$46 
prising that he quitted a career which he 
~ Bad entered upon with so much distinc- 
tion, and in which there was reason to. 
expect such happy results from his genius 
and activity. The occasion of this was, 
that in the same year in which ke was 
y adinntted into the academy, he was also 
appotmted secretary to the Agricultural 
Society; and this was followed by many 
ether causes of turning his attention into 
, a different channel. | 
Agricultural societies had been esta- 
blisbed in the several districts of France 
32 1761: but as they were mostly com- 
posed of the great proprietors of land, or 
ef mere farmers, they bad evinced little 
activity in their proceedings; and that of 
the metropolis had done no more in a pe- 
riod of four-and-twenty years, than publish 
some instructions. Bertbier de Sauvigny, 
however, who was intendant of Paris at 
this time, made it a kind of point of 
honour to raise this society to notice; 
end thought the execution of-such a de- 
sign could not be entrusted to any person 
more capable than M. Broussonnet, with 
whom he had had occasion to form a 
connection in England. ‘he latter ac- 
cordingly lost ne time in applying all his 
exertions to this parpose; and succeeded 
iN givipg, mM some measure, a new cha- 
ractcr to the association. _ Useful me- 
wioirs were published every quarter of a 
Year; numerous instructions were cireu- 
fated in the country-places; meetings of 
farmers were established in every canton, 
for their more. effectual infermation in 
| advantageous methods and- processes 3 
} and prizes were solemnly distributed to 
such of ihein as had most successfully 
apphed those processes in practice. 
These steps quickly brought the society, 
; 
{ 
tuto general respect; and induced the 
government to form it ito a central 
corporatien, with a cognizance extending 
ever the whole kingdom, for the purpose 
of eellecting and communicating mtel- 
4 figence of discoveries and inventions in 
. agriculture. Persons of the first dis- 
| einction did not disdain to enrol them- 
| selves.as its members; the seciety held 
public sittings; and in short, it assumed 
a rank among the gredit Jearned asso 
ciations of the capital. 
It cannot be denied that, in. his- new 
office, Bronssonnet shewed 2 great flexi- 
| bility of talent.. He gradually aban- 
doned the dryness which forms a cha- 
racteristic of the school that he had fol. 
lowed in natural history; and soon at 
tained an elegant. and: well-supported 
style, rising sometimes te all the warmth 
Memoirs of M. 
[May 1, 
of eloquence. The first of his éloges, 
that of Buffon, is perhaps rather feeble 
for so great a name; but in two which 
followed it, at one time he charms us 
with the peaceful virtues of Blaveau, and 
at another excites our-admiration of the 
self-devotion to the public good, and of 
the probity and frankness, which marked 
the conduct of Turget. At the period 
when every wish seemed directed to a 
popular revolution, he frequently ob- 
tained applause by recalling the public 
attention to agricultural subjects. 
It is well known what influence the 
activity of an mdividual can exert on 
that of a whole body of men; and bow 
powerfully a young man of an ardent 
character, as Broussonnet then was, may 
be tempted by such occasions of exer- 
cising a brilliant genius, and of acquiring 
the public favour: but perhaps it is less 
understood, in what degree that perpe- 
tual self-devotion to the glory of others, 
which constitutes the first duty of those 
Broussonnet. 
who are the organs of a learned society, 
inay prove detrimental to the success. 
and display of their personal labours. 
Broussonnet must have experienced this 
more than any body else, i a depart- 
ment that is doubtless of the greatest 
immediate utility; but which, being con- 
fined by its very. nature to noticing direct 
applications, had also, in an equal pro- 
portion, the cect of keeping him from 
access to those general truths which are 
the only possible objects of really scieue 
tific. labours; and of making bis situation 
rather an intermediate office between the 
provinces and the government, than a 
centre of the correspondence of learned 
men. He thus entered insensibly on a. 
new career, from the time of his being 
appointed to this post; and in that ca~ 
reer he became continually more and 
more engaged, particularly when the ree 
volution seemed to have called every one 
to the management of public affairs. 
A man who is capable of exercising a 
personal and independant influence on 
the welfare of. his coustrymen by the 
peaceful investigation of truth, wall find 
it very hazardous, without previously 
ascertaining his own strength, to agree 
to become one of the inferior springs of 
the complicated machine of government ; 
a machine in which the irresistible and 
simultaneous action of so many wheeis, 
leaves to no individual an uncontrolled 
motion or will, How much more dan- . 
gerous must this determination be, at a 
time when the whole state, delivered up 
to the passions and caprices of the mul= 
titude, 
