthusiastically profited by these opportunities, 

 for the cultivation of his darling taste ; he fre- 

 quently read over Linnaius, Reinhart, Mm*, and 

 Fabricius. In his walks he collected a very 

 considerable herbarium ; and, during his hours of 

 recreation, he drew and coloured an immense 

 number of insects, birds, and plants, with the 

 most surprising correctness and fidelity, and to 

 which drawings he would frequently return with 

 pleasure, when the naturalist was perfect in his 

 career. But it was the same in every thing ; 

 for that versatility of talent, which made him the 

 wonder of all who knew him as a man, seems to 

 have distinguished him in early years. He ob- 

 tained various prizes, and the order of Cheva- 



* Technology is the theoretical part of mechanical science, 

 independent of the practical; a knowledge of which was 

 thought absolutely indispensable to one taking a part in ad- 

 ministration. 



