1800. | 
round about truth, if his mind were not 
‘exercifed by much ftudy, fupported by 
the imagination, and directed by judg- 
Mente 4 
If we would judge SpaLLANzaNr by 
the objets which have occupied him, that 
would be the moft important, and at the 
fame time the moft difficult way: the ge- 
neration of animals and of plants, the cir- 
culation of the blood, the digeftion, the 
re{piration; the fpermatic animalculz, thofe 
of infufions; mineralogy, volcanoes, com- 
buftion, the defcription of many unknown 
animals, fhoals of cruftaceous and teftace- 
ous fithes; the folution of feveral phyfical 
and chemical problems,all defiderata till his 
time. A man may inthe courfe of fome 
years form a hiftory of any particular ob- 
ject without poffefling very diftinguifhed 
talents; but to treat on fo many ob{cure 
fubjects in an original manner, to tear off 
fo many veils, to difcover fo many truths, 
is! to announce an extraordinary energy, 
and the employment of means which are 
by no means common. Great men 
produce fuch numerous and fine works, 
becaufe all their hours are marked by 
great ideas, and becaufe all their thoughts 
are emiffions of light which throw a bright- 
nefs over every part of the objects they 
contemplate, and becaufe all their thoughts 
aie rays which penetrate them. 
If we pronounce on SPALLANZANI by 
his method; it is uniformly the moft in- 
genious, the moft eafy, and the moft {cruti- , 
nizing ; he never leaves any doubt, he can- 
not be contented under any; and he always 
fhews as much in the nature, and in the 
folidity of his explanations. His difco- 
veries have defied the fagacity of the 
keeneft obfervers, and the perfpicacity of 
the moft envious. It is in the whole of 
his labours, that his vaft conceptions are 
to be underftood, they are always the happy 
expofition of a grand idea, which attaches 
itfelf to the great principles of natural hif- 
tory; and, as he takes great pains to re- 
mark this precifé union, one would imagine 
he poffeffed the plan of the univerfe. 
‘In fhort, if we decide on SPALLANZANI 
by his ftyle, which is a characteriftic 
trait of genius, when it is pure, clear, po- 
lifhed, and melodious; we know that the 
countrymen of this naturalift place his 
_ works by the fide of thofe which are the 
_ beft written. But I ought to ftop here 
it was my wifh to make known the merits 
of this rare man, by recounting that which 
‘he has done, and in fumming up the judg- 
ment of all thofe who read him, or who 
have had an opportunity of knowing him, 
N\ 
Life and Labours of Spallanzani. 27% 
Such is that of Haller *, Trembley, Bon- 
net; it has been repeated by the illuftri- 
ous profeffors of Pavia, by all the cele- 
brated men of Italy and of Eurape, with 
whom he was in correfpondence. France, 
Germany, England, all were eager to 
avail themfelves of his works by means 
of tranflations. He was admitted into 
the academies and learned focieties of 
London, Stockholm, Géttingen, Holland, 
Lyons, Bologna, Turin, Padua, Mantua, 
and Geneva. He was a correfpondent of 
the academy of f{ciences of Paris and of 
Montpelier: and received from the great 
Frederic himfelf the diploma of member 
of the academy of Berlin, holding even 
often a dire& correfpondence with him. 
It is two years fince C. Salicetti, com- 
miflary of the Diretory of the Republic 
to the army of Italy, offered him a chair 
of natural hiftory at Paris, which he re- 
fufed on account of his advanced age. 
The laft year, the college of medicine at 
Madrid received him as one of its body. 
The ftature of SPALLANzANI was tall 
rather than fhort; he had a high forehead, 
lively and dark eyes, a brown complexion, 
a robuft frame, and had never felt during 
the whole of his life but one fit of a 
fever, and that he caught in coming out of 
the mines of Schemnitz, in very cold 
weather. In the 3d year of the Republic, 
he was attacked with a flight retention of 
urine, and fome fymptoms of the gout, 
which however did not in the leaft fufpend 
his ftudies. 
SPALLANZANIcuftomarily worked every 
day, following a methodical order which 
he had prefcribed himfelf: he then pre- 
ferred retired fituations: but he loved 
hunting and fifhing, in which {ports he 
was very expert ; he played well at ballon 
and at cheis ; his converfation was always 
filled with energetic expreffions, with ori- 
ginal ideas and happy references. 
A ftrong and rich memory enabled him 
to embrace and retain, in an inftant, all 
that was known upon the fubjeéts which 
occupied him; an infallible judgment kept 
out every thing like confufion ; his ardour 
for acquiring thei {ciences equalled his pa- 
tience for entering profoundly into them. 
His extenfive and enterprizing view in- 
{tantly maftered the matter he treated, but 

* Haller dedicated to him the ath volume 
of the laft edition of his grand Phyfiology, 
«6 Lazaro SPALLANZANI, SUMMO NA- 
TURA IN MINIMIS INDAGATORI, OB EJUS 
IN VERI FINIBUS EXTENDENDIS MERI«® 
TAs DOHALLERUS.." 
he 


