the Alta Literaria Bohemia & Moravie; and the editor of the latter publicly acknowledges in the preface to it, how much Bohemian literature is indebted to him. Prague and Vienna were both without a public cabinet for the ufe of the ftudents: it was at his inftigation that government was induced to form one; and he himfelf affifted by his contributions and his labours. In 1775 he laid the foundation of a literary fociety; which publifhed feveral volumes, under the title of Memoirs of a Private Society in Bohemia. His fame reaching the Emprefs Mary Therefa, in 1776 fhe called him to Vienna to arrange and defcribe the imperial collection: and about two years after, he published the fplendid work containing the Conchology in the execution of this, I believe he had fome affiftance. The Empress defrayed the expences for a certain number of copies. On the death of this patron the work was difcontinued, her fucceffor, the Emperor Jofeph, not favouring the undertaking. He had likewife the honour of inftructing the Archduchefs Maria Anna in natural history, who was partial to this entertaining ftudy; and he formed and arranged for her a neat museum. In 1779 he was raifed to the office of Actual Counsellor of the Court Chamber, in the department of the mines and mint. This office detained him conftantly in Vienna, and engaged the chief part of his time. The confequences of his misfortune at Felfo-Banya began now to be felt in the fevereft manner; he was attacked with the moft excruciating colics, which rofe to fuch a degree as to threaten a fpeedy termination of his life and miferies. VOL. XXXIX. In this depth of torment he had recourfe to the usual calmer of bodily pain, opium; and a large portion of this being placed by the fide of him, which he was ordered only to take in fmall dofes;-once brought to defperation through the intensity of his pain, he swallowed it at one draught. This brought on a lethargy, which lafted four-and-twenty hours; but when he awoke he was free of his pains. The diforder now attacked his legs and feet, particularly his right leg, and in this he was lame for the reft of his life. Sometimes the lameness was accom panied by pain, fometimes not. But his feet by degrees withered, and he was obliged to fit or lie, or lean upon a fopha; though fometimes he was fo well as to be able to fit upon a ftool, but not to move from one room to another without affiftance. His free and active genius led him to intereft himself in all the occurrences of the times, and to take an active part in all the inftitutions and plans for enlightening and reforming mankind. With thefe benevolent intentions, he formed connections with the free mafons, whofe views in this part of' the world were fomething more than eating and drinking, as may be conjectured by the laws and regulations made againft mafonry by the Emperor Jofeph. Under Therefa, this order was obliged to keep itself very fecret in Auftria; but Jofeph, on his coming to the throne, tolerated it; and the Baron founded in the Auftrian metropolis a lodge called the True Concord. This was no card club, or affociation for eating and drinking, where the leading members were chofen by their capacity for taking in folids and li Bb quids, quids, and where a good fong was confidered as a firft rate qualification; but a fociety of learned men, whofe lodge was a place of rendezvous for the literati of the capital. No doubt the obstacles thefe gentlemen would find to the progrefs of science and useful knowledge, in the church hierarchy, and in the cabals of courtiers, would draw their attention to political fubjects; and fubjects were really difcuffed here which the church had forbid to be fpoken of, and which the government must have wished not to be thought of. At their meetings, differtations on fome fubject of hiftory, ethics, or moral philofophy, were read by the members; and commonly fomething on the hiftory of ancient and modern myfteries, and fecret focieties. Thefe were afterwards publifhed in the Diary for Free Mafons, for the ufe of the initiated, and not for public fale. In the winter they met occafionally, and held more public difcourfes, to which the members of the other lodges were allowed accefs. As moft of the learned of Vienna belonged to this lodge, it was very natural to fuppofe that many of the differtations read here were not quite within the limits of the original plan of the fociety. It was thefe differtations, I believe, which gave rife to another periodical work, entitled, Phyficalifche Arbeiten der einträchtigen Freunde in Wien, which was continued for fome time by the Baron and his brother mafons. He was likewife active in extirpating fuperftitions of various kinds which had crept into the other lodges, and equally zealous in giving to thefe focieties fuch an organization as might render them ufeful to the public. The Baron, and many others of his lodge, belonged to the fociety of the Illuminated. This was no difhonour to him: the views of this