LAMANON, Robert Paul, a celebrated naturalist, was born at Salon, in Provence, in the year 1752, being descended of a respectable family. He was destined for the church, and sent to Paris to study divinity; but the acquaintance of philosophers having induced him to relinquish theological pursuits, he turned his attention to chemistry and mineralogy. Yet he afterwards became a canon in the church; but the death of his father and elder brother caused him to resign an office to which he was never attached, and he now possessed the power of directing his own future exertions. One amiable trait in the character of Lamanon is worthy of notice, and that is, that he refused to accept of his paternal inheritance except as an equal sharer with his brothers and sisters. When offered a considerable sum to resign his office of canon in favour of a certain individual, he replied, “The chapter of Arles did not sell me my benefice; I shall therefore restore it in the same manner that I received it.” Anxious to remove the veil which conceals the secrets of nature from mortal eyes, he travelled through Provence and Dauphine, and scaled the Alps and Pyrenees. He reached the summit of rocks, and explored the abysses of caverns, weighed the air, analysed specimens, in short considered himself as qualified to form a new system of this world. After a time he returned to Paris, and thence proceeded to England; and although he was in imminent danger of being overwhelmed by the ungovernable fury of the waves, he ordered himself to be tied to the mainmast, that he might be enabled to contemplate more at leisure this grand and terrific spectacle. Instead of being dismayed, he was transported with the tremendous roar of thunder, the vivid flashes of lightning, and the glancing spray with which he was almost incessantly covered; and, in his own estimation, this was the most exquisite day which he had ever enjoyed. During the time which Lamanon afterwards spent at Paris, he became one of the founders of the Museum. Having resolved to revisit Switzerland and Italy, he went first to Turin, where he joined himself to the learned of that country. From Piedmont he proceeded to Italy, returning by the way of Switzerland, where he explored the Alps, and ascended to the top of Mont Blanc; and on his return to Provence with the spoils of the countries which he had visited, he arranged the interesting fruits of his journey. Whilst Lamanon was preparing for the press his work on the Theory of the Earth, the French government conceived the design of completing the discoveries of Captain Cook, and the Academy of Sciences was charged with the selection of men qualified to rectify our notions of the southern hemisphere. Condorcet therefore made choice of Lamanon for advancing the progress of natural history connected with this great enterprise, and he received the invitation of that philosopher with the most eager transport. He set out for Paris, refused the salary offered him, took leave of his friends, and went directly for Brest. The armament, under the command of the justly celebrated but unfortunate La Perouse, set sail on the 1st of August 1785; and having reached the island of Maouna, Lamanon went ashore with the crew of two boats, where he felļ a sacrifice to the fury of the savages, bravely fighting in his own defence to the last.