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On arriving at the Jardin des Plantes, I
found the coffin placed in the gateway of
the Abbe’s house, to receive the lustrations
of holy water from the passengers. The
funeral service would have been performed
at the great church of Notre Dame, of
which the Abbé Haiiy was an honorary
Canon, but the king and the peers were
going the same day to Notre Dame, to call
down VEsprit Saint de Cordon Bleu, to assist
their deliberations in the approaching session.
On this account the funeral service
was performed in the church of St. Medard.
The procession was on foot.
I had a place in the church between the
coffin and the altar, where mass was performed.
As the Abbé Haiiy was a member
of the legion of honour, a file of soldiers
stood round the coffin, and presented
arms to the host. The ceremony was long
and uninteresting, and destitute of every
thing which could properly impress the
mind on so solemn an occasion. The mixture
of military parade had also a tendency
to disturb the train of serious reflections,
naturally excited by seeing the remains of
one who had been eminently distinguished
by the acuteness of his researches, sur395
rounded by the first scientific characters in
France. On such an occasion it is impossible
to avoid feeling that the paths of
science, like “ the paths of glory, lead but
to the grave but the ceremony had no
visible reference to the subject : when it
was over a collection was made for the
poor, and the company walked round the
bier, and sprinkled it with holy water.
Coaches were in attendance to carry the
company from the church to the cimetière
du Père de la Chaise, but I did not go, for
I was already sufficiently tired of the ceremony,
and the heat was excessive. The
Abbé Haiiy had finished a second edition
of his Mineralogy, except the last page,
the day before his decease, and in the
eightieth year of his life ; he had also corrected
the first volume of that work for
the press. Those who are acquainted with
the variety of curious and extremely intricate
research which it contains, illustrated
by mathematical demonstrations, and a
great number of complex diagrams, will
admire the extraordinary vigour of a mind,
which could preserve its freshness to such
an advanced age. In perusing the biography
of men of science and men of