in ancient mythology, a species of demi-gods, who dwelt in the woods. They are represented as monsters, half men and half goats; having horns on their heads, and a hairy body, with the feet and tail of a goat. They are generally delineated in the train that follows Bacchus. As the poets supposed that they were remarkable for piercing eyes and keen raillery, they have placed them in the same pictures with the Graces, Loves, and even with Venus herself.

SAUL the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, was the first king of the Israelites. On account of his disobedient conduct, the kingdom was taken from his family and given to David.

SAUMUR, an arrondissement of the department of the Maine et Loire, in France, extending over 516 square miles. It is divided into eight cantons and ninety-three communes, and, in 1836, contained 91,159 inhabitants. The capital is the city of the same name, situated at the influx of the Thouet into the Loire, which here forms several islands. It contains 11,925 inhabitants. There is much linen trade carried on, some tanning, some copper and cutlery goods made, and some saltpetre refineries. Long. 0. 9. 55. W. Lat. 47. 15. 24. N.

SAUNDERS' ISLAND, in the South Atlantic Ocean, ten leagues in circumference, and discovered by Captain Cook in 1775. Long. 26. 44. W. Lat. 57. 49. S.

SAUNDERSON, Dr Robert, an eminent casuist, was born at Rotherham, in Yorkshire, on the 19th of September 1587. He was descended of an ancient family, and attended the grammar-school at Rotherham, where he made such wonderful proficiency in the languages, that at thirteen it was judged proper to send him to Lincoln College, Oxford. In 1608 he was appointed logic reader in the same college. He took orders in 1611, and was promoted successively to several benefices. Archbishop Laud recommended him to Charles I. as a profound casuist; and that monarch, who seems to have been a great admirer of casuistical learning, appointed him one of his chaplains in 1631. Charles proposed several cases of conscience to him, and received so great satisfaction from his answers, that at the end of his month's attendance he told him that he would wait with impatience during the intervening eleven months, as he was resolved to be more intimately acquainted with him, when it would again be his turn to officiate. The king regularly attended his sermons, and was wont to say that he "carried his ears to hear other preachers, but his conscience to hear Mr Saunderson."

In 1642 Charles created him regius professor of divinity at Oxford, with the canony of Christ Church annexed. But the civil wars prevented him until 1646 from entering on the office; and in 1648 he was ejected by the visitors which the parliament had commissioned. He must have stood high in the public opinion; for in the same year in which he was appointed professor of divinity, both houses of parliament recommended him to the king as one of their trustees for settling the affairs of the church. The king, too, reposed great confidence in his judgment, and frequently consulted him about the state of his affairs. When the parliament proposed the abolition of the episcopal form of church government, as incompatible with monarchy, Charles desired him to take the subject under his consideration, and deliver his opinion. He accordingly wrote a treatise entitled Episcopacy, as established by Law in England, not prejudicial to Regal Power. At taking leave, the king advised him to publish Cases of Conscience. He replied that "he was now grown old, and unfit to write cases of conscience." The king said, "It was the simplest thing he had ever heard from him; for no young man was fit to be a judge, or write cases of conscience." Walton, who wrote the life of Dr Saunderson, informs us, that in one of these conferences the king told Saunderson, or one of the rest who was then in company, that "the remembrance of two errors did much affect him, which were his assent to the Earl of Strafford's death, and the abolishing of Episcopacy in Scotland; and that if God ever restored him to the peaceable possession of his crown, he would prove his repentance by a public confession and a voluntary penance, by walking barefoot from the Tower of London, or Whitehall, to St Paul's Church, and would desire the people to intercede with God for his pardon."

Dr Saunderson was taken prisoner by the parliament's troops, and conveyed to Lincoln, in order to procure in exchange a Puritan divine named Clark, whom the king's army had taken. The exchange was agreed to, on condition that Dr Saunderson's living should be restored, and his person and property remain unmolested. The first of these demands was readily complied with; and a stipulation was made, that the second should be observed; but it was impossible to restrain the licentiousness of the soldiers. They entered his church in the time of divine service, interrupted him when reading prayers, and even had the audacity to take the common-prayer book from him, and to tear it to pieces.

