In 1803 appeared his “Description of the Climate and Soil of the United
States,” a work possessing, no doubt, considerable merit, but which
has been far from obtaining equal success with his “Eastern Travels.”
He now resumed his chronological studies, which had been for some time
interrupted. In these he gave vent to all his heterodox opinions,
which it could answer no good purpose either to retail or refute in
this place. Others, more deeply versed than I in the chronology of the
world, have performed this task; which was not, however, extremely
necessary, as Volney’s labours on this subject seem designed never
to acquire popularity. In 1810 he married Mademoiselle Chassebœuf,
his cousin, for whose amusement he purchased a large mansion, with
extensive gardens, &c., in the Rue Vaugirard. Here he lived in a kind
of morose and misanthropic retirement, heightened, if not caused, by
his gloomy and unhappy opinions; and here he died, on the 25th of
April, 1820, in the sixty-third year of his age.
EDWARD DANIEL CLARKE.
Born 1769.--Died 1822.
Edward Daniel Clarke was born on the 5th of June, 1769, at Willingdon,
in the county of Sussex. Even when a child he is said to have displayed
great narrative powers, which he exercised as frequently as possible
for the amusement of his father’s domestics and parishioners. In his
boyish studies, however, he was wanting in application; a fault arising
from the quickness and vivacity of his mind, actuated by insatiable
curiosity, and characterized from the beginning by a decided partiality
for natural history. Still, the loss sustained by this species of
negligence he afterward severely felt, when, notwithstanding the habits
of industry which he acquired at a later period of youth, it was found
impossible by any degree of exertion to retrieve the moments misspent
or wasted in boyhood. At the same time there was one advantage derived
from his unstudious inclinations; they urged him to be much abroad
in the open air, where he amused himself with running, leaping, and
swimming, in which last accomplishment he was particularly skilled, and
on one occasion had the satisfaction of saving by this means the life
of his younger brother, who was seized by the cramp while bathing in
the moat which surrounded his father’s house.
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