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 utmost anxiety to condense the greatest quantity of useful knowledge into the smallest bulk, and afford it to the student at the cheapest rate. It was intended chiefly for the use of schools, and to be followed by a larger work, containing copious illustrations of every word in the language. The character which he had acquired by his former works for patient research and correct detail, stamped a high and deserved authority on this book. The clear account of the different meanings of words, the explanation of idioms, and happy translation of difficult passages, which abound, particularly in the latter half, are admirably well adapted to remove the difficulties of the younger student, and render the work, notwithstanding the modesty of its pretensions, equally valuable to the more advanced. It is much to be regretted, ne did not live to complete his larger work, on the extended scale on which the latter part of the small one is executed. He had proceeded as far as the word Comburo, with a plenitude of illustration that would have made the work a treasure of Latinity, when he was seized in school with an apoplectic affection,—occasioned, perhaps, by the intenseness of his application, and the small portion of sleep he allowed himself; certainly not by his mode of living, which was simple and abstemious to an extreme degree. He lingered five days under the disease. Amidst the wanderings of mind that accompanied it, he was constantly reverting to the business of the class, and addressing his boys; and in the last hour of his life, as he fancied himself examining on the lesson of the day, he stopped short, and said, “But it grows dark, you may go;” and almost immediately expired. He died on the 18th of December 1809, at the age of sixty-eight.

The magistrates of Edinburgh, whose predecessors had not always been alive to his merits, shewed their respect for his memory by a public funeral. A short time before his death, he was solicited, by some of his old pupils, to sit to Mr Raeburn for his portrait, which was executed in the best style of that eminent artist, and placed, as a memorial of their gratitude and respect, in the library of the High School.

He was twice married; first in 1775, to Miss Munro, eldest daughter of the Minister of Kinloss, by whom he had several children, the last of whom died within a few days of his father; and, in 1789, to Miss Cosser, daughter of Mr Cosser, Comptroller of Excise, who, with two daughters and a son, are still alive.(.) ADANSON a celebrated naturalist, was descended from a Scotish family which had at the Revolution attached itself to the fortunes of the House of Stuart; and was born the 7th of April 1727, at Aix in Provence, where his father was in the service of M. de Vintimille, then Archbishop of that province. On the translation of this prelate to the archbishopric of Paris about the year 1730, the elder Adanson also repaired thither, accompanied by his infant family of five children, all of whom were provided for by their father’s patron. A small canonry fell to the lot of our future naturalist; the revenue of which defrayed the expences of his education at the college of Plessis. While there, he was distinguished for great quickness of apprehension, strength of memory, and mental ardour; but his genius took no particular bent, until he received a microscope from the celebrated Tuberville Needham, who happened to be present at one of the public examinations; and was struck with admiration of his talents and acquirements. From the moment that young Adanson received this donation, to the last hour of his life, he persevered with a zeal almost unexampled in the observation and study of nature.

On leaving college, his youthful ardour was well employed in the cabinets of Reaumur and Bernard de Jassieu, as well as in the “Jardin des Plantes.” Such was his zeal, that he repeated the instructions of the professors to such of his fellow students as could not advance with a rapidity equal to his own; and before he had completed his nineteenth year, he had actually described (for his own improvement) four thousand species of the three kingdoms of nature. In this way he soon exhausted the rich stores of accumulated knowledge in Europe; and having obtained a small appointment in the colony of Senegal, he resigned his canonry, and embarked on the 20th of December 1748, for Africa.

The motives which decided the choice of Senegal as the scene of his observations, are recorded by himself, and are too remarkably indicative of his ardent thirst of knowledge, not to be noticed. “It was,” says he, in a memorandum found after his death, “of all European establishments, the most difficult to penetrate, the most hot, the most unhealthy, the most dangerous in every respect, and consequently the least known to naturalists.”

His ardour remained unabated during the five years that he remained in Africa; in which period he collected and described an immense number of animals and plants;—delineated maps of the country, and made astronomical observations;—prepared grammars and dictionaries of the languages spoken on the banks of the Senegal;—kept meteorological registers;—composed a detailed account of all the plants of the country;—and collected specimens of every object of commerce. M. Cuvier mentions that he had seen the produce and results of all these multifarious and laborious exertions.

The situation in which Adanson was placed, was admirably adapted to foster originality of genius; but it was also attended with every disadvantage that can arise from a want of comparison and rivalry. The collision of kindred intellects generally diminishes an overweening conceit; whilst entire seclusion from literary society as generally increases the presumption of genius, and renders errors familiar by long uncorrected repetition. To these causes, and to the secluded life which he continued to lead even after his return to Europe, may probably be traced some of the peculiar features of Adanson’s character. Thus he chose to distinguish himself by a new system of orthography; and, instead of a simple and convenient nomenclature, he employed a set of arbitrary terms, whose etymology could not be traced, and the synonyms to which he rarely condescended to point out. He was opinionative in no small degree; and his vanity and self-confidence too often led him to overlook, or to