Mr Boyle, having read a work of Dr Saunderson's, entitled De Juramentis Obligatione, was so much pleased that he inquired at Bishop Barlow, whether he thought that it was possible to prevail on the author to write Cases of Conscience, if an honorary pension was assigned him to enable him to purchase books and pay an amanuensis. Saunderson told Barlow, "that if any future tract of his could be of any use to mankind, he would cheerfully set about it without a pension." Boyle, however, sent him a present of £50, sensible, no doubt, that, like the other royalists, his finances could not be great. Upon this Dr Saunderson published his book De Conscientia.

When Charles II. was reinstated in the throne, he recovered his professorship and canonry, and soon afterwards was promoted to the bishopric of Lincoln. During the two years and a half in which he possessed this new office, he spent a considerable sum in augmenting poor vicarages, and in repairing the palace at Budgen. He died on the 29th of January 1662-3, in his seventy-sixth year.

He was a man of great acuteness and solid judgment. "That staid and well-weighed man Dr Saunderson," says Dr Hammond, "conceives all things deliberately, dwells upon them discreetly, discerns things that differ exactly, passeth his judgment rationally, and expresses it aptly, clearly, and honestly." Being asked, what books he had read most, he replied, that "he did not read many books, but those which he did read were well chosen and frequently perused." These, he said, were chiefly three, Aristotle's Rhetoric, Aquinas's Secunda Secundae, and Cicero's works, especially his Offices, which he had not read over less than twenty times, and could even, in his old age, recite without book." He added, that "the learned civilian Dr Zouch had written Elementa Jurisprudentiae, which he thought he could also say without book, and that no wise man could read it too often." He was not only conversant with the fathers and schoolmen, with casuistical and controversial divinity, but he was well acquainted with all the histories of the English nation, was a great antiquary, had searched minutely into records, and was well skilled in heraldry and genealogy.

It will now be proper here to give a short account of his works. 1. In 1615 he published Logicae Artis Compendium, which was the system of lectures he had delivered in the university when he was logic reader; 2. Sermons, amounting in number to thirty-six, printed in 1681, folio, with the author's life by Walton; 3. Nine Cases of Conscience resolved, first collected in one volume in 1678, 8vo; 4. De Juramentis Obligatione, which was translated into English by Charles I. while a prisoner in the Isle of Wight, and printed at London in 1663, in 8vo; 5. De Obligatione Conscientiae; 6. Censure of Mr Antony Ascham his book of the confusions and revolutions of government; 7. Pax Ecclesiae, concerning Predestination, or the five points; 8. Episcopacy, as established by Law in England, not prejudicial to the Regal Power, in 1661. Besides these, he wrote two Discourses in defence of Usher's writings.

Saunderson, Dr Nicholas, was born at Thurilestone, in Yorkshire, in 1682, and may be considered as a prodigy for his application and success in mathematical literature, in circumstances apparently the most unfavourable. He lost his sight by the small-pox before he was a year old. But this disaster did not prevent him from searching after that knowledge for which nature had given him so ardent a desire. He was initiated into the Greek and Roman authors at a free school at Penniston. After spending some years in the study of the languages, his father, who had a place in the excise, began to teach him the common rules of arithmetic. But he soon surpassed his father, and could make long and difficult calculations without having any sensible marks to assist his memory. At eighteen he was taught the principles of algebra and of geometry by Mr Richard West of Undoorbank, who, though a gentleman of fortune, yet, being strongly attached to mathematical learning, readily undertook the education of so uncommon a genius. Saunderson was also assisted in his mathematical studies by Dr Nettleton. These two gentlemen read books to him and explained them. He was next sent to a private academy at Attercliffe near Sheffield, where logic and metaphysics were chiefly taught. But these sciences not suiting his turn of mind, he soon left the academy. He lived for some time in the country without any instructor; but such was the vigour of his own mind, that few instructions were necessary. He only required books and a reader.

