By luxury unnerv'd! Beneath his feet,
The polish'd pavement must be fprinkl'd o'er
With perfumes of Arabia! From above,
The lattic'd roof, with funimer flow'rs o'er-
hung,

Midft aromatic fweets. fhed cooling airs
On his feast-fever'd cheek! On ev'ry fide,
In fumptuous colonades of Parian stone,
Or glittring granite, or the fibrous earth
Of rich SIENNA's hills; flow-breathing flutes,
la dulcet trains, take captive the dull fenfe
Through the long hour of feafting; cheating
time

With enervating blifs! O! CONTRAST IN-
FINITE!

Yet who, amidst the mortal myriads,
Moft labour'd to embellish NATURE's plan
Of boundless wonders? WHO, with ceafelefs
toil,

Dug from the beamless mazes of the earth
The boast of varying climes, from LYBIA'S
groves

To caves ARMENIAN, guarded by the rocks Of wild EUPHRATES? Who, but the SoNS OF TOIL,

Enrich'd the fculptur'd dome, reviv'd the ARTS,

Sinking, o'erwhelm'd, amidst the wrecks of

time?

Look round the lofty palaces of PRIDE, Behold the BREATHING CANVAS, Wond'rous proof

Of imitative pow'r! where human forms, Colours, and space, miraculously rang'd, Drew order out of chaos! where the vast Of bold perception varied hues difclos'd, From the rich foliage of embow'ring woods To mountains, azure capp'd, fcarce vifible Amid the dufk of diftance. Trace the lines That form the graceful STATUE, Grecian born

From rough-hewn quarries! See the rounding limb,

The modest look ferene! which marks the nymph

Of MEDICEAN fame: proud monument
Of Heav'n-instructed GENIUS! thou falt

charm

When pomp and pride shall mingle in the mafs
Or undiftinguifh'd clay, inanimate,
That, having borne its hour of busy toil,
Shrinks into fhapelefs nothing! Dreadful
thought!

To mingle with the cold and fenfelefs earth;
In fpells of dull inanity to reft;

The nobleft paflions, and the living pow'rs
Of intellectual light, the SouL's pure lamp,
All, all extinguish'd! Tell me, Nature's GOD!
Then what is the warm magic that fupplies
The strong life-loving flame, which fills the
breast,

Eliv'ning TIME's flow journey? LIBERTY!
If thou art not the impulfe exquifite,
Where does it dwell? What elfe can teach the
wretch

(lab'ring with mortal ills, difeafe and pain, Deep-wounding poverty prefumptuous fcoin,

This weary task of being? Bleft with THEE,
The PEASANT were as happy as his LOR D
For NATURE knows no difference! Summer
fmiles

For the poor cottager, and fmiling fhews
The vegetating feene, diffufing fair
And equal portions for the fons of earth!
But MAN, PROUD MAN, a bold ufurper,
takes

The law of Nature from its deftin'd courfe,
And fashions it at pleasure! Hence we trace.
The gloomy annals of receding time
Spotted with gore, and blurr'd by pity's tears,
Where GENIUS, VIRTUE, NATURE's pro-.
geny!

Mark'd by th' ETERNAL'S hand with ev'ry. charm,

Have shrunk beneath Oppreffion!-bow'd the

neck

But in fome hovel low, whofe rushy roof
The barren cliff defends from wint'ry ftorms,
The godlike pair, fcorning the din of fools,
(Ambition's clamour, which the defpot,
DEATH,

Awhile obferves, then, with his iron hand,
Locks in eternal filence!) who can tell,
But the proud pair, by REASON'S pow'r suf-
tain'd,

Cherish a glorious race? STATESMEN and
CHIEFS,

POETS, and fage PHILOSOPHERS, whofe lore

Might rival ancient Greece, and nobly prove The folitude of VIRTUE-WISDOM'S SCHOOL!

LINES TO THE RED-BREAST.

