Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/49

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MEMOIR OF LATREILLE.
49

necessary to extend the limits of the science to which he had devoted himself. He published various works on many branches of natural history, and likewise on geography. All these writings, although bearing marks of the rapidity with which they had been composed, display intelligence, a methodical mind, and great variety of knowledge. But the works treating of entomology always evinced his new and rapid progress in this science, until at last the publication of the Genera Crustaceorum et Insectorum placed him in the first rank of the entomologists of Europe.

"Thus, by his labour alone he was able to satisfy all his wants. In truth, his philosophy was such that he could be content with little; he indulged in no excess but for study, and this excess weakened his feeble constitution. He counteracted its bad effects by a frugality seldom practised, by an absence of all the pleasures of the world, including even those of society. But he was not on that account less feelingly alive to any thing, whether sad or joyful, which might happen to his friends, nor less obliging and kind to all.

"He was deeply afflicted at the calamities of his country; he detested wars, civil commotions, party animosity, and revolutions of whatsoever kind. Great catastrophes depressed his spirits, and made him nervous and unhappy, particularly in winter. He did not recover his vigour and freedom of mind until, on the return of spring, he could give himself up to the study of nature according to the manner