His father, besides the place he had in the excise, possessed also a small estate; but having a numerous family to support, he was unable to give him a liberal education at one of the universities. Some of his friends, who had remarked his perspicuous and interesting manner of communicating his ideas, proposed that he should attend the university of Cambridge as a teacher of mathematics. This proposal was immediately put into execution, and he was accordingly conducted to Cambridge in his twenty-fifth year, by Mr Joshua Dunn, a fellow-commoner of Christ's College. Though he was not received as a member of the college, he was treated with great attention and respect. He was allowed a chamber, and had free access to the library. Mr Whiston was at that time professor of mathematics, and as he read lectures in the way that Saunderson intended, it was naturally to be supposed he would view his project as an invasion of his office. But, instead of meditating any opposition, the plan was no sooner mentioned to him than he gave his consent to it. Saunderson's reputation was soon spread throughout the university. When his lectures were announced, a general curiosity was excited to hear such intricate mathematical subjects explained by a man who had been blind from his infancy. The subject of his lectures was the Principia Mathematica, the Optics, and the Arithmetic Universalis, of Sir Isaac Newton. He was accordingly attended by a very numerous audience. It will appear at first incredible to many that a blind man should be capable of explaining optics, which requires an accurate knowledge of the nature of light and colours; but we must recollect that the theory of vision is taught entirely by lines, and is subject to the rules of geometry.

While thus employed in explaining the principles of the Newtonian philosophy, he became known to its illustrious author. He was also intimately acquainted with Halley, Cotes, Demoivre, and other eminent mathematicians. When Whiston was removed from his professorship, Saunderson was universally allowed to be the man best qualified for the succession. But to enjoy this office it was necessary, as the statutes direct, that he should be promoted to a degree. To obtain this privilege, the heads of the university applied to their chancellor the Duke of Somerset, who procured the royal mandate to confer upon him the degree of master of arts. He was then elected Lucasian professor of mathematics in November 1711. His inauguration speech was composed in classical Latin, and in the style of Cicero, with whose works he had been much conversant. He now devoted his whole time to his lectures and the instruction of his pupils. In 1728, when George II visited the university of Cambridge, he expressed a desire to see Professor Saunderson. In compliance with this desire, he waited upon his majesty in the senate-house, and was there, by the king's command, created doctor of laws. He was admitted a member of the Royal Society in 1736.

Saunderson was naturally of a vigorous constitution, but having confined himself to a sedentary life, he at length became scrofulous. For several years he felt a numbness in his limbs, which in the spring of 1739 brought on a mortification in his foot; and, unfortunately, his blood was so vitiated by the scurvy, that assistance from medicine was not to be expected. When he was informed that his death was near, he remained for a little space calm and silent; but he soon recovered his former vivacity, and conversed with his usual ease. He died on the 19th of April 1739, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, and was buried at his own request in the chancel at Boxworth. He married the daughter of Mr Dickens, rector of Boxworth, in Cambridgeshire, and by her had a son and a daughter.

Dr Saunderson was rather to be admired as a man of wonderful genius and assiduity, than to be loved for his amiable qualities. He spoke his sentiments freely of characters, and praised or condemned his friends as well as his enemies without reserve. This has been ascribed by some to a love of defamation; but it has with more propriety been attributed by others to an inflexible love of truth, which urged him upon all occasions to speak the sentiments of his mind without disguise, and without considering whether this conduct would please, or the reverse. His sentiments were supposed to be unfavourable to revealed religion. It is said that he alleged he could not know God, because he was blind, and could not see his works; and that upon this Dr Holmes replied, "Lay your hand upon yourself, and the organization which you will feel in your own body will dissipate so gross an error." On the other hand, we are informed that he had desired the sacrament to be given him on the evening before his death. He was however seized with a delirium, which rendered this impossible.

He wrote a system of algebra, which was published in two volumes 4to, at London, after his death, in the year 1740, at the expense of the university of Cambridge.

Dr Saunderson had invented for his own use a Palpable Arithmetic, that is, a method of performing operations in arithmetic solely by the sense of touch. It consisted of a table raised upon a small frame, so that he could apply his hands with equal ease above and below. On this table were drawn a great number of parallel lines, which were crossed by others at right angles; the edges of the table were divided by notches half an inch distant from one another, and between each notch there were five parallels, so that every square inch was divided into a hundred little squares. At each angle of the squares where the parallels intersected one another, a hole was made quite through the table; and in each hole were placed two pins, a large and a small one. It was by the various arrangements of the pins that Saunderson performed his operations.

His sense of touch was so perfect that he could discover with the greatest exactness the slightest inequality of surface, and could distinguish in the most finished works the smallest oversight in the polish. In the cabinet of medals at Cambridge he could single out the Roman medals with the utmost correctness; and he could also perceive the slightest variation in the atmosphere. One day, while some gentlemen were making observations on the sun, he took notice of every little cloud that passed over his disk and served to interrupt their labours. When any object passed before his face, even though at some distance, he discovered it, and could guess its size with considerable accuracy. When he walked, he knew when he passed by a tree, a wall, or a house. He had made these distinctions from the different ways his face was affected by the motion of the air.

