'The Life and Correspondence of Major-General Sir John Malcolm, G.C.B., late envoy to Persia, and governor of Bombay; from unpublished letters and journals. In two volumes. Vol. II.' [‎116] (133/654)

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AFTER WATERLOO.
as well ascertained as the fall of hail. Is it not possible that cities
have been destroyed in this manner; and was it easy to resist the
conclusion that terror and belief would combine to work upon the
human minds that it was the immediate hand of God punishing
sinners ?
August 17. Went in the morning to see Baron Humboldt,
with whom I am every day more astonished. He appears to have
done more to discover the secrets of nature than any former tra
veller, and his power of communicating the knowledge is as won
derful as the knowledge itself. Dined at the Cadran Bleu, and
went to a fete at Vaugirard—the fireworks very fine.
August 18.—Went to a magnificent ball given by the Duke
of Wellington in honor of the Knights of the Bath (Blucher,
&c., &c.—foreigners) who had been invested. The rooms were
crowded by the grandees and distinguished princes, generally
ambassadors, of all Europe.
August 20.—Went this morning, at eleven o'clock, to break
fast with Monsieur Langles, at La Bibliotheque, where I met
with very pleasant company. The first person I was introduced
to was the celebrated Volney. He is, what I should have sup
posed from his writings, an enthusiastic theorist, or rather visionary,
with considerable genius, but, like the caste to which he belongs,
preaching general philanthropy, but wrapped up in self. The old
gentleman spoke at great length upon several subjects, but all
with reference to his own travels, his opinions, and his systems.
He is not very old, but the revolution, and the great events by
which it has been succeeded, have given age to all who are
concerned with it. He told us he had just invented a general
alphabet, containing the sounds of the alphabet of all languages,
and that he proposed it should be used by the learned when
writing letters. It had only, he observed, fifty-four letters,
and its use would, he was convinced, remove the difficulties that
were now experienced in writing oriental names, and many others.
He appealed to me on several names, of which we made an expe
riment. Monsieur Walckenaer (a very sensible, pleasant man,
who, among other accomplishments, speaks English perfectly),
the celebrated geographer, who happened to be of the party, ex
pressed some doubts, which put Volney into a great rage. He
spoke a good deal of Buonaparte, from whom he described himself
as inseparable while the former was First Consul. He said that