S% 
eritical friends; and it was not till after 
he had furmounted therr. objcétions, to 
the conviétion and entire periuafion of 
the fociety ; it was not till after he had 
removed from it all myftery and obfcu- 
rity, that he ventured to dnnounce his 
difcovery to the world. 
~ ‘Thus was Lavoisier the founder of 
the French Chemical School, the diftine- 
tive charactet of whichis, a clofe and ma- 
thematical mode of reafoning, in theory, 
combined with a rigid attention to facts, 
in the management of experiments 
This fchocl, in which each individual 
was at the fame time the tutor and the 
pupil, lafted from-1776 to 17923 the 
time, however, when it fiourifhed in the 
greateft vigour, was, from 1780 to 1788. 
Thefe laft eight years were fignalifed by 
the moft important difcoveries ; and in 
them, the moft material alterations were 
made, both in the foundation and fuper- 
firuGture of chemiftry. Then it was, 
that ancient theories were exploded ; 
then, the vague doétrine of phlogifton 
vanifhed before the wand of accurate ex- 
periment ; then it was, that the doctrine - 
of pneumatics received its entire efta- 
blifament; its firft and laft ftone having 
been laid by the chemifts of the French 
fchool.. The new nomenclature of the 
{cience was alfo the work of a number of 
French chemifts, who combined all the 
faliant points of the doétrine, and 
moulded it into a methodical and fyfte- 
matic form. 
Notwithftanding, however, the affift- 
ance which LaVoIsIreR derived from 
fo many eminent perforages, it is to him 
that pertains, exclufively, the honours of 
a founder » his own genius was his fole 
conductor, and the talents of his affo- 
ciates were chiefly ufeful in illuftrating 
difcoveries he himfelf had made ; he firit 
traced the pian of the revolution he had 
been a iong tine conceiving; and his 
colleagues had only to purfue and execute 
his ideas: 
In the twenty volumes of the Aca- 
demy of Sciences, from 1772 to 1793, 
are forty memoirs of LAVOISIER, re- 
plete with all the grand phenomena of 
the fcience ; the doétrine of combuftidn, 
general and particular ; the nature and 
analyfis of atmofpherical atr; the forma- 
tion and fixation of elattic fluids; the 
properties of the matter of heats the 
compofition of acids; the augmentation 
of the ponderofity of burnt bodies + the 
decompofition and recompofition of wa- 
ter, the diffolution of metals: wegeta- 
tion, fé:mentation, and- animalization. 
For more than fifteen years confecutive, 
Lav @IsiER purfued,with unfhaken con-~ 
Original Anecdotes.—Life of Lavoifier. 
[Jen 
ftancy, the route he had marked out for 
himfelf, without making a fingle falfe 
fep,or fuffering his ardour to be damped 
by the numerous and increafing obfta- 
cles which conftantly befec him. 
At length, m 1734, backed by the 
co-inciding opinions of all the moit emir 
nent French chemifts, he determined to 
blend, ina fingle sab/eau, all the different 
colourings of truth which he had long be- 
fore pourtrayed diftinétively;—this cele- 
brated elementary treatife did nor make 
its appearance till the year 1789. This 
laft work prefents the fcience ina fhape 
completely novel, and ferves more par- 
ticularly to diftinguith the manner of La- 
V CIsIER fromthat of Dr. PRIESTLEY ; 
it crowns with immortality the glory of 
LavorsreER. Although the French and 
Eneglith chemift refembled each other not 
a little in the numbered multiplicity of 
their-experiments on elaftic fluids, yet 
how different were the refpeétive refults. 
which they deduced from them ! 
Many were the fervices rendered by 
LAV O!SIER, ia public and private capa- 
city, to manufactures, to the {ciences, and 
to artifts. His domeftic virtues. how- 
ever, fhould not be wholly paffed by; 
as a friend, relative, hufpand, &c. his 
conduct was exemplary:—~in his man- 
ners, he was unafiectedly plain and fim- 
ple. Many young pertons, not bleffed 
with the gifts of fortune, but incited by 
their inclination to woo the {ciences, have 
confeffed their ebligations to him, for 
pecuniary aid; many, alfo, were the 
unfortunate, whom he relieved in filence, 
and without even the oftentation of virtue. 
In the communes of the department of 
the Lor & Cher, where he poffeffed confi- 
derable eftates, frequently woud he vifit 
the cottages of indigence and diftrefs ; 
long, indeed, will his memory, and that 
-of his amiable fpoufe, be © cherifhed 
there ! This virtuous man, fo dear to 
his country, to’ the fciences, and to the 
world, was at length fuddenly hurried 
into the tomb, as one of the Farmers. — 
General, from the pinnacle of public and 
private happinefs, by a fet of homicides, 
who made a fport of facrificing the lives 
of the beft men, toa fanguinary idol of 
their own fetting-up !—The pen refufes 
to recite the particulars of this barbarous 
butchery.—Honoured fhade, accept the 
regretsand the palms whichevery friend 
‘of man bears to thy deferved renown; 
and may the memory of thy virtues, thy 
genius, and thy courage, live m the 
bofoms of good men, when the horrid 
cataftrophes which haye blackened the 
hittory of thy country fhall fink into 
oblivion £ ia ORIGINAL 
