54 MEMOIR OF BARON HALLER. 
jet tlie contagion was always afresh introduced from 
France, where no adequate means had hitherto been 
t alien to arrest it ; and hs then exhibited the ne- 
cessity of certain preventive methods, which soon 
afterwards being employed in concert by Hungary, 
Belgium, Switzerland, and France, were crowned 
with success. 
By way of relaxation, and for his amusement, 
Haller, in 1772-4, committed to writing his thoughts 
upon the best form of the three different kinds of 
government. He published them as Romances in 
three volumes, which were severally entitled Uaong, 
Alfred, and Falius and Cato. The two former were 
immediately translated into French, and they all 
demonstrate the author s acquaintance at once with 
history and politics. If any one, misled by their 
popular appellation, w T ere to expect only light reading 
and amusement, he would be surprised to discover 
in them deep views of the sagest administration, 
stem political truths, which were easily propounded 
under a slight disguise, and especially an elucidation 
of the omnipotence of morality and the laws. About 
this period he also contributed many articles to the 
supplement of I.e Dictionaire Encyclopediqm ; and, 
as would appear from a review of the German jour- 
nals, published, chiefly at Gottingen, as many as 
fifteen hundred communications*. 
Haller’s next important literary labours were the 
* In the “ Conversations Lexicon," the number is stated 
at twelve thousand, which we should think is an evident 
mistake. We follow Vicq d’Azyr. 
