But did he epitomize all science in his own person as Hippocrates did
and Galen and Aristotle? Did he guide a whole school towards new worlds?
No. Though it is impossible to deny that this persistent observer of
human chemistry possessed that antique science of the Mages, that is to
say, knowledge of the elements in fusion, the causes of life, life
antecedent to life, and what it must be in its incubation or ever it _is_,
it must be confessed that, unfortunately, everything in him was purely
personal. Isolated during his life by his egoism, that egoism is now
suicidal of his glory. On his tomb there is no proclaiming statue to
repeat to posterity the mysteries which genius seeks out at its own
cost.
But perhaps Desplein's genius was answerable for his beliefs, and for
that reason mortal. To him the terrestrial atmosphere was a generative
envelope; he saw the earth as an egg within its shell; and not being
able to determine whether the egg or the hen first was, he would not
recognize either the cock or the egg. He believed neither in the
antecedent animal nor the surviving spirit of man. Desplein had no
doubts; he was positive. His bold and unqualified atheism was like that
of many scientific men, the best men in the world, but invincible
atheists--atheists such as religious people declare to be impossible.


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