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H E L 
important as we. might be led to infer from its moun¬ 
tainous character. Some of the ftreams wafh down 
particles of gold, as the Rhine, the Emmat, the Aar, 
the Reufs,- the Adda, and the Goldbach. . Mines of 
filver are mentioned ; but the places are not fpecified. 
Copper and lead are alfo found: but the chief mines 
are thofe of iron in the country of Sargans. In the 
canton of Berne there are valuable quarries of rock- 
falt; and it is faid that coal and native fulphur are not 
unknown. But the grand ftores of minerals are in 
Piedmont, and the fouthern tides of the Alps; as in 
Hungary they are in the fouth of the Carpathian moun¬ 
tains; and the richett minerals are alfo found in the 
fouth of the Pyrenees. In ridges running north and 
fouth, it is believed the eaftern fide is generally the 
molt productive. Rock-cryftal forms perhaps the chief 
export of Helvetia, being fometimes found in fuch large 
pieces as to weigh feven or eight hundred weight. The 
calcareous parts of the Alps often prefent beautiful 
marbles, and good Hates are not uncommon. As to 
granite and porphyry, the country may be faid to confift 
of them. Among the Alps are alfo found Terpentines, 
fteatites, afbeflos, and amianthus; with jafpers, agates, 
and various petrifactions. Near Chiavenna is a quarry 
of grey lapis ollaris, which has been long wrought into 
pots of various dimenfions, that Hand the fierceft fire. 
Among the mineralogic curiofities may be named the 
adularia, or glaffy felfpar, on the mountains of Adula; 
and the tremolite, fo called from Mont Tremola near 
St. Gothard. 
Of mineral waters the mod remarkable are thofe of 
Leuk. Scheuchzer, in his third journey, defcribes the 
Angular warm baths of Fabara, or Pfeffers, in the coun¬ 
try of Sargans, to which the vifitants palled through a 
long narrow chafm, by a palTage extremely dangerous. 
To the fouth-eaft are the baths of Alvenew, which are 
fulphurous, and refemble Harrowgate water. In fliort, 
Helvetia poffefles every thing within itfelf, that can be 
requifite for the health, the comfort, or the happinefs, 
of man. 
HELVE'TII, a people of Belgica, in the neighbour¬ 
hood of the Allobroges and the Provincia Romana ; 
famed for bravery, and a turn for war. Called Cwitas 
Helvetia , and divided into four Pagi or cantons ; fituated 
to the fouth and weft of the Rhine, by which they 
were divided from the Germans ; and extending towards 
Gaul, from which they were feparated by 'mount Jura 
on the weft, and by the Rhodanus and'Lac us Lemanus 
on the fouth, and therefore called a Gallic nation. 
Tacitus, Ccefar, Strabo, Ptolemy, Pliny. Formerly a part of 
Celtic Gaul, but by Auguftus alligned to Belgica. 
HELVE'TIUS (John-Claud-Adrian), an eminent 
French phyfician, born at Paris in 1685. He was edu¬ 
cated under his father Adrian Helvetius, and afterwards 
ftudied with reputation in the college of the four 
nations. He was admitted to the degree of doCtor in 
the faculty of Paris at the age of twenty-two, and the 
intereft of his father, and his own merit, introduced him 
to great employment, both in Paris and at court; and 
the fuccefs of his advice in a dangerous illnefs of the 
young king in 1719, gave him the firft place in the 
public efteem. He was in confequence fixed at Ver- 
failies with a large penfion by the regent, and was 
fucceflively nominated a counfellor of ftate, firft phyfi¬ 
cian to the queen, and infpeCtor-general of the military 
hofpitals. He was admitted into the Academy of 
Sciences, and the learned focieties of London, Berlin, 
and Bologna. He was not lefs amiable as a private 
man than refpe6table as a phyfician; and to the poor 
he was liberal both of advice and alms. He died in 
ss, at the age of feventy. In the Memoirs of the 
Academy of Sciences for 1718, Helvetius publifhed a 
defeription of the lungs, with an hypothelis concerning 
refpiration, which he made chiefly to confift in the 
compreffion of the blood. This he afterwards defended 
H E L 
in a feparate treatife, entitled Eclaircijftmens, (Be. 1728, 
4to. to which he added an epiftle to the anatomift 
Window on the Structure of the Glands. In the Me¬ 
moirs of the Academy for 1719, he gave a defeription 
of the ftomach of man, and of ruminant animals; and 
in thofe for 1721 he deferibed the fa brie, of the inteftines. 
