Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/866

830 The made him  to the  at ; and, the  after the  of, nominated him one of the s for the execution of the convention concluded between  and. In he was made a  of  and -general of 's. In he received the appointment of -general of the , and subsequently of commissioner for the execution of the  of  and , as well as  plenipotentiary at. In he was  a member of the, and in  an honorary member of the. In he was appointed   of ; and shortly afterwards he received the  of the. He accompanied in. When the retreat from had commenced, he had to assume the functions of -general of the ; and his iron constitution, and capacity for labour, enabled him to fulfil, with apparent ease, duties which might have killed several men of ordinary strength. C'est un lion pour le travail, said himself. After the of the  he was made -general to the, an appointment which he received in. But on the of  from  he joined the  of,  a considerable sum for the purpose of  the ian fédérés, and in his capacity of  of  attached his  to the celebrated declaration of the 25th. His conduct towards displays a frank and simple independence of character combined with a genuine devotion to 's cause. &ldquo;They don't speak well of my arc de triomphe,&rdquo; said one. &ldquo;There are two persons whom I have heard praise it,&rdquo; replied Daru,—&ldquo; and his .&rdquo; The found him compromised by his connection with the  of the ; and he retired for a  into private life, and devoted himself to literary pursuits. But in he was summoned by   to the, where his rectitude of judgment and  knowledge signalized him as one of the most powerful defenders of the. In he  his Histoire de Venise, which is by far the most important of his, and is regarded as the most complete and impartial  of  equally remarkable for its strength and duration. His subsequent, the Histoire de Bretagne (3vols. ), displays great labour and accuracy, but is devoid of interest, except to antiquaries. His other productions consist of a translation of, which, in spite of the malicious  of Le Brun, Je ne lis point Daru, j'aime trop mon Horace, has enjoyed in  a well-merited reputation; a variety of occasional s, discourses, and éloges pronounced in the ; and  delivered in the. He died at his near,  5, , aged sixty-two. His remains were deposited in the Cimitière Montmartre, and five discourses were pronounced over his by MM. Mirbel, Cuvier, Silvestre de Sacy, Ternaux, and Leroy.

1em  DARWIN, (1731-1802), man of science and poet, was born at Elton, in Nottinghamshire, on the 12th December 1731. Having studied at St John s College, Cambridge, and at Edinburgh, and taken the degree of M.D. at the latter university, he settled as a physician at Lichfield, and gained a large practice. While here he is said to have done much, both by his own example and by more direct effort, to diminish drunkenness among the lower classes. In 1781 lie removed to Derby, where he remained till his death, which took place on the 18th April 1802. The fame of Erasmus Darwin as a poet rests upon his Botanic Garden, though he also wrote The Temple of Nature, or the Origin of Society, a Poem, with Philo sophical Notes (1803), and The Shrine of Nature (posthumously published). The Botanic Garden (the second part of which The Loves of the Plants was published anonymously in 1789, and the whole of which appeared in 1791) is a long poem in the decasyllabic rhymed couplet. Its merit lies in the genuine scientific enthusiasm and interest in nature which pervade it; and of any other poetic quality except a certain, sometimes feli citous but oftener ill-placed, elaborated pomp of words it may without injustice be said to be almost destitute. It was for the most part written laboriously, and polished with unsparing care, line by line, often as be rode from one patient to another, and it occupied the leisure hours of many years. The diction is artificial to a degree which renders it in emotional passages stilted and even absurd, and which makes Canning s clever caricature The Loves of the Triangles often remarkably like the poem, it satirizes ; in some passages, however, it is not without a stately appropriateness. Gnomes, sylphs, and nereids are introduced on almost every page, and personification is carried to an extraordinary excess. Thus he describes the Loves of the Plants according to the Linnsean system by means of a most ingenious but misplaced and amusing personification of each plant, and often even of the parts of the plant. It is significant that botanical notes are added to the poem, and that its eulogies of scientific men are frequent. Darwin s mind was in fact rather that of a man of science than that of a poet. His most important scientific work is his Zoonomia (1794-6), which contains a system of pathology, and a treatise on generation, in which Darwin, in the words of his famous grandson, &quot; anticipated the views and erroneous grounds of opinions of Lamarck.&quot; The essence of Darwin s views is contained in the follow ing passage, which he follows up with the conclusion &quot; that one and the same kind of living filaments is and has been the cause of all organic life :&quot;—

1em 1em  DASHKOFF,, (1744-1810), was the third daughter of Count Roman Woronzoff, a member of the Russian senate, distinguished for his intellectual gifts. She received an exceptionally good education, having displayed from a very early age the masculine ability and masculine tastes which made her whole career so singular. She was well versed in mathematics which she studied at the university of Moscow and in general literature her favourite authors were Bayle, Montesquieu, Boileau, Voltaire, and Helvetitis. While still a girl she was connected with the Russian court, and became one of the leaders of the party that attached itself to the Grand Duchess (afterwards Empress) Catherine. Before she was sixteen she married Prince Dashkoff, a prominent Russian nobleman, and went to reside with him 