His musical ear was so remarkably acute, that he could distinguish accurately to the fifth of a note. In his youth he had been a performer on the flute, and he had made such proficiency, that if he had cultivated his talents in this way, he would probably have been as eminent in music as he was in mathematics. He recognised not only his friends, but even those with whom he was slightly acquainted, by the tone of their voice; and he could judge with wonderful exactness of the size of any apartment into which he was conducted.

SAURIN, James, a celebrated preacher, was born at Nismes in 1677, being the son of a Protestant lawyer of considerable eminence. He applied to his studies with great success; but at length being captivated with a military life, he relinquished them for the profession of arms. In 1694 he made a campaign as a cadet in Lord Galloway's company, and soon afterwards obtained a pair of colours in the regiment of Colonel Renault, which served in Piedmont. But the Duke of Savoy having made peace with France, he returned to Geneva, and resumed the study of philosophy and theology under Turretin and other professors. In 1700 he visited Holland, then went to England, where he remained for several years, and married. In 1705 he returned to the Hague, where he fixed his residence, and preached with the most unbounded applause. To an exterior appearance highly prepossessing, he added a strong and harmonious voice. The sublime prayer which he recited before his sermon was uttered in a manner highly affecting. Nor was the attention excited by the prayer dissipated by the sermon. All who heard it were charmed; and those who came with an intention to criticise, were carried along with the preacher and forgot their design. Saurin had, however, one fault in his delivery; he did not manage his voice with sufficient skill. He exhausted himself so much in his prayer and the beginning of his sermon, that his voice grew feeble towards the end of the service. His sermons, especially those which were published during his life, are distinguished for justness of thought, force of reasoning, and an eloquent unaffected style. Saurin died on the 30th of December 1730, aged fifty-three years.

He wrote, first, Sermons, which were published in twelve vols. 8vo and 12mo; some of which display great genius and eloquence, and others are composed with negligence. One may observe in them the imprecations and the aversion which the Calvinists of that age were wont to utter against the Roman Catholics. Saurin was, notwithstanding, a lover of toleration; and his sentiments on this subject gave great offence to some of his fanatical brethren, who attempted to obscure his merit and embitter his life. They found fault with him because he did not call the pope Antichrist, and the Church of Rome the whore of Babylon. But these prophetic metaphors, however applicable they may be, were certainly not intended by the benevolent religion of Jesus to be bandied about as terms of reproach; which would teach those to rail who use them, and irritate, without convincing, those to whom they were applied. Saurin, therefore, while he perhaps interpreted these metaphors in the same way with his opponents, discovered more of the moderation of the Christian spirit. Five volumes of his sermons were published in his life, and the rest have been added since his decease.

Secondly, he published Discourses Historical, Critical, and Moral, on the most memorable Events of the Old and New Testament. This is his greatest and most valuable work. It was first printed in two volumes folio. As it was left unfinished, Beausobre and Roques undertook a continuation of it, and increased it to four volumes. It is full of learning, being a collection of the opinions of the best authors, both Christian and heathen; of the philosophers, historians and critics, on every subject which the author examines. He also published the State of Christianity in France, 1725, 8vo; in which he discusses many important points of controversy, and calls in question the truth of the miracle said to have been performed on La Fosse at Paris; and An Abridgment of Christian Theology and Morality, in the form of a Catechism, 1722, 8vo.

A Dissertation which he published on the Expediency of sometimes disguising the Truth, raised a multitude of enemies against him. In this discourse his plan was, to state the arguments of those who affirm that, in certain cases, it is lawful to disguise truth, and the answers of those who maintain the contrary. He does not determine the question, but seems, however, to incline to the former opinion. He was immediately attacked by several adversaries, and a long controversy ensued; but his doctrines and opinions were at length publicly approved of by the synods of Campen and the Hague.

The subject of this controversy has long been agitated, and men of equally good principles have supported opposite sides in it. It would certainly be a dangerous maxim that falsehood can ever be lawful. There may, indeed, be particular cases when the motives to it are of such a nature as to diminish its criminality; but to lessen its guilt is a very different thing from justifying it by the laws of morality.