order, at least at first, seem to have been commendable; they were the improvement of mankind, not the deftruction of fociety. Such inftitutions are only useful or dangerous, and to be approved of or condemned, according to the ftate of fociety; and this was before the French revolution, and in a country lefs enlightened than almost any other part of Germany. So zealous a friend was he to them, that when the Elector of Bavaria ordered all thofe in his fervice to quit this order, he was so displeased that he returned the academy of Munich the diploma they had fent him on their receiving him amongst them, publicly avowed his attachment to the order, and thought it proper to break off all further connection with Bavaria as a member of its literary fociety. The free mafons did not long retain the patronage of their fovereign: the Emperor Joseph foon became jealous of their influence, and put them under fuch reftrictions, and clogged them with fuch incumbrances, as to amount almoft to a prohibition; and as fuch they acted, for the fociety found it neceffary to diffolve. What raifed the Baron fo high in the public opinion, was his knowledge of mineralogy, and his fuccefsful experiments in metallurgy, and principally in the process of amalgamation. The ufe of quickfilver in extracting the noble metals from their ores, was not a difcovery of the Baron's, nor of the century in which he lived; yet he extended fo far its application in metallurgy, 25 to form 2 brilliant epoch in this moft most important art. After he had at great expence made many private experiments, and was convinced of the utility of his method, he laid before the Emperor an account of his difcovery; who gave orders that a decifive experiment on a large quantity of ore fhould be made at Schemnitz in Hungary. To fee this, he invited many of the most celebrated chymifts and metallurgifts of Europe; and Ferber, Elhujer, Charpentier, Trebra, Poda, and many more were prefent, and approved of his invention. On this general approbation, he published, by order of the Emperor, his Treatrfe on the Procefs of Amalgamation, with a great many engravings of the requifite inftruments and machinery. To fuppofe that his fuccefs, whilft it brought him fame and emolument, did not draw upon him the envy and ill-will of many of his brother metallurgifts and affociates in office, would how a great ignorance of what is daily paffing in common life. Envy has its fhare even in maintaining order in fociety: it is this which tends to keep the great from rifing higher, whilft a contrary paffion lifts up the little, or prevents them from falling ftill lower. Though great cabals were raifed against him, and against the introauction of his method, yet the advantages of it in many cafes were fo very evident, that the Emperor ordered it to be used in his Hungarian mines; and, as a recompenfe for his difcovery, gave him for ten years the third part of the favings arifing from its application, and four per cent. of this third part for the next twenty years. Even this did not defend him from being haraffed by his enemies; obftacles were ftill thrown in the way to prevent the introduction and fuccefs of his dif covery, and to defraud him of his well-earned recompenfe. In 1790 Though he fuffered very much in the latter part of his life, yet this did not prevent him from continuing his literary pursuits. he published his Catalogue Methodique raisonné of the collection of foffils of Mifs Raab, which had been chiefly formed by his donations. This work, elegantly printed in two volumes, was well received by the public:-and he was writing the Fafti Leopoldini, and a mineralogical work, when death put an end to his ufeful life, and to his fufferings. Notwithstanding the varied advice of his phyficians, his disease continued. In fuch a ftate quacks find easy access to the fick. Who is not then ready to feize the noftrum of the bold pretender? One of thefe gave him a decoction which foon calmed his fufferings, and which he was affured would cure him in a few weeks. He continued the use of this for the last five months of his life: it really diminished his pains; but his friends obferved that his cheerfulness, which hitherto had not left him, diminished likewise, and that fpafms often attacked his upper limbs. On the 21ft of July, 1791, he was feized with fpafms and cold; the former foon fubfided on friction, but he loft his fpeech. On the fubfequent days he had different attacks till the 28th, when he found himself better; but he was foon attacked again with fpafms, and in thefe he expired. Born was of a middle fize and delicate conftitution, dark complexion, black hair, and large black eyebrows. Wit and fatire, and a quick comprehenfion, were marked in his eyes; and his lively and penetrating genius appeared in his countenance. Befides being a good Latin claffic, he was mafter of moft European languages of note, and poffeffed a deal of general information nowife connected with those branches