Page:A memoir of Lewis David von Schweinitz.djvu/42

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LEWIS D. VON SCHWEINITZ.
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cious manner of Mr. Schweinitz, into scientific order, on a plan, to embrace the previous collection of the Academy, secured, as far as practicable, from the depradations of insects, and easy of access for the purposes of research and comparison. But the direct legacy of Mr. Schweinitz is, probably, not the only favour which is due to his scientific character and labours. It has been remarked that our institution owes to members of his community, a greater portion of its valuable collections in different departments, than to any other equal number of individuals, and it is reasonable to suppose that his example, as a cultivator of science, has, in no small degree, determined the preference of those over whom he so long, and so beneficially, exercised an influence.

Such, may I repeat, was the life, and such the labours of our departed associate; a life which humanity may contemplate with a calm delight; labours which science may review with a noble satisfaction.

With a laudable emulation of all the excellencies which had, before his own day, given lustre to his name, and a clear perception of the truth that the virtue of ancestors sheds no honour on any but the virtuous of their offspring; with a zeal for the acquisition of knowledge, which, springing from an innate law of his being, afforded to his understanding that pure gratification, which, by another law of his being, knowledge alone could impart; with a benevolent desire to communicate whatever of delight the investigations of science and literature had infused into his own heart; with a love for the beauties of nature, imbibed almost in infancy,