Saurin, Joseph, a geometrician of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, was born at Courtonson, in the principality of Orange, in the year 1659. His father, who was a minister at Grenoble, was his first preceptor. He made rapid progress in his studies, and, when very young, was admitted minister of Eure in Dauphiné; but having made use of some violent expressions in one of his sermons, he was obliged to quit France in the year 1683. He retired to Geneva, and thence to Berne, where he obtained a considerable living. Scarcely was he settled in his new habitation, however, when some theologians raised a persecution against him. Saurin, hating controversy, and disgusted with Switzerland, where his talents were entirely concealed, repaired to Holland. He returned soon afterwards to France, and surrendered himself into the hands of Bossuet, the bishop of Meaux, who obliged him to make a recantation of his errors. This event took place in 1690. His enemies, however, suspected his sincerity in the abjuration which he had made. It was a general opinion, that the desire of cultivating science in the capital of France had a greater effect in producing this change than religion. Saurin, however, speaks of the reformers with great asperity, and condemns them for going too far.

"Deceived in my opinions concerning the rigid system of Calvin, I no longer regarded that reformer in any other light but as one of those extravagant geniuses who are carried beyond the bounds of truth. Such appeared to me in general the founders of the reformation; and that just idea which I have now obtained of their character has enabled me to shake off a load of prejudices. I saw in most of the articles which have separated them from us, such as the invocation of saints, the worship of images, the distinction of meats, &c. that they had much exaggerated the inevitable abuses of the people, and imputed these to the Church of Rome, as if sanctioned by its doctrines; besides, that they have misrepresented those doctrines which were not connected with any abuse. One thing which surprised me much when my eyes began to open, was the false idea, though in appearance full of respect for the word of God, which the reformers entertained of the perfection and perspicuity of the Holy Scriptures, and the manifest misinterpretation of passages which they bring to support that idea (for that misinterpretation is a point which can be proved). Two or three articles still raised some objections in my mind against the Church of Rome; to wit, transubstantiation, the adoration of the sacrament, and the infallibility of the church. The adoration of the sacrament I considered as idolatry, and, on that account, removed from her communion. But soon after, the Exposition of the bishop of Meaux, a work which can never be sufficiently admired, and his Treatise concerning changes, reversed all my opinions, and rendered me an enemy to the Reformation." It is said also that Saurin appeased his conscience by reading Poiret's Cogitations Rationales. This book is written with a view to vindicate the Church of Rome from the charge of idolatry.

If it was the love of distinction that induced Saurin to return to the Church of Rome, he was not disappointed; for he there met with protection and support. He was favourably received by Louis XIV., obtained a pension from him, and was treated by the Academy of Sciences with the most flattering respect. At that time (1717) geometry formed his principal occupation. He adorned the Journal des Sçavans with many excellent treatises; Saurin was of a bold and impetuous spirit. He had that lofty deportment which is generally mistaken for pride. His philosophy was austere; his opinions of men were not very favourable; and he often delivered them in their presence. This created him many enemies. His memory was attacked after his decease. A letter was printed in the Mercure Suisse, said to be written by Saurin from Paris, in which he acknowledges that he had committed several crimes which deserved death. Some Calvinist ministers published in 1757 two or three pamphlets to prove the authenticity of that letter; but Voltaire made diligent inquiry, not only at the place where Saurin had been discharging the sacerdotal office, but at the deans of the clergy of that department. They all exclaimed against an imputation so opprobrious. It must not, however, be concealed, that Voltaire, in the defence which he has published in his general history of Saurin's conduct, leaves some unfavourable impressions upon the reader's mind. He insinuates that Saurin sacrificed his religion to his interest, and that he played upon Bossuet, who believed he had converted a clergyman, when he had only given a little fortune to a philosopher.

SAUSSURE, Horace Benedict de, a celebrated naturalist, was a native of Geneva, and born in the year 1740. His father was an intelligent farmer, who lived at Conches, about half a league from Geneva, which no doubt contributed, in addition to his active education, to increase the physical strength of young Saussure, so requisite for a naturalist who intends to travel. He went daily to town for public instruction; and as he lived at the foot of a mountain, he frequently amused himself in ascending its steep and rugged sides. Thus environed by the phenomena of nature, and assisted by study, it was to be expected that he would soon conceive a predilection for natural history. Botany was his most early and favourite study, a taste which was powerfully encouraged by his local situation, and was the means of introducing him to the acquaintance of the great Haller, to whom he paid a visit in 1764, and who was astonished at his intimate acquaintance with every branch of the natural sciences.