LONE fongtrefs of the waning year,

The first amid the feather'd choir That warbling many a wild note clear Attunes the lay to young defire;

Why fwells with grief thy little throat?

Why do thy plumes diforder'd lie? Say from what cause that pensive note Proceeds, and why that alter'd eye?

Has

For her what fo fit as the cadence of fong,
Who rivals the nightingale's Voice?

Yet unlike be your ftrain, and your bofom at eafe,

Nor ask the gay world for a fmile, While love and content join their efforts to pleafe,

And hope can ev'n forrow beguile!, Yes-quick may you pafs, as my light-tripping measure,

O'er the troubles of life's rugged road; But long be your stay in each region of pleafure,

Where virtue fhall fix her abode!

Your cares may a husband's affection repay,
With duty delight may you blend;
And when time fteals your bloom, and your
trefles are grey,

Still greet him the lover and friend!

Thus, as poets crown all things, your days I would crown.

With fweet flow'rs that never fhall fade; Such I've witnefs'd to charm 'midft the glare of the town,

And hafte to enjoy in the shade.

J. T. R.

ACCOUNT of the LIFE and LABOURS of the Celebrated SPALLANZANI, being the Tranflation of an ELOGE, delivered by JEAN SENEBIER, KEEPER of the LIBRARY at GENEVA, read to the soCIETY of NATURAL PHILOSOPHY and NATURAL HISTORY of GENEVA, Sept. 17, 1799.

IN attentively contemplating the aftomithing progrefs of the sciences, we fearch with inquietude after those men to whom it is indebted. We presently behold human vanities upon the theatre; thofe bright flambeaux expire which appeared to have fome reality there; and the regret we then experience covers, with a kind of funeral crape, the admiration which before we had fo grateful a fenfe of. Such is the fad impreffion produced by the death of great men; their lofs diminishes the courage which their genius gave to the age in which they lived, by drying up a fountain of light that was poured out for it with fo much utility; and it robs the world of that which Nature, who reproduces as fast as fhe destroys, is not always difpofed to reftore. However, if the fruits of genius are few in number, it must be acknowledged that their vigorous constitution eternifes

their freflinefs and their flavour; and that their imperishable durability recompenfes in fome degree the pofterity of those who faw them grow, for not having had the advantage of gathering them: but those who knew thole excellent beings, who have maintained with them the relations of friendship and confidence, who were the witneffes of their thoughts and of their virtues, alas! they can only have the remembrance of the paft to aggravate their fufferings!-what did I fay? whilft age,in filvering their hairs, renders new attachments more difficult to them, they are forced to renounce the fweets of friendship; in the inftant of life, too, when they conftitute all its happiness. Sentiments thus painful, dictate to me this hiftorical Memoir on my friend SPALLANZANI, whom I tenderly cherished during twenty-five years, and whom I shall regret to the end of my exiftence. Oh! my refpectable friend! then haft no need of an eulogium, which would be below thy merit, and which thy modef ty would reject; thy name alone will always be one to thee; thy works have aiready publifhed it throughout the earth. they will repeat it through all ages, and for thee, thou fhalt ftill honour in this

all thofe enlightened virtuous fouls who have had the felicity to be united to thine!