His other works are-, 1. Idee generate de V(Economic Animate, 
1722, 8vo. and Letters in reply to the criticifni of 
M. Bede on this performance, 1725. 2. Principia Phy~ 
fco-Mcdica, 2 vols. 8vo. 1752, for the ufe of ftudents in 
medicine. 
HELVE'TIUS (Claud-Adrian), a French philofo- 
phical writer of great celebrity, fon of the preceding, 
born at Paris in 1715. He received the early part of 
his education in his father’s 1/oufe ; and when he was of 
a proper age, was fent to the college of Louis the Great. 
In this feminary, by difeovering marks oTfuperior 
genius, he acquired the efteem of father Charles Poree, 
profeflbr of rhetoric, who paid a particular attention to. 
his education. By the progrefs which he rapidly made 
in fcience and literature, in wit and amiable manners, he 
became a favourite of the mod diftinguilhed literary 
characters of his time. His firft literary produ&ions- 
confided of Epiftles on Happinefs, which received no 
fmall applaufe; and even Voltaire complimented the 
talent which they difeovered in the author, for eompofing 
didaCtic or philofdphical poetry. In 1758, he gave to 
the world his celebrated work, entitled De l'Efprit, &c. 
which was condemned by the parliament of Paris, 
as derogatory to the nature of man, by confining his 
faculties to animal fenfibility, and as having a tendency 
to deftroy the diftinfitibns between virtue and vice. That 
profeription, however, like fimilar attempts to crufh 
principles by force, and not by argument, inftead of 
leading to its ffrppreflion, occafioned it to be fought 
after, with avidity, not only in France* b.ut in other 
countries. In order to withdraw for a time from the 
fury of his enemies which this publication had called 
forth, he paid a viiit to England in 1764; and in the 
following year went to Pruftia, where lie was received 
with particular attention by Frederic the Great, lodged 
in his palace, and admitted into his familiar parties. 
Upon his return to France, he fpent histime occafionally 
at his houfe in Paris, and on his domain at Vore, in the 
calm purfuit of his ftudies, the enjoyment,of domeftic 
happinefs, and in the excercife of benevolence towards 
his tenants and dependants. In this peaceful retreat he 
received the vifits of the 1110ft refpeCtable of the literati; 
till the time of his death, which happened in December 
1771, when he was about fifty-fix years of age. 
The only work of M. Helvetius which was publifhed 
during his life-time, was the treatife already mentioned, 
De VEfprit, or Eflays on the Mind, and its feveral Facul¬ 
ties, 1758, 4to. and in three volumes 12070. This work 
is divided into four eflays; each of which is diftributed 
into fubordinate chapters. The firft eflay relates to the 
mind, asconfidered in itfelf, and is intended to prove, 
that “ natural fenfibility and memory are the productive, 
caufes of all our ideas ; and that all our falfe judgments 
are the effects of our paflions or our ignorance.” In. 
the fecond eflay, the mind is confidered as relative to 
fociety ; the author endeavouring to prove, “ that the 
fame intereft which influences the judgments which we. 
form of aCtions, and makes us confider them as virtuous,. 
vicious, or allowable, according.as they are ufeful,. pre¬ 
judicial, or indifferent, with refpeCt to the public,, 
equally influences the judgment we. form of ideas; and 
.that, as well in fubjects of morality as in thofe of. 
genius, it is intereft alone that dictates all our judg¬ 
ments.” The objeCt of the author’s third eflay is, “ to 
inveftigate whether genius ought to be confidered as a, 
natural gift, or as an effeCt of education?” from which 
he draws the general conclufion, that all men well 
organized have the natural power of acquiring the molt, 
exalted ideas; and that the difference of genius obfer- 
