PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY OF GENEVA. 301 



-TTPre not periods of twenty four hours, but eras of great length. These views, 

 which were then new, though now generally admitted, incurred violent 

 opposition and much reproach on the part of some of the examiners. This cir- 

 cumstance and his repugnance for the heated religious controversies of that 

 epoch, led him to renounce the sacred ministry and devote himself wholly to 

 scientific studies. In the autumn of 1819, he repaired to Paris and Avas received 

 with warm interest by Brongniart, Bournon, Haiiy, and Biot. At this epoch 

 he produced a work of great merit on " the relations of the form of crystals to 

 th( ir optical properties," and on his return to Geneva published new memoirs 

 on mineralogy and optics in the ^^/^t/io^/i^'^-Me Umver.se/Icihe Mem.de la Soc. de 

 Phys. et d' Hist. NatvreUe, and the Bulletin del a Societe Philomathique. About 

 1822, his scientific career was somewhat interrupted by his being chosen to direct 

 the education of the hereditary grand duke of Saxe- Weimar, li was at Weimar 

 that he enjoyed the advantage of meeting the illustrious Go3the, between whom 

 and himself relations of intimacy were soon established. Goethe was not merely 

 a great poet ; the natural sciences, and especially botany, wure among his favor- 

 ite studies. He had thus learned to place a ju.-^t value on the savants whom our 

 city so highly prized, and when I visited him in 1819 was never weary of 

 extolling the labors of de Candolle and Vaucher. The arrival of the young and 

 zealous naturahst of Geneva could not fail to confirm him in these favorable 

 sentiments, and as he had just published a memoir on the Metamorphosis of plants, 

 it was Soret who was charged with making a French translation of it. It will 

 readily be conceived that, in an artistic and literary centre so brilliant as the 

 court of Weimai% the decided taste of our compatriot for poetry and the fine 

 arts received great development. The journals of the time and place contain, 

 accordingly, a multitude of his productions in prose and verse, which attest his 

 success as a writer and poet. Several excursions which he made into Russia 

 and Italy with the prince, his pupil, confirmed these tendencies, and also led him 

 to the study of archeology and numi.<matics, which he prosecuted with charac- 

 teristic ardor to the end of his life. Hence we have more than thirty disserta- 

 tions of his, not only on the coins of Geneva and its environs, but more espe- 

 cially on those of the east, Byzantine, Caliphat, Sossanide, Cufic, Republished 

 in the Mcmoires de la Societe d'Histoire et d'ArcJieologie de Genere, th(; Revues 

 Numismatiques Beige et Frangaise, the Revue Archeolugique, and the Memoires 

 de la Societe Imperiale d' Archeologie de Saint Petersbourg. In this branch 

 of learning he soon acquired a high reputation, and the study of Arabic, which 

 extended even to the publication of a dictionary of that language, contributed 

 to the accuracy of his judgment on the origin and value of oriental coins, the 

 classing and legends of which had been previously so obscure. More than 

 twenty learned societies of foreign countries felt a just prule in numbering him 

 among their associates ; but however numerous and flattering these distinctions, 

 they made no impression on the modest and unassuming nature of Soret. (It 

 would be beside the scope of this publication to give a detailed account of the 

 various public offices in which he devoted his talents, experience, aud admira- 

 ble judgment to the service of his country.) In 1836 he had married iM'lle 

 Elisa Bertheau, and an only daughter, the worthy offspring of this union, con- 

 tributed a charm and solace to their mutual existence. I'he health of our regretted 

 colleague had been good to quite an advanced age, and had permitted him to 

 enjoy in his retreat a life exempt from disquietude and devoted to study ; but 

 his last years were overclouded at times by obstinate rheumatic neuralgia, with- 

 out prejudice, however, to the serene equality of his character, or the vivacity 

 of his intelligence and tastes. Shortly after a visit from his old pupil, the 

 grand-duke of Weimar, an accidental exposure to cold brought on pneumonia, to 

 Avhich malady he succumbed December 8, 1865. 



Jean Francois Montague' was born February 15, 1784, at Vaudoy, depart- 

 ment of the Seineet-Marne. At the age of fourteen he took part in the expe- 

 dition to Egypt as assistant helmsman, and his precocious intelligence as well 