LAZARUS SPALLANZANI was born at Scandiano, in the department of Croftolo (in the Cifalpine Republic), the roth of January 1729; he was fon of Jean Nicholas Spallanzani, an efteemed jurifconfult; and of Lucia Zugliani; he commenced his ftudies in his own country, and, at the age of fifteen years went to Reggio de Modena in order to continue them. The Jefuits, who instructed him in the belles-lettres, and the Dominicans, who heard of his progrefs, were defi rous of attaching him to them; but his paffion for extending his knowledge led him to Bologna, where his relation Laura Baffi, that woman juftly celebrated for her genius, her eloquence, and her skill in natural philofophy and the mathematics, was one of the most illuftrious profeffors of the Inftitute and of Italy. Under the direction of this enlightened guide, he learnt to prefer the ftudy of nature to that of her commentators, and to judge of the value of the commentary by its refemblance to the original: he inftantly availed himself of the wildom of that lady's counfels, and was not long before he experienced the happy effects of it. How agreeable it is to fee him in 1765 painting his gratitude for his inftructor, to whom he dedicated a Latin differtation at that time, in which he mentions the applaufes that Laura Baffi received at Modena, when he entered the auditory of her pupil, then become profeffor. The tafte of SPALLANZANI for philofophy was not exclufive: he already thought, like all great men, that the study of antiquity and the belles lettres was indifpenfible to give to ideas that clearness, to expreffions that accuracy, and to reafonings that connexion, without which the fineft thoughts become barren. He studied his own language with care; and perfected himself in the Latin tongue, but above all he attached himself to the Greek and the French. Homer, Demofthenes, St. Bafil, were his favourite authors. I have as often heard him recite paffages from Homer and Virgil, as from Ariotto and Taffo. SPALLANZANI applied himself to jurifprudence at the instance of a father whom he tenderly loved: he was upon the point of receiving the degree of doctor of civil law, when Anthony Valliferi, profeffor of natural hiftory at Padua, perfuaded him to nounce this vocation, by promifing to obtain the confent of his father, who was fenfibly touched by his fon's devotion to us will, and who thereby left him at li

re.

berty to follow his own inclinations. From that moment he gave himself up with more ardour than ever to the ftudy of mathematics, continuing that alfo of the living and dead languages..

SPALLANZANI was prefently known all over Italy, and his own country was the first to do homage to his talents. The univerfity of Reggio, in 1754, chose him to be profeffor in logic, metaphysics, and Greek. He taught there for ten years; and during that period confecrated all the time he could fpare from his lessons to the obfervation of nature. Now and then an accidental difcovery would increase his paffion for natural hiftory, which always augmented by new fuccefles. His obfervations upon the animalcula of infufions fixed the attention of Haller and of Bonnet; the latter of whom affisted him in his glo. rious career, and thenceforth distinguished him as one of the learned interpreters of nature.

In 1760 SPALLANZANI was called to the univerfity of Modena; and although his intereft would have made him accept the advantageous offers of the university of Coimbra, of Parma, and of Cefena; yet his patriotifm and his attachment to his family confined his fervices to his own country. The fame confiderations engaged him to refufe the propofitions made him by the academy of Petersburg fome years after. He remained at Modena till the year 1768, and he faw raised by his care a generation of men conftituting at this time the glory of Italy. Among them may be counted Venturi, profellor of natu ral philofophy at Modena; Belloni, bishop of Carpi; Lucchesini, ambassador of the late king of Pruffia; and the poet Angelo Mazzo of Parma.

He

During his refidence at Modena, SPALLANZANI publifhed, in 1765, Saggio di / Offervazioni Microfcopiche concernente il Sistema di Needham e Buffon. therein establishes the animality of what had been called, but not generally affented to as, microfcopic animalculæ, by the most ingenious, and at the fame time folid, experiments; he fent this work to Bonnet, who formed his opinion of the author accordingly, and who lived to fee the accomplishment of the prophecy he drew from it. From that moment, the most intimate acquaintance was formed between them, and it lafted during their lives, of which it conftituted the chief happiness. In the fame year SPALLANZANI published a differtation truly original: De Lapidibus ab Aqua refilientibus; in that work he proves, by fatisfactory experiments, contrary to the commonly received opinion, that the ducks

and

(as they are called) are not the elafticity of the water, atural effect of the change of ich the ftone experiences in its after the water has been ftruck that it has been carried over the venu or hollow of the cup formed by the concuffion.

