Page:A memoir of Lewis David von Schweinitz.djvu/13

4 so judiciously directed the current of his kindness and bestowed the fruits of his industry.

Standing in this relation to the object of the following brief memoir, the members of the Academy of Natural Sciences are probably prepared to expect from their organ on the present occasion, but an imperfect representation of the emotions which were felt on learning the demise of our late valued associate, and perhaps to excuse a still more imperfect display of his various attainments and excellencies of character.

Lewis David Von Schweinitz was born at Bethlehem Northampton County, Pennsylvania, on the thirteenth of February, 1780. His father Hans Christian Alexander Von Schweinitz was of an ancient and distinguished family in Silesia in Germany, and exercised here, the functions of superintendent of the fiscal and secular concerns of the "Unitas Fratrum" or Moravian Brethren in North America. His mother was Dorothea Elizabeth de Watteville, daughter of Baron, afterwards Bishop, John de Watteville and of Benija who was a daughter of Count Zinzendorf. Of the last mentioned ancestor, it may not, for reasons which will appear in the sequel, be inappropriate to make a passing reminiscence.

Nicholas Lewis Count Zinzendorf was born at Dresden in 1700, and was celebrated in his youth for forming religious societies, six or seven of which, are said to have originated from his own efforts, and one at least to have been planned at the early age of ten years.

He was associated with Watteville in founding the great missionary system of the "Unitas Fratrum." At