212 The Life and Writings of M. Desfontaines. 



These valuable works being completed, Desfontaines began to feel 

 a void. He had never acquired any relish for worldly pleasures. 

 At the period of the revolution, he lived in a very retired manner, 

 devoted only to the few intimate friends around him. He spent 

 every evening at the house of his colleague Thouin, or in the com- 

 pany of a few select and intelligent acquaintances. 



The learned professor of the museum, had, like a true patriarch, 

 adhered to the manners and to the habitation of his father, who was 

 the gardener of the establishment. It was in the modest kitchen, 

 and around the hearth, where his frugal meals were cooked, that 

 were assembled every evening, the academicians Thouin and Des- 

 fontaines, whose science and intelligence served as guides to the 

 company, along with Van Spaendonk, who loved to relate anecdotes 

 of the old Courts, and the geologist Faujas Saint-Fonde, whose con- 

 versation, volcanic, like the subject of his studies, animated the whole 

 company, and the gardener of the museum, John Thouin, who by 

 his wit and raillery, tempered the gravity of the Deans, and last- 

 ly one of the five Directors of France, La Reveillere-Lepeaux, who 

 slipped away from the gilded canopies of the Luxemburg, to talk 

 upon science, and make diversion of the cares of government. 



The picture of these meetings, (which I occasionally although rare- 

 ly attended,) can never be effaced firom my remembrance, replete 

 as they were with the most agreeable excitements. The meetings 

 were by degrees broken up by the death of several of its members. 

 Several of the most intimate friends of Desfontaines were removed 

 from him either by absence or by death. A sister whom he tender- 

 ly loved, frequently came from her village in Brittany to bestow upon 

 him her cares and affection, but could not remain long away fi-om 

 her domestic engagements. Thus situated, he perceived the estrange- 

 ments which threatened him, and having met with a young female, 

 without fortune, it is true, but of an open and agreeable disposition, 

 he chose her for the companion of his Hfe and married her at the age 

 of 63. This connexion commenced under happy auspices and his 

 letters often spoke of the happiness which he enjoyed ; he became 

 the father of a daughter who was afterwards the source of his great- 

 est comfort. His wife, in consequence of a second and most unfa- 

 vorable accouchement was attacked by that cruel malady which, while 

 it respects life and its physical faculties, takes away all that apper- 

 tains to the heart and understanding. Desfontaines, obliged, even 

 from a regard to his wife, to separate himself from her, was plunged 