In 1768 he prepared the philofophers for the furprising difcoveries he was ahout to offer them throughout his life, in publifhing his Prodromo di un Opera da Imprimerfi fopra le Riproduzioni Animali. He therein lays down the plan of a work which he was anxious to get up on this important fubject; but this fimple profpectus contains more real knowledge than all the books which had appeared, because it taught the method that ought to be followed in this dark research, and contained many unexpected facts; fuch as the preexistence of tadpoles at the fecundation, in many fpecies of toads and frogs; the reproduction of the head cut off from fnails, which he had already communicated to Bonnet, in 1766, and which was difputed for fome time, in fpite of the repeated confirmation of this phenomenon by Heriffant and Lavoifier. He demonftrated it again afterwards in the Memorie della Societa Italiana; as alfo the renewal of the tail, the limbs, and even the jaws, taken from the aquatic falamander. Thefe facts continue to astonish even at this day, when they are thought of, notwithstanding every one has had the opportunity of familiarifing himself with them: and we hardly know which we ought moft to admire, the expertnefs of SPALLANZANI in affording fuch decifive proofs, or his boldness in fearching after them, and feizing them. We have to regret that the project of his great undertaking is not realized, but various circumftances prevented him from giving way to the folicitations of his friends for its accomplishment. Ifhould fufpect that he defpaired of throwing upon every part of it all the light which at firft he thought he might be able; and that he found it prudent to mature his ideas by new meditations: this, perhaps, may have been as powerful a caufe, as that other calls and occupations, perpetually accumu lating, fhould not have allowed him to purfue it as he had intended. He has always laid nature open to full view, and the thinneft veil darkened her till he fucceeded in removing it altogether.

The phyfiology of Haller that SPALLANZANI ftudied, fixed his attention upon the circulation of the blood, in which he difcovered feveral remarkable phenomena.

He publifhed, in 1768, a fmall tract: Dell Azione del Cuore ne' Vafi Sanguigni nuove Offervazioni, and he reprinted it in 1773 with three new differtations, De Fenomeni della Circolazione offervata nel Giro univerfali de' Vafi; de' Fenomeni della Circolazione Languente; de' Moti del Sangue independente del Azione del Cuore e del Pulfare delle Arterie. This work, but little known, contains a series of observations and experiments, of the most ingenious and delicate nature, upon a fubject of which the furface only is known. This work merits the attention of thofe who are interefted in the progrefs of phyfiology.

When the univerfity of Padua was reeftablished upon a larger fcale, the empress Maria Therefa directed the Count de Firmian to invite him to fill a chair, as profeffor of natural hiftory; his great reputation rendered him eligible for this diftinction, folicited by many celebrated men, and he merited it by his fuccefs, and by the crowd of students who thronged to his leffons. Only great men make excellent mafters, because their ideas are the most perfpicuous, the most extensive, and beft connected.

SPALLANZANI united a vast extent of knowledge to a fine genius; a method fimple, but rigorous in its nature, and he connected what he knew to principles firmly established. His ardent love of truth made him difcufs, with the utmost care, the theories which prevailed; to found their folidity, and discover their weak fides. The great art which he had acquired, of interpreting nature by herself, diffused such a light over his leffons as made every thing perfpicuous that was capable of affording instruction. An eloquence at once plain and lively animated his difcourfe; the purity and elegance of his ftyle charmed all who heard it: in short, it was known that he always occupied himself about the means of rendering his leffons useful, which he prepared a year beforehand. They became always new and engaging, by his new observations, and by the enlarged views that his meditations prefented to him. The learned persons who attended his lectures were pleased to become his fcholars, in order to know better what they already knew, and to learn that which otherwife they would perhaps never have known.

In arriving at the univerfity, SPALLANZANI took the Contemplation de la Nature of Bonnet for the text of his leffons: he filled up the vacancies in it, he unfolded the ideas, and confirmed the theories by his experiments. He believed with reason,

that

that the book which infpired him with the love of natural history by reading it, was the most proper to give birth to it in the minds of his disciples.

