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LAV Lavoisier. It is said that he begged for a short respite in order to complete some important researches in which he was engaged, and that the request was harshly refused. It is also said that a deputation from the Lyceum of Arts came to offer him a triumphal crown the evening before his death. This story is probably apocryphal; since among the persons described as taking part in this somewhat theatrical scene we find the name of Cuvier, who at that time was not in Paris. A certain Dr. Hallé, horrified at hearing of the arrest of Lavoisier, hastily drew up an account of his researches, and of the services which he had rendered to France and to humanity. He read this paper at the Lyceum of Arts, and caused copies to be widely circulated, but in vain, Loysel, a chemist of some merit, the author of a valuable work on the art of glass-making, ventured on more active measures to save the illustrious victim. But the petition met with a cold and sardonic refusal. "The republic," he was told, "had no need of philosophers." Need we wonder if a republic which thus proclaimed itself the enemy of intelligence proved every way a failure. Some maintain that Fourcroy, had he been disposed, might have saved Lavoisier, but that, still moved by envy, he declined to exert his influence, or even used it against the prisoner. Cuvier, however, in his éloge on Fourcroy, declares that, after a most careful scrutiny, he has found no facts which support this rumour. On the 8th of May Lavoisier was led to the scaffold, and perished unregarded amidst the crowd, the noblest victim of the guillotine—King Louis and his queen not excepted. Safely indeed might the world have given the entire houses of Bourbon and Hapsburg, to prolong Lavoisier's life for another twenty years, he is said to have died calm and tranquil as he lived. Thus was the career of this eminent genius, like that of Sir H. Davy, cut short at the early age of fifty-one. Some persons have endeavoured to console themselves with the thought that his great life-task was completed, and that science consequently lost little by his death. But even this feeble consolation escapes us. We find in his works the announcement of various most important researches which he had in view, and for which no doubt he had been quietly preparing. Thus he promises an attentive examination of the laws of affinity, based upon original and peculiar ideas. Elsewhere he speaks of researches on fermentation, completed, but lost to posterity. In his works we find the following passage, printed but a few months before his death:—"It is not here the place to enter into any details concerning organized bodies. I have designedly avoided occupying myself with them in this work; and this has also restrained me from treating of the phenomena of respiration, sanguification, and animal heat. . . . One day I will return to these topics." That this "one day" never came is owing to Robespierre and his accomplices. Lavoisier was tall and well made, with a countenance indicating genius and benignity. With the single exception of his not having in the case of Priestley, and perhaps on one or two other occasions, done justice to the merits of contemporaries, and thus claimed or seemed to claim discoveries not his own, his moral character appears to have been all that a friend of science could wish. The great influence which his reputation, his wealth, and his official position necessarily conferred, he always cheerfully used for benevolent purposes. His activity, energy, and tenacity of purpose, were wonderful. In addition to this he was mild, humane, sociable, and obliging; ever ready to aid and promote merit. Intellectually, he was noted for clearness and precision of thought, for an imagination fruitful and brilliant, yet constantly governed by the most rigorous logic. That he by a systematic appeal to the balance first rendered chemistry quantitative, has already been intimated. His ruling idea is that nothing is created, nothing destroyed; matter remains always the same; its form may be changed, but its weight remains unaltered. Convinced that in every chemical process the total matter employed must reappear in the products obtained, he conceived the possibility of forming equations, where the matter employed being placed on the one side and the matter obtained on the other, the weight on each side will be always equal. He says—"In fact I can view the substances under reaction and the result obtained as an algebraical equation; and by supposing successively each of the elements of this equation to be unknown, I can find its value, and can thus correct experiment by calculation, and calculation by experiment." Such is the origin of equations, now so much employed in chemical works. In consequence of the progress of the science, we have introduced atomic weights where Lavoisier spoke of any given weight. But the fundamental idea is the same. In his researches each step leads naturally and logically to the next; every portion seems an essential part of one great organic whole. The facts observed conduct him to new ideas, and these ideas again lead him to appreciate neglected facts, or to discover new ones. He tends without ceasing to greater perfection, truth, and unity. As he advances to the goal, his language becomes more luminous, his experiments more precise and more delicate, his views clearer and more extended. Such is the natural progress of the man who is the master, not the slave, of his subject.—J. W. S.  LAW,, Bishop of Carlisle, was born in Lancashire in 1703, and died in 1787. He was educated at Kendal and Cambridge, where he became fellow of Christ's college, M.A., &c. In 1737 the living of Greystock, near Penrith, was presented to him, and six years later he was made archdeacon of Carlisle and rector of Salkeld. He removed to Cambridge in 1756, in consequence of his appointment to the mastership of St. Peter's college. For some years previously he had given his attention to literature. While at college he conducted the publication of a new edition of Stephens' Latin Thesaurus; and in 1732 he had given to the world a new translation of Archbishop King's work on the Origin of Evil, to which he appended notes by which he gave evidence of his aptitude for metaphysical studies. To the same period is to be referred his "Inquiry into the Ideas of Space and Time," which attracted the attention of philosophical readers. While at Salkeld he devoted himself to the preparation of a work of real merit, and which even now is well deserving attention, namely his "Considerations on the Theory of Religion," to which were added "Reflections on the Life and Character of Christ." About 1760 he was appointed librarian of the university, to which was added the professorship of casuistry. Afterwards he became archdeacon of Stafford, prebendary of Lincoln, prebendary of Durham, and in 1768 bishop of Carlisle, which dignity he retained for nineteen years. The numerous honours which were conferred upon Bishop Law, appear to have been mainly due to the estimation in which his character and talents were held. His father, an obscure clergyman at Cartmel in North Lancashire, does not appear to have been distinguished for fortune or family connections, and he himself seems to have owed more to the patronage of his university than to eminent individuals. Bishop Law was free and independent in his judgments, and by no means committed himself to the opinions of others without investigation. He was for instance opposed to Archbishop King on his fundamental principle of analogy. The archbishop, in his endeavour to reconcile the existence of evil with the divine goodness, had sought to represent the divine attributes as essentially different from the moral attributes of the human mind. In this view King was supported by some writers of distinction in the long controversy which followed the appearance of his book. Law, however, maintained that the moral attributes of the Divine Mind are the same in essence as those of the human; the actual difference being one of degree. Four years after his elevation to the episcopate. Dr. Law published his edition of the works of Locke in three quarto volumes, with a memoir of the author. This undertaking may be regarded as an expression of respect for one to whom he was indebted for some important lessons, and who seems to have had no little influence upon his intellectual life. It is admitted that Law had consecrated much of his time at an early period to the study of Locke; that he derived from him that spirit of tolerance towards free inquiry by which he was distinguished, and his opinions as to the best mode of ascertaining the sense of holy scripture. His liberality would by some be construed into laxity, and he naturally finds a sympathizing and partial biographer in Paley, to whom we owe almost all we know of him. The school to which he belonged, however, is one which had immense influence in the last century, when the spirit of free philosophical speculation and religious inquiry was more common than it afterwards became.—B. H. C.  LAW,. See.  LAW,, commonly called "of Lauriston," a notable projector, for a time controller-general of the finances of France, was born at Edinburgh in April, 1671. His father, a great-grandson of James Law, archbishop of Glasgow, had acquired in Edinburgh considerable wealth as a goldsmith—a trade which then included some of the operations of banking; and had purchased among other property the estate of Lauriston, 