His attachment to the study of the vegetable kingdom was also increased by his connection with Bonnet, who had married his aunt, and who put a proper estimate on the talents of his nephew. He was at that time engaged in the examination of the leaves of plants, to which Saussure was also induced to turn his attention, and published the result of his researches under the title of Observations on the Bark of Leaves. About this time the philosophical chair at Geneva became vacant, and was given to Saussure at the age of twenty-one. Rewards conferred so early have been thought to extinguish in some a zeal for the increase of knowledge; but this was not the case with De Saussure, who taught physics and logic alternately with equal success. For physics, however, he had the greatest taste, as affording the means of prosecuting the study of chemistry, mineralogy, and other kindred sciences.

He now began his travels through the mountains, not for the purpose of studying, as formerly, their flowery decorations, but their constituent parts, and the disposition of their masses. During the first fifteen years of his professorship, he was alternately engaged in discharging the duties of his office, and in traversing the mountains in the vicinity of Geneva; and in this period his talents as a great philosopher were fully displayed. He extended his researches on one side to the banks of the Rhine, and on the other to the country of Piedmont. He travelled to Auvergne to examine the extinguished volcanoes, going afterwards to Paris, England, Holland, Italy, and Sicily. It is proper to remark, that these were not mere journeys, but were undertaken purely with the view of studying nature; and in all his journeys he was surrounded with such instruments as would be of service to him, together with plans previously arranged of his whole procedure.

The first volume of his travels through the Alps, which was published in 1779, contains a circumstantial description of the environs of Geneva, and an excursion as far as Chamouni, a village at the foot of Mont Blanc. It contains a description of his magnetometer. In proportion as he examined the mountains, the more was he persuaded of the importance of mineralogy; and that he might study it with advantage, he acquired a knowledge of the German language. In the last volumes of his travels, the reader will perceive how much new mineralogical knowledge he had acquired.

During the troubles which agitated Geneva in 1782, he made his beautiful and interesting experiments on hydrometry, which he published in 1783. This has been pronounced the best work that ever came from his pen, and completely established his reputation as a philosopher. De Saussure resigned his chair to his pupil and fellow-labourer, Pictet, who discharged the duties of his office with reputation, although rendered difficult to him by succeeding so great a man. He projected a plan of reform in the education of Geneva, the design of which was to make young people acquainted with the natural sciences and mathematics at an early period; and wished that their physical education should not be neglected, for which purpose he proposed gymnastic exercises. This plan found admirers in the city, but the poverty of its funds was an obstacle in the way of any important innovation. It was dreaded, too, that if established forms were changed, they might be altered for the worse.

The attention of De Saussure was not wholly confined to public education, for he superintended the education of his own two sons and a daughter, who have since proved themselves worthy of such a father and preceptor. In 1786, he published his second volume of travels, containing a description of the Alps around Mont Blanc; the whole having been examined with the eye of a mineralogist, geologist, and philosopher. It contains some valuable experiments on electricity, and a description of his own electrometer, said to be the most perfect we have. To him we are indebted for his cyanometer, for measuring the degree of blueness of the heavens, which is found to vary according to the height of the observer; his diaphanometer, for measuring the transparency of the atmosphere; and his anemometer, for ascertaining the force of the winds. He founded the Society of Arts, to the operations of which Geneva is indebted for the state of prosperity which it has reached within the last thirty years. Over that society he presided to the day of his death; and the preservation of it in prosperity constituted one of his fondest wishes.

In 1794, the health of this eminent man began rapidly to decline, and a severe stroke of the palsy almost deprived him of the use of his limbs. Such a condition was no doubt painful; but his intellects still preserved their original activity, and he prepared for the press the last two volumes of his travels, which appeared in 1796. They contain a great mass of new facts and observations, of the last importance to physical science. During his illness he published Observations on the Fusibility of Stones by means of the Blow-pipe. He was in general a Neptunian, ascribing the revolutions of our globe to water, and admitting the possibility of mountains having been thrown up by elastic fluids disengaged from the cavities of the earth. In the midst of his rapid decline he cherished the hopes of re-