of science required in his profeffion. He was a great wit and satirift, and a good companion, even under the fufferings of bodily pain. His too liberal and unguarded ufe of fatire made him many enemies. In his youthful days he wrote the Staats Perücke for the amufement of his friends; this was afterwards published without his knowledge. But nothing shows more his talent for fatire than his Monachologia, which he published in 1783, juft when the Emperor Jofeph was making his reforms in the church. Indeed, at any other time fuch a fevere fatire on the monks would not have been permitted. They are characterifed thus: quiefcunt, fomnum protrahunt, &: ex fuis diæta curant, ut efca omnis in adipem tranfeat, lardumque adipifcantur: hinc abdomen prolixum paffim præfeferunt; fenes ventricofi maxime æftimantur. Virginitatis facræ ofores in venerem vol givagam proni ruunt. Generi humano & fanæ rationi infeftiffima fpecies, in cujus creatione non fe jactavit auctor naturæ." The Archbishop of Vienna complained to the Emperor againft this work; who replied, that it was only the idle and ufelefs part of the fpiritual order which was attacked. This was feconded by his Defenfio Phyfiophili; and to this fucceeded his Anatomia Monachi. He wrote likewife a fatire on Father Hell, the aftronomer, by publishing a long Latin advertisement, full of irony, announcing a book written against the free mafons, in the name of this learned Jefuit. It must not be forgotten, that his houfe was always open to the travelling literati who vifited Vienna; and that unprotected genius was always fure to find in him a friend and patron. He carried this perhaps too far, fo far as to ruin his eftate: probably the expectation of receiving a large income from the amalgamation, made him lefs attentive to œconomy in his domestic concerns; though I believe his infolvency was chiefly owing to ufurers and money-lenders, to whom he was obliged to have recourfe to carry on his expenfive projects. Through thefe, though his patrimony was very confiderable, he died greatly in debt: this is the more to be lamented, as he left a wife and "Monachus. "Defcriptio. Animal avarum, foetidum, immundum, fiticulofum, iners, inediam potius tolerans quam laborem ;-vivunt e rapina & queftu; mundum fui tantum caufa creatum effe prædicant; coeunt clandeftine, nuptias non celebrant, fœtus exponunt; in propriam fpeciem fæviunt, & hoftem ex infidiis aggrediuntur. Ufus. Terræ pondus inutile. Fruges confumere nati."And upon the order of Dominicans he fays "Eximio olfactu pollet, vinum & hærefin* e longinquo odorat. Efurit femper polyphagus. Juniores fame probantur. Veterani, relegata omni cura & occupatione, gulæ indulgent, cibis fucculentis nutriuntur, molliter cubant, tepide two daughters. * As being inquifitors. NATURAL NATURAL HISTORY. On the Nature of the Diamond. By SIR IR Ifaac Newton having observed that inflammable bodies had a greater refraction, in proportion to their denfity, than other bodies, and that the diamond refembled them in this property, was induced to conjecture that the diamond was of an inflammable nature. The inflammable fubftances which he employed were, camphire, oil of turpentine, oil of olives, and amber; thefe he called "fat, fulphureous, unctuous bodies;" and, ufing the fame expreffion refpecting the diamond, he fays, it is probably "an unctuous body coagulated." This remarkable conjecture of Sir Ifaac Newton has been fince confirmed by repeated experiments. It was found that, though the diamond was capable of refifting the effects of a violent heat when the air was carefully excluded, yet that, on being exposed to the action of heat and air, it might be entirely confumed. But, as the fole object of thefe experiments was to afcertain the inflammable nature of the dias mond, no attention was paid to the products afforded by its combuftion; be determined, whether the diaand it ftill, therefore, remained to mond was a diftinct fubftance, or bodies; nor was any attempt' made one of the known inflammable to decide this queftion, till M. Lavoifier, in 1772, undertook a series of experiments for this purpose. heat produced by a large lens, and He exposed the diamond to the was thus enabled to burn it in close the air in which the inflammation glafs-veffels. He obferved, that had taken place had become partly foluble in water, and precipitated from lime-water a white powder, which appeared to be chalk, being foluble in acids, with effervefcence. As M. Lavoifier feems to have had little doubt that this precipitation of fixed air, fimilar to that which is was occafioned by the production afforded by calcareous substances, he might, as we know at prefent, have inferred that the diamond contained charcoal; but the relafixed air was then too imperfectly tion between that fubftance and understood to justify this conclufion. Though he obferved the refemblance of charcoal to the diamond, yet he thought that nothing more could be reafonably deduced from Bb 3 their |