He tranflated it into Italian and enriched it with notes; he added a preface to it, wherein he pointed out the fubjects of the vegetable and animal economy, which in an especial manner deferved the attention of his pupils: and fometimes pointing out to them the means of fucceeding in their refearches. It was thus he at fiift devoted himfelf to the pleafing employment of inftructor of his countrymen, and that he became the model of those who were defirous of inftructing usefully. He published the firft volume of his translation in 1769, and the second in 1770.

The connexion of SPALLANZANI with Bonnet had an influence upon his genius, which bent to the fevere method of the philofopher of Geneva. He prided himfelf in being his pupil, and he unceasingly meditated upon his admirable writings; and thus it was that he became defirous of feeking in nature for the proofs of Bonnet's opinion upon the generation of organized bodies, and that this charming fubject fixed his attention for a long time. He published, in 1776, the two first volumes of his Opufcoli di Fifica Animale e Vegetabile: they, are the explanation of a part of the Microfcopic Obfervations, which had already appeared.

If the art to obferve be the most difficult, it is nevertheless the most neceffary of all the arts; but it fuppofes every quality, every talent and further, though each believes himself more or lefs confummate therein, yet it is obvious that only great men have exercifed it in a diftinguished manner. Genius alone fixes the objects worthy of regard; that alone directs the fenfes to the obfcurities which it is neceffary to diffipate; it watches over them to prevent error; it animates them to follow by the fcent, as it were, that which they have but a diftant view of: it takes off the veil which covers what we are looking after; it fupports the patience which waits the moment for gratifying the fight in the midst of obstacles multiplying one upon another in short, it is genius that concentrates the attention upon an object, which communicates that energy to him for imagining, that fagacity for difcovering, that promptness for perceiving, without which we fee only one fide of truth, when we do not happen to let it efcape altogether. But this is not all; for after nature has been read with precifion, it is neceffary to interpret her with fidelity; to MONTHLY MAG. NO. 57.

analyse by the thought the phenomena anatomifed by the fenfes; to confider of the fpecies by obferving the individual, and to anticipate the general propofitions by confidering the unconnected facts. Here, prudence and circumfpection will not always fecure us against error, if an ardent love for the truth does not affay obfervations and their confequences in its crucible, and thereby reduce every thing to scoria which is not truth.

Such was SPALLANZANI in all his refearches; fuch we fee him in all his writings. Occupied by the great phenomenon of generation, he examined the opinion of Needham to demonftrate its want of foundation: the latter, not fatisfied with the microscopic obfervations of SPALLANZANI, which weakened the imagined vegetative force to put the matter in motion, challenged the profeffor of Reggio to a reperufal of what he had written; but he proved to the other, that we in common practice always fee that which has been well obferved, but that we never again fee that which we have been contented with imagining we saw.

I make no remark on the fevere logic and amiable politenefs of SPALLANZANI in his refutation, or the art with which he demonftrates to Needham the causes of his error; but it will always be understood with pleature, that the animalculæ of infufions are produced by germs, that there are fome of them which defy, like certain eggs and feeds, the most exceffive cold, as well as the heat of boiling water. On this occafion he treats on the influence of cold upon animals, and proves that the lethargic numbness of fome, during winter, does not depend upon the impreffion the blood may receive from it, fince a frog, deprived of his blood, becomes lethargic when he is reduced to the fame cold ftate by an immerfion in ice, and fwims as before when restored to warmth. In the same manner, he fhews that odours, various liquors, the vacuum, act upon animalculæ as upon other animals, that they are oviparous viviparous, and hermaphrodite Thus, in running over thefe diftant regions of nature with this illuftrious traveller, we are always meeting with new facts, profound remarks, precious details, and fome curious anecdotes; in fhort, an univerfal hiftory of those beings which are the most numerous of the globe, although their exiftence is fcarcely fulpected, and whofe organization is in many refpects different from that of known animals.

The fecond volume of this work is a new voyage into the most unknown parts; M m a fub