25. Mr Cavallo was also.an occasional contributor to several Periodical Publications ; and his critical articles were not in every instance anonymous. He was made a Member of the Royal Academy of Na ples in 1779, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in the month of December of the same year.
. It is impossible to hesitate in attributing to Mr Pavane the possession of very considerable powers of mind ; but these powers seem to have been of a different nature from those which have distinguished some other individuals, remarkable for the faculty of acute reasoning, and .brilliant invention, and appa rently barn to succeed in the highest flights of ge nius. Mr Cavallo's talents appear to have had more of the imitative character, anti to • have been rather calculated for the attainment of excellence in the fine arts than in science ; but his memory was un commonly retentive, and his industry seems to have been indefatigable. He used to relate, that when he was first compelled to study Euclid, he felt himself utterly incapable of comprehending the train of argumentation, and be was obliged to get the whole work by heart, both propositions and demonstra tions, in order to impress the conclusions strongly on his mind ; this expedient answered his purpose very well, as long as the impression lasted ; but after some years he had forgotten his task, and he was obliged to go through the whole again, in the same manner, still finding it easier to commit the eight entire books, with all the unmeaning letters of re ference, to the care of his ever faithful memory, than to acquire the spirit of the mode of reasoning, and to anticipate the steps of the demonstration ; although, after having performed this second labour, he felt himself sufficiently master of the subject. It may be observed that he possessed considerable skill in music; and music was called by the ancients an imitative art; a description which may indeed be somewhat objectionable, with regard to the province of the original composer, who creates something al together unlike what had ever before existed ; but which may not improperly be applied to the occupa tion of a performer; and Mr Cavallo, even when his hearing was impaired, still retained • very correct taste in the execution of vocal music. He possessed
also his country's aptitude for the painter's art; and he was particularly happy in cutting out striking likenesses of his acquaintances in paper. The prin cipal object of his life was to collect and arrange the labours of others; and he was so much in the habit of collecting, that he had for many years made it his amusement to collect specimens of the hand writing of eminent persons, which he had extended to an immense number of individuals, of different ages and countries. But he was by no means inca pable of copying from thebook of nature; and he made, in the course of various researches, a number, of original well calculated ton , illustrate particular questions, relating to theacieacell which he cuttivued. In the latter part of his life, he had discontinued his attendance at the meetings of the Royal Society, as well as bis contributiene to the 'Transactions ; but he was in the habit of frequenting some other literary conversations, at which be eon •tantly met some of his oldest and kindest friends. A short time before his last illness, he was engaged an some experiments an Mr Deluc's perpetual pile of paper, and on the electricity of different speci mens of crystals; but he does not appear to have ob tained any new results from these investigations. He died at his residence in Wells Street, on the 26th of December 1809, and was buried In St Pan -eras Church Yard, near the tomb of General Paoli, With whom he had long been on terms of the great est intimacy. Literary Memoirs of Living Authors ; Dance's Collection of Portraits ; Gent. Meg. 1809; Su7pl. Monthly Mag. 1810. p.86; Aikin's General Biography, Vol. X.; Chalmers'a Biographical Dic tionary, Vol. VII